Thebigword - multinational PR and worldwide growth

thebigword is now one of the largest translation and interpreting companies in the world.

Over the past four years, Lexicon has managed thebigword's multinational corporate PR and specifically, has devised and implemented a highly successful campaign to launch Telephone Interpreting in the United States.

thebigword has risen from 17th place to 12th place in the global rankings and has increased its turnover by 9.6% globally and 43% in the U.S.

Background

Telephone Interpreting is called Over the Phone Interpreting (OPI) in the United States. It enables two people who speak different languages to communicate over the telephone via an interpreter who comes on the line, usually within 60 seconds. It enables real-time multilingual conversations to take place at a fraction of the time and cost of face-to-face interpreting.

Much of thebigword's OPI activity was focused on Europe and the Far East, and the company asked Lexicon Public Relations Limited to carry out a global PR initiative with a special emphasis on the United States of America.

The challenges

The main challenge was to encourage U.S. organisations, private- and public-sector, to invest in new services at a time of major recession.

For the corporate sector - many of whom had only ever traded in their homeland - the message was that global trade is a way of mitigating the effects of recession. OPI (Over the Phone Interpreting) was positioned as removing the last major barrier to international trade: language.

For the public sector, the messages focused on the significant sums of money that can be saved by moving from Face-to-Face (F2F) interpreting to OPI.

The strategy

The campaign was managed by Lexicon PR from the UK, to avoid the costs of employing a U.S. PR agency, using a primarily media-focussed approach based on the development of a number of newsworthy initiatives. This specifically targeted: online media, translation and trade publications, and Sky television.

The initiatives were:

News releases crafted specifically for online media with the aim of driving enquiries to thebigword's website;

Interviews placed in key United States trade publications: ClientSide News and Daily Vista to influence and engage organisations looking to buy language services. This resulted in Larry Gould, CEO, being featured on the cover of ClientSide News;

• A PR-placed interview with Sky News, carried out by Dermot Murnaghan and broadcast throughout the day, to benefit from Sky's international reach;


• Entry into four business awards, three of which thebigword won, collecting trophies for: the CBI / Real Business 'Growing Business Award for Global Outlook and Expansion' the 'China Business Award' for successful Anglo-Chinese trade, and the Yorkshire Post 'Business Excellence Award'.


• In addition to existing media, Lexicon PR also developed TandI News, a U.S.-focussed electronic newsletter which is sent direct to the inboxes of existing and potential clients. The back-office reportage mechanisms from this publication have enabled thebigword's sales team to target interested potential customers with pinpoint precision.


• Launch of a special initiative in which thebigword made a donation to the Help for Heroes charity for every minute of Telephone Interpreting time used by Government Departments. This focused attention on thebigword's charitable profile, as well as on TI /OPI as an option, and benefited injured service personnel.

The Results

The PR outcomes:

During the eight-month period of the campaign, the following results were generated:

The business outcomes

thebigwordGroup's United States operation has grown by 43%, compared with a global growth of 30%.

• There has been a 30% increase in enquiries through to thebigword's website which has coincided with the increased PR activity.


• The U.S. operation has grown more this year than at any other time in the company's 30-year history.


• thebigword has won major Government contracts for the States of Iowa and Idaho, and is providing OPI for the Californian health sector. Contracts have also been won with two of the world's biggest investment banks.


• At the start of the campaign, thebigword's U.S. operation in New York employed 18 people and this has grown to 50, providing quality employment at a time of economic recession. In addition, thebigword has increased its bank of freelance linguists in the U.S. to nearly 3,000.


• A seven-place increase in thebigword's global ranking has been achieved over two years, taking it from 19th to 12th in the world. The independent Plimsoll report ranked thebigword third in the UK.


• thebigword has increased its global turnover by 9.6 per cent and is currently on track to continue significant growth.

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