Getting U.S. Companies to “Think London”

Think London is the official foreign direct investment agency for the City of London and helps international companies of all sizes and industry sectors set up, connect and grow their business into the city. Sterling Communications was called upon to help Think London connect with influential members of the media and raise awareness of the “Route to 2012” roadshow. This series of business events, geared toward promoting cleantech and digital business opportunities in London for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and beyond, took place in various cities across North America.

The Challenge

In a struggling economy, expanding or establishing an international presence for your company doesn’t exactly sit top of mind from an investment perspective. With money and resources constrained more than ever in 2009, many companies could have been quick to rule out the possibility of expanding overseas. Sterling needed to position Think London’s roadshow in a unique and creative manner to overcome the misconception that expanding a business overseas was too expensive and difficult to do during an economic downturn.

In addition to cost concerns for expanding a business into London, Sterling needed to counteract any doubt regarding investing in an international market rather than in the struggling U.S. economy. There needed to be value, reason and revenue growth potential for U.S. companies to consider this option. It was important for Sterling to convey to the media the business benefits of working with Think London and the many opportunities related to the Olympic Games that were available in London for cleantech and digital companies.

The Approach

Sterling helped organize a number of events related to Think London’s “Route to 2012” roadshow stops in major U.S. cities. In San Francisco, Sterling arranged an intimate breakfast panel session at the famous Ferry Building that included representatives of the San Francisco mayor’s office, Tesla Motors, the Olympic delivery authority and the Cleantech Group. In New York City, in addition to a VIP cocktail reception at the British consulate’s Manhattan residence, Sterling facilitated an exclusive roundtable discussion held at the NASDAQ market site with London Mayor Boris Johnson, the Olympic delivery authority, the BBC and Cisco Systems, and arranged for participants to ring the opening bell for the day’s trading. There were also two invitation-only events held in Boston.

For all events, Sterling invited influential media and bloggers focused on the clean technology and digital media space and conducted 1:1 briefings. By leveraging industry relationships and connections, Sterling was able to contribute to the lineup of speakers for Think London’s sessions to engender solid and intriguing discussions on cleantech and digital media with company executives.

Sterling helped ensure all speaker messages were cohesive and aligned properly to create a compelling and timely presentation on the business opportunities in London – especially with the stated goals for the 2012 Olympics Games to be the “Greenest and most digital media Games” yet. And although the Games were a couple of years in the future, it was important to have the press and companies realize that projects were already underway, with additional opportunities and contracts still available.

Moreover, with economic conditions worsening around the world, it was important for Sterling to highlight that the lead-up to the 2012 Games presented the perfect time for U.S. cleantech and digital media companies to contemplate establishing a London presence. Office space prices were dropping drastically, making programs such as Think London’s “Touchdown London” – with its one year of free work space for startups – especially attractive. In fact, since Think London is primarily funded by the London mayor’s office, all services to clients are provided free of charge, which can include assistance with building a business case, finding office space, HR advisory services, accountancy, and much more.

The Results

Due to Sterling’s work to promote the roadshow, Think London received exceptionally positive media attention across cleantech, digital media and business-focused media outlets. In total, over 50 percent of the media/bloggers that Think London met wrote on them. Of that, over half of the coverage was in top tier outlets that generate 15,765,874 unique visitors on average per month – such as the Associated Press, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Boston24.com, BBC News, BusinessWeek, Earth2Tech, Forbes, GreenTech Media, Internet Evolution, Matter Network, the New York Times’ Green Inc. blog, Reuters, the San Francisco Chronicle and Sustainable Industries. Not only did the positive press coverage generate more visibility across the U.S. for Think London, it generated business opportunities with several cleantech and digital media companies who signed up to work with Think London.