The Challenge
Allen-Bradley, a Rockwell automation business, is a market leader in manufacturing control systems. When taking a company executive on a media tour to key business and industry trade publications, Padilla Speer Beardsley found that the company had to spend as much time educating the reporter on the industry as it did on issues specific to the company. From that incident, the idea for Allen-Bradley Academy was born.
The Strategy
Allen-Bradley Academy is a biannual event in which trade magazine and business news editors are invited to send new reporters and reporters who need a refresher to a one-day, intensive overview of the automation controls market. Non-commercial sessions are held on a wide range of topics from specific technologies to emerging manufacturing issues.
The Results
Over the past four years, more than 30 reporters have attended Allen-Bradley Academy -- the majority of which are now day-to-day contacts for the company. Allen-Bradley establishes solid relationships with reporters that lead to additional media coverage, while the editors obtain more knowledge on the market in a no-pressure setting. PSB and Allen-Bradley received a Classics award from the Minnesota Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America for this program.