By Hazel Butters

June 18th, 2013

Around the technology world in 80 days: Day #1: London, UK

Around the technology world in 80 days: Day #1: London, UK

Yesterday we promised you a trip around the technology world in 80 days, and today we’ve set out on our travels and arrived in London!

No longer the bustling centre of the British Empire that it was in Verne and Fogg’s day, London still remains a thriving city of diversity, and one of the world’s pivotal hubs of finance, culture, politics, education, arts, science, entertainment and of course technology.

Over the last 2,000 years or so, London has been the birthplace of far too many notable fathers and mothers of technology to mention (including Prompt London!). But if we were to assemble a select crowd of notable historical figures to send us off on our travels, we would definitely have to make room for Michael Faraday, Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace, Edmond Halley, Jonathan Ive, Tim Berners-Lee and many, many ‘plus ones’. And let’s not forget all the notable technologists travelling from the rest of the UK, including Frank Whittle, Robert Watson-Watt, John Logie Baird, George Stephenson, Percy Shaw, Christopher Cockerell, Thomas Wedgewood, Joseph Swan, Alan Blumenlein, Alexander Graham Bell and more than enough fellow geniuses to pack out the platform at Liverpool Street station.

So, with the electric motor, trains, cat’s eyes, jet engines, photography, stereophonic sound, light bulbs, radar, iPods, television, telephones, computing and the world wide web pretty much covered before our first embarkation, it’s definitely time to brush over the UK’s other technology luminaries in order to leave a few discoveries for our other destinations.

Like Phileas Fogg, we’re proud of our London roots, but we expect to find other countries contending some of the UK’s claims during our expedition.

Next stop – the Netherlands!

By Hazel Butters

June 17th, 2013

Prompt’s virtual technology PR trek: Around the tech world in 80 days

Prompt’s virtual technology PR trek: Around the tech world in 80 days

In 1873 author Jules Verne published ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, an adventure novel in which wealthy British bachelor Phileas Fogg sets off to win a wager and prove that it is possible to travel around the world in just 80 days. Accompanied by trusty French valet Passepartout, his pocket watch, carpet bag, and timetables for trains and steamboats, Fogg battles fate and fortunes in the attempt to win the bet (along with the hand of a women he rescues en route).

While Prompt’s technology PR consultants will not be getting on any cross-Atlantic steamers, transcontinental trains, friendly elephants or even the local bus, our team – which includes American, French, German, Austrian, Portuguese, Scottish, Welsh and English consultants – has become increasingly curious about which technologies characterise which countries. So we thought we would launch our own blog adventure, virtually travelling ‘Around the Technology World in 80 Days’ while mapping notable inventions, exciting innovations and indispensable ideas from each country that we pass through.

Just like Phileas Fogg, we’re going to start out in Great Britain before looking windward and travelling east in a happenchance route around the globe. We’re not going to follow Fogg’s route (which had the first port of Egypt), and at times we may strike out at tangents in pursuit of technology gems off of the beaten track. But we’ll be spending each day in a fresh country, just as soon as we manage to leave Prompt London’s headquarters…

Tomorrow we start our tech journey. Our starting point? London!

By PromptBoston

May 16th, 2013

Pitch it perfectly with Prompt: Come visit us at CIC’s Venture Café Office Hours

Pitch it perfectly with Prompt: Come visit us at CIC’s Venture Café Office Hours

Are you looking to spark genuine, valuable, press interest and conversation around your technology product, app or service? It’s certainly not an easy task, but we’re here to help.

On Thursday, May 23, 2013 Prompt Communications will be hosting ‘Office Hours’ at the Cambridge Innovation Center’s Venture Café event, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. We’ll be ready to discuss what you need to do to gain the media and audience visibility that your company deserves. Come along for a 20-minute tech PR consulting session with Prompt CEO Hazel Butters and get to grips with the objectives, strategies, and tactics that work best for catching the eyes of the press.

With years of experience in the technology sector, Prompt consultants know how to perfectly tailor your PR approach to garner the best results. Are you struggling to identify your target audience? No problem. Would you like to ramp up your core messaging? We’ve got you covered. Simply don’t know where to start? We’ll help you take those first steps.

