Google I/O Conference. 3,000+ web developers. 500+ media clips. 1 billion+ unique online views of blogs and news.

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Overview

Google, the world’s number one search engine, has been building out a suite of cloud-based tools to help developers create new applications. Its software has been embraced by millions of developers. Starting in 2007, Google organized a one-day series of events around the world to help educate developers about how to take advantage of these tools. In spring 2008, Google planned to host its first-ever global developer event, Google I/O, based at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Business Goals

The Google I/O conference was the first time Google had offered this kind of three-day developer event. It was also the first time Google had ever charged developers to attend an event. With a goal of 3,000 paid attendees, Google turned to Page One PR for help in raising awareness among developers to encourage attendance and demonstrate Google’s commitment to an open web and to web developers. The “big idea” Google aimed to communicate was that from now on software would be created in the cloud and run on clients in the browser. Google hired Page One PR just one month before the event kicked off to raise awareness and drive attendance.

Company Background

Google is a public and highly profitable company focused on web-based services supported by their advertising business. Google is widely recognized as the “world’s best search engine” because it is fast, accurate and easy to use. The company also serves corporate clients, including advertisers, content publishers and site managers with cost-effective advertising and a wide range of revenue-generating search services. Google’s breakthrough technology and continued innovation serve the company’s mission: “organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.”

Strategy and Tactics: The Page One Process

Google enjoys excellent relationships with the global development community. As a corporation, however, Google could not afford the resources to engage consistently with all of its different online developer constituencies. Google is just too big. To make the debut Google I/O conference a success, Google could have turned to any agency in the world for help. It chose Page One PR.

Page One PR has a long history of helping clients engage successfully with large development communities – from Linux and Java to Python and PHP. Page One PR was able to “switch on” those developer network relationships right away to get Google’s messages about the I/O conference to its target audiences.

Working with the internal Google communications team, Page One PR helped create developer-centric messages and priority sub-narratives that were carried through the conference keynote address, blogger outreach and press messages. The key messages were simple and compelling: 1) A bet for the web is a winning bet for everyone; 2) Google makes it easier to build web applications.

We determined that the best strategy to raise awareness of Google I/O was to package and target specific stories in widely read developer blogs. Because Google needed Page One PR to get up and running quickly, we decided to enact only a blogger outreach program. We pre-briefed the most important developer bloggers and top developer publications to secure coverage leading into and during Google I/O that centered on the key messages. We coordinated stories based on reporters’ personalities and interests and helped Google decide which story line was more appropriate for which blogger. The planning documents and calendars were all managed and shared online through Google Docs. As bloggers posted, Page One PR monitored the coverage and reacted swiftly to shape the stories so they were in line with our key messages.

Challenges

Google had half a dozen internal product constituencies who wanted to put their offerings and messages in front of developers. There were different messages for each product line showcased at Google I/O. While it is easy to get coverage with bloggers and press because of the power of the Google brand, it was enormously challenging to orchestrate all of the different messages coming from different internal Google