In late 2004, VIACK Corporation, a leading authority on secure collaboration and communications over the Internet, recognized a growing demand within the government sector for telework. Feeding this demand was legislation introduced by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-VA – who had long touted the benefits of telework – threatening federal agencies with $5 million in fines if they did not allow all eligible employees to telework by the end of 2005. Moreover, research indicated that despite advances in technology, managers were opposed to telework as they preferred to be “hands-on” and closely monitor workers to ensure work was getting done. Off Madison understood that in order to break down these barriers to telework, VIACK would need an educational campaign for both employees and managers to demonstrate that these concerns were unwarranted and that teleworking would need to be implemented quickly to meet legislative deadlines.

Plan

As part of the telework education campaign, Off Madison had to demonstrate to target audiences in the federal government that implementing a telework program was more about choosing the right technology than managing people remotely – and that VIACK could provide this technology. In order to quickly and effectively spread this message, Off Madison Ave set out to tout telework via the media. So, to launch the campaign, the agency drafted and placed an educational feature story on the basics of telework entitled, “E-Meetings Make Work-At-Home Easy and Profitable,” on an article distribution service to publications throughout the country. The agency also placed a contributed article bylined by VIACK’s president and CEO, Ronald I. Koenig, in Federal Computer Week, focusing on the best ways to conduct meetings outside the office. Additionally, the team promoted a partnership with the Telework Consortium, a non-profit organization formed to accelerate the adoption of telework initiatives and technology, with a press release the agency issued and pitched. The announcement not only generated media coverage in government publications, it also helped to build a relationship with Rita Mace Walston, the general manager of the Consortium and a key influencer on the topic. 

The agency developed three resource guides as a means to position VIACK as an expert on the topic of telework over the longer term. With the guides, VIACK sought to address the most prevalent concerns preventing the implementation of telework programs. The first guide entitled, “A Guide to Teleworking: the Real Facts on Teleworking and How it Can Work for You,” provided an overview on teleworking with statistics and benefits; tips on what communications technologies should be used; and how best to find the right tools. To access this resource guide and those that came after, readers were required to go to VIACK’s Web site and fill out a contact form prior to downloading the information. This Web mechanism generated viable leads for the sales team and allowed the public relations team to track the number of downloads of the guide. Following the successful release of the first guide, Off Madison Ave created its second resource guide entitled, “Telework Management Guide: Implementing & Managing a Telework Program: A Complete Guide to Properly Managing Telework Employees.” This guide was designed to educate managers about implementing a program, including how to determine which employees should telework; breaking down the cultural barriers and evaluating results to determine success. The agency then released the third and final educational guide entitled, “Telework as a critical component of continuity of operations planning.” With the goal of aiding organizations faced with unplanned emergencies, the guide provided detailed information on the construction of an effective plan for business continuity using telework. Prior to the release of each resource guide, Off Madison Ave distributed a press release as a means to drive traffic to the guides and actively pitched media to cover the guide content and utilize VIACK spokespersons as experts on telework.  

Create

Off Madison Ave created an integrated marketing campaign that employed visuals similar to those used in public service campaigns related to national security and war time travel during World War II. It was determined that the most effective means of communicating with federal government workers in Washington, D.C. would be to focus on the Beltway commuter. By harnessing popular modes of transportation, such as subways and buses, widely-read government technology trade publications and radio stations, the messages in the campaign focused the secure communication opportunities available when using VIA3.

Additionally, Off Madison Ave used a number of alternative tactics to reach the target including targeted media relations, radio, direct mail, online banners and newsletters, email marketing, pay-per-click marketing and event marketing.

Achieve

As a result of the strategy, the telework education campaign was a great success. The campaign’s feature release generated more than 20 articles throughout the year, mainly from local publications such as the Detroit Free Press, South Jersey Lifestyles and the Colorado Press. The press announcement surrounding the company’s partnership with the Telework Consortium generated 23 articles and a radio spot on Federal News Radio – the leading news network station for federal workers. In addition, VIACK received more than 450 sales leads in 2005 and 325 leads in 2006 exclusively from the telework guides from prospects interested in VIACK as a secure technology solution. In the end, the telework resource guides, partnerships and press releases were featured prominently, or exclusively, in more than 195 articles. The VIACK telework education campaign was such a huge success it received international recognition from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in the form of a prestigious Gold Quill award in 2006, and also received a number of regional IABC awards for the same work. Perhaps the best indicator of success…all of the resource guides still live on VIACK’s Web site and are continually downloaded as reference material for those implementing telework programs.

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