After just 20 minutes you will walk away with valuable resources from our very own tech PR toolkit, which you can then customize to fit your exact PR needs. Please come equipped with any and all questions you can think of – we can’t wait to answer them!

To put us on your calendar or to learn more information about the Prompt Communications office hours, please visit the Venture Café website.

*This event will take place at the Venture Café, located at the Cambridge Innovation Center, One Broadway, 4th Floor. Visitors must comply with Venture Cafe attendance policies (see http://bit.ly/vc-credo for more details).

By Jessica Branco, Prompt PR Boston

May 2nd, 2013

Prompt interviews….

Prompt interviews….

Peter Ryder, co-author of Crowdstorm: The Future of Innovation, Ideas, and Problem Solving

Here at Prompt we’re all committed PR and comms advocates, so we relish any innovative ideas designed to shake up markets, capture the attention of investors and prospects, and make a company stand out from even the toughest competitors.

While many companies still look inwardly for ideas and feedback from their own colleagues, growing numbers of successful innovations are now being driven by crowdsourcing; turning to the public for contributions in the form of thoughts, funding or critique.

This week, we caught up with Peter Ryder, a friend of Prompt and co-author of Crowdstorm: The Future of Innovation, Ideas, and Problem Solving. In this ‘Prompt interviews’ session, Jessica Branco of the Prompt Boston team caught up with Peter to discuss the opportunities, benefits and challenges of crowdsourcing, and to hear further details about his new book. It was also a chance to discuss why so many organizations from startups to Fortune 500 firms are now turning to crowdsourcing to share the wisdom of thousands of outsiders in uncovering new ideas and innovations.

Prompt Boston: Can you please tell us more about your background, and how you became interested in crowdsourcing?

Peter Ryder: I worked for many years as a consultant at Accenture, Computer Sciences Corporation and Deloitte Consulting helping clients improve their operations and their relationships with their customers by rethinking their processes and enabling these process changes through technology.  I saw how organizations often sub-optimized their business by relying on assumptions that were no longer completely valid.  Testing underlying assumptions was a first step to rethinking approaches to unlocking value. In 2010 I became President of jovoto, Inc., a start-up that connects companies who are looking for ideas with creative talent anywhere who have ideas.  At that time, a number of companies were beginning to look seriously at crowdsourcing.  With Web 2.0 really kicking in the mid to late 2000s massively reduced transaction costs tested why an organization needed to hire full time employees for all tasks — some jobs might be done by multiple people with expertise and perspective not found in the organization.  Organizations like P&G, GE and LEGO were exploring how to access talent anywhere to help them work on some of their pressing challenges more rapidly.  And new start-up companies like Quirky were building crowds into the very fabric of their business models. At jovoto, we worked on what processes, community management and technology needed to be in place for our customers to find innovative ideas using external talent.   But we were also seeing a morphing of crowdsourcing from a simple focus on getting ideas from external talent to organizations developing more complex interactions with crowds asking them to do multiple tasks, not only selecting ideas but engaging with communities to get feedback on ideas and helping them select ideas.  And, it was this interesting dynamic that led to writing the book.

What are the key benefits of crowdsourcing an idea, service or product?

What has been the most eye opening for companies with regards to benefits is that getting good ideas for a service or product is just the beginning.  Of course outcomes are key: If your Super Bowl ad is ranked in the top 10 ads, by multiple metrics, many years in a row, your ad has succeeded; If your product is selling successfully and winning design awards, your design has succeeded. And if you find new partners that result in value-creating partnerships, you have succeeded in your business development efforts. In each of these cases, we found examples resulting from crowdstorming. These outcomes come from Pepsi, Quirky (a consumer electronics startup) and GE Ecomagination. But an additional benefit comes from providing a mechanism for evaluating ideas.  Balanced with expert evaluation, you can ask crowds to help you vet the most promising ideas.  LEGO gets lots of ideas from the crowd for new products.  But it requires 10,000 votes from the LEGO community before the internal LEGO team will consider it for production. Finally, by posting a challenge to a crowd an organization can start a broad conversation that helps it pre-market a new product or service by turning idea creation into a conversation and a media event.

What is your advice to marketers who haven’t crowdsourced yet?

