In the period from April to July Agency «Sokur Partners» pursued the study of PR-active companies in information technology. According to the study, the total expenditure on PR companies IT sector in 2009 will be around 95 million dollars. In the survey attended PR-managers and managers of marketing departments of companies producing software, computer components, desktop and laptop computers, peripherals, Internet-ploschadkok, as well as advertising, BTL marketing agency.
Company’s IT sector can be divided into four major segments of the budget. Thus, the first group has the PR-budget 3-5 million dollars a year, the second – from 1 to 3 million, the third group of products promoted by the budget of 0,5-1 million, the fourth, the largest group of its Budget for moving up to 500 thousand dollars a year. PR-budget in the IT sector is dependent on product category, size of business and the volume of the market. For example, equal to the turnover in monetary terms of the company’s consumer and B2B segments can handle budgets that differ by 10 times.
The most traditional PR-tools in the IT sector are press releases, product announcements and tizernye campaign testing product, press conferences, press tours food, dealer conferences, industry conferences, seminars for clients and the media, round tables on key / new technologies.
The new tools include the activity on the Internet. Among them, web-press releases, blogs, companies and products, working with communities, content projects, short video presentations, podcasts, user forums, kvazivirusnye projects. «According to our estimates, this year the giants of the industry to increase investments in network PR 20-30%, smaller companies – at 60-80%», – believes Dmitry Sokur, Director General of the PR-agency «Sokur Partners».
Despite the downturn in the economy, PR-budgets are significantly lower because of its small size relative to other budgets for promotion. «Now PR-agencies should feel better than the rest, – said Olga Manannikova, Director of Marketing and PR Russian Mission Adobe Systems Inc., – At least the value of PR gives better results than other marketing tools».
A set of tools and resources for the promotion of products each company selected individually. With a good integration of all media and promotional channels operate a simple rule – the amount of investment is proportional to the result. «The specificity of our product is that it is difficult to advance the only means of advertising. Generally, for high-tech products and technology PR is crucial, – said Irina Шеховцова, PR-manager of NVIDIA in Russia and the CIS – After the word is much easier to convey to consumers the opportunities and benefits of innovative solutions ».
Today, major manufacturers employ up to five agencies, which promote individual product categories. In addition, the contractors involved in the launch of a new product or dealer activities. The foundation is cooperating with pr-specialists «by» the year – the development of strategies and ongoing work with the media and communities on the Internet. Some companies shifted part of routine work on the PR-agency, preferring to communicate independently with the media. Also used by the agency for technical transfers, monitoring and reporting.
«Most important is the continuous flow of information», – noted Catherine Krymov, Marketing Director Fujitsu Technologies Solutions in Russia and CIS. With all the experts agree: according to the study of IT-market produced an average of 10 press releases per month. No less important representatives of the companies believe personal contacts with journalists, as well as activities.
Summing up the results of the study, it is worth noting that in difficult economic period, the cost of IT companies in the PR decreased slightly. Moreover, the fight for consumer worsened, and PR-tools, it plays an important role. This suggests that companies are quite high pr-activity, and PR-market services remained relatively stable. Source: Press-service «Sokur Partners»