Do a little homework; look at some of the work that the organizations above have done.  It is not necessary to start at Super Bowl scale.  Choose a small project to test how your organization reacts to leveraging external talent.  In the book we talk about the processes and some of the best approaches for doing crowdstorm projects; it is important to become familiar with these and see how they apply to your organization.  If you feel like your organization would benefit from leveraging the skills of one of the many providers who are supporting crowdstorming, engage with them and tap into their experience, approaches and technology. Like any new approach, this requires that there is commitment from someone in the organization who can directly benefit from the outcome – make sure that sponsorship is in place.  Finally, marketing departments who have existing relationships with traditional creative providers can weave them into the project if they choose.  There are a number of different points where their expertise can help – from designing the brief to evaluating results.

How should marketers initially approach crowdsourcing?

As I said, education and sponsorship are critical to success.  Determine the scope of the project you initially want to work on.  Something well defined where the outcome can be measured or compared to a traditional approach can be helpful.  For example, when Victorinox designed a new limited edition of Swiss Army knives using crowdstorming, they benchmarked sales of the new product against previous launches. They fixed as many variables as they could and found that the crowdstormed limited edition knife resulted in a 20% increase in sales.  Marketers can also source a new campaign from a traditional provider and evaluate it against the same campaign sourced through crowdstorming as a test – the evaluation can come from experts and crowds in order to benchmark.  There are many ways to get going.

Crowdstorm: The Future of Innovation, Ideas, and Problem Solving is now available at all major bookstores and Amazon.com. The book covers all topics of crowdsourcing, including patterns (search pattern, collaborative pattern), processes, recruitment, creative problem solving techniques, management of crowds, social media, analytics, evaluation and much more.

By Helpful Hints, Prompt Technology PR

April 22nd, 2013

Prompt’s content marketing Monday tip #10: Keep up with technology

Prompt’s content marketing Monday tip #10: Keep up with technology

In our last content marketing tip, we couldn’t help but share the endless benefits of video – even if it does come with hours of video editing, tedious takeover shots and knowing what makes great footage. But a video camera isn’t the only technology you should know how to use.

In today’s digital era, your company should always remain up-to-date with the latest trends in technology, especially when it comes to jumpstarting your content marketing efforts. Sending a marketing brochure through the old-fashioned post is simply not enough anymore – one must think outside-of-the-box, and turn to technology for new distribution methods:

The rise of mobile

Everyone owns a smartphone – which gives you all the more reason to push content through such a powerful platform. Mobility ensures constant connectivity to current customers and future prospects while on-the-go. Look into “m-commerce” as a means of marketing your company – create a mobile-friendly site and offer communication through text messaging (for those who prefer it).  Just be sure the mobile experience is seamless, as we all know there’s nothing worse than a flawed system. 

Tablet compatible e-newsletters

You’ve heard our many reasons why you need a company newsletter before. Not only does it provide a means of visibility, increased SEO and enhanced thought leadership, but it also maintains regular communication with former and current clients around the world. However, with the recent trends in mobile (see above) and tablet, how many of your e-newsletter recipients are really reading the content on a computer screen? Your answer: slim to none. When distributing your company newsletter, ensure layout and graphics are tablet-friendly and displayed properly – leaving readers to rave over the piece, instead of unsubscribing. 

Social media scheduling tools

If your company is on any form of social media – be it Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook – it must remain active and consistent when sending messages. But with limited bandwidth and overbooked weekends, it’s hard to find time to log on to Twitter and send that 140-character tweet every other hour. Thanks to techies that understand this need, several platforms now exist to help you schedule your messages ahead of time, and in various time zones. As a transatlantic PR firm with offices in the US and UK, we use these tools on an everyday basis – our favorites include our friends over at MarketMeSuite, along with easy-to-use HootSuite and TweetDeck. 

Vine videos

Vine, a new short video app, has presented us with yet another way to distribute video – but this time, in six seconds or less. Perhaps the best feature of Vine is its ability to splice together bits of past video content to create a montage. The video app gives you a new way to differentiate your brand and engage with others, without losing your audience’s attention span. The app is integrated onto Twitter, so existing followers have the chance to seamlessly surf onto your Vine account.

For the most part, the list above gives you a current glimpse into tech tools and trends – but you must also consider the future. How will Google Glass, smartwatches and touchscreen user interfaces impact your company’s marketing? In a constantly evolving world that is heavily reliant on technology, you must keep up with the trends – or get left behind by your target audience.

To access all of our past ten content marketing tips in one convenient, free download, please fill out the form below.

By PromptBoston

March 7th, 2013

Technology, Marketing, and Hipsters

Technology, Marketing, and Hipsters

One of Prompt’s most recent revelations came in the form of fashion, and somewhat surprisingly, it came at a technology event– tech gurus having taken a liking to wearing hipster glasses. At two recent events, one for data center storage and the other for marketing technology, we came face to bifocal-ed face with more than a few pairs of the trendy specs.

The Prompt team began to feel a wee bit left out, so naturally we came up with a solution – create our very own cut-out and ready-to-wear hipster glasses. If you’re feeling as behind the times as we were, head on over to our newest Impromptu newsletter and download a pair for yourself! If you’re looking to take the trend a few steps further, read these critical steps to perfect hipster-ism.

By Media Team

March 4th, 2013

Prompt Communications wins Ipswitch File Transfer international PR account

Prompt Communications wins Ipswitch File Transfer international PR account

 - Specialist comms agency to drive international PR programme for leading secure managed file transfer & B2Bi solutions provider -

 Prompt Communications, a PR and communications agency specialising in innovative markets including sustainability, technology and healthcare with offices in Boston, San Francisco and London, has been selected by Ipswitch File Transfer to lead its international media outreach programme.

With offices across the globe, Ipswitch File Transfer offers secure managed file transfer solutions that are enterprise-class, user friendly and easily implemented.  The company’s solutions address needs from person-to-person transfer through to enterprise-wide B2B integration, giving corporate users and businesses security and safety of information.

The company’s provides file transfer solutions to support the range of organizations’ requirements including basic file transfer capabilities (WS_FTP), end-to-end Managed File Transfer (MOVEit ), and a B2Bi MFT platform to support sophisticated workflows, integration with systems and applications and data translation. 

Sophie Pellissier, director, International Marketing for Ipswitch File Transfer said: “We are a leading player in the secure file transfer and secure collaboration market, with over two decades of experience in providing B2Bi solutions.  We’re looking forward to working with a team that understands our business and our customers’ needs. Prompt will promote our media relations campaign and advise on how to maximise our editorial opportunities in order to further build our brand reputation and thought leadership across the international markets. We look forward to seeing our international programme of thought leadership evolve and expand.”

Prompt Communications CEO Hazel Butters said: “We’re excited to be working alongside Ipswitch File Transfer to support the company’s continued growth across the globe.  There’s a growing demand for secure, professional, business-orientated file transfer platforms as businesses operate across multiple sites and time zones, so we are looking forward to spreading Ipswitch File Transfer’s core messaging to an international audience. No modern organisation can risk the exposure of critical files falling into the wrong hands, and we are delighted to be working with a company that places such emphasis on the safety and security of business data.”

By Brooke Wenrick

January 22nd, 2013

A huge slice of Raspberry Pi

A huge slice of Raspberry Pi

It’s hard-press to find an aspect of the technology world that the consultants at Prompt don’t enjoy – from interactive shark tracking websites to mind-controlled helicopters – we are intrigued by it all. And the most recent tech gadget to grab our attention is more than just something to play with in your spare time, it aims to teach kids and adults around the globe more about computer programming.

Learn more about the Raspberry Pi at www.raspberrypi.org

And the Raspberry Pi, a credit-card-sized Linux computer created by the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory and launched in early 2012, has seemingly gained more attention than just that of Prompt’s. The inexpensive motherboard with basic word-processing and Internet application capabilities has already sold over one million units.

The non-profit behind the computer, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, has made its goals very clear – restore and drive interest in computer programming, particularly in youth, and encourage governing bodies to support programming curriculum in schools, starting with the UK.

Inspired by this mission and the little-but-mighty computer, Prompt has started its own Raspberry Pi project called, ‘A Slice of Pi’, where we will use the computer to enhance our computer programming skills (and have a little fun along the way). To learn more about our project, watch our YouTube video and follow our YouTube channel for the most recent happenings of the project, documented all on video.

Happy programming!

By Jessica Branco, Prompt PR Boston

December 17th, 2012

Who searched what? A Google-based year in review

Who searched what? A Google-based year in review

With 2012 winding down and the New Year quickly approaching us, the search engine masterminds at Google have published the company’s annual Zeitgeist list for the past year. The list highlights the top ten trending and most popular searches each year, dating back to 2001, when we were more concerned with old-time favorites like Harry Potter and Windows XP.

Harry, Ron and Hermione didn’t make into this year’s list. Here’s what did make it in, ranked by Google as the three most popular search topics of 2012 in the US:

1. Whitney Houston – Due to her unexpected death back in February, the much-loved recording artist, actress and producer was a frequent search term throughout the year
2. Hurricane Sandy – The natural disaster hit the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the US in late October, with New York and New Jersey affected the most. The super storm flooded streets, tunnels and subway lines and power was lost in across many areas, including New York
3. Election 2012 – It was the Obama vs Romney battle heard around the world (or so it seems). This year’s presidential election was seemingly everywhere. During debates and campaigning, ‘Big Bird’ became more than just a Sesame Street character and ‘binders full of women’ quickly caught on with critics, comedians and the overall general public. Though a close race, President Obama secured four more years in the Oval Office, beating out opponent and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney

Other topics to round out the top ten list included (in order of most searched to least): The Hunger Games, Jeremy Lin, Olympics 2012 (thinking of you, Prompt London), Amanda Todd, Gangnam Style, Michael Clark Duncan and KONY 2012.

Of course, as a public relations firm with a strong interest in technology, we had to ask ourselves – where are the big tech names, like Apple, Microsoft or Samsung, on this list?

Technology products were dissected in a separate list by Zeitgeist, that revealed the top five tech gadgets: in first place ranked the iPad 3, followed by iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy S3, Kindle Fire, and last but not least, Nexus 7.

To view the complete list of trending technology and gadgets, including a neat list of most liked Google Doodles (I personally like the Olympic sports Doodles run during the summer months), please click here.

Whatever your preferred choice is in tech products, presidents and even Google Doodles, the Prompt team hoped you had a joyous and happy 2012 filled with many unforgettable memories. Here’s to the New Year, and to the new opportunities (and Google searches) it will bring!

By Hazel Butters

December 6th, 2012

Which tablets do you take? And is the mouse a squeak away from extinction?

Which tablets do you take? And is the mouse a squeak away from extinction?

Regular market research is essential to ensure that you are still tapping the correct markets for your products and services. At Prompt, we undertake all aspects of research, data collection and statistical analysis. Perhaps the easiest and quickest way to take a rapid snapshot of market opinions, is to conduct a survey.

One recent survey we conducted across US and UK tech consumers proved to be a great example of rapid opinion gathering. The survey was conducted online and in-person. It revealed that Apple is still far more sought after than its competitors in the tablet world, and remains better thought of than its competitors in terms of innovation, design, usability, retail and marketing effort.

Perhaps most tellingly, despite significant launches from Microsoft, Samsung, Google and Amazon in 2012, more survey respondents are hoping for iPads, iPad minis and iPhones in their stockings this year, over other tablet-like devices!

In the tablet and smartphone market, companies are constantly looking for ways to become more innovative and to aggressively increase their market share. A responsibility lies with these vendors to be clearer about specs, features and benefits, and to help consumers to navigate the maze of new mobile devices. Clarity, common English and transparency are crucial. Meanwhile consumers are becoming increasingly aware of what products are available and the features they are looking for, while gaining a deeper understanding of comparable benefits.

In the same survey, we also found that although losing popularity with the rise of tablets, the computer mouse isn’t headed for extinction just yet.  That finding probably surprised me the most – personally I work at a touchscreen computer, a laptop with a touchpad, a tablet and a smartphone – all without a mouse in sight. I still carry one around in my handbag though, so perhaps I’m just sentimental…

Would you like to weigh in with your own opinions? Perhaps you’d like to add your own support for Apple, provide some vocal backing for other tablet brands, or just stick up for the mouse? We’d love to hear from you. The survey is still open. Please just click here to share views on tablets, mice and your holiday wish-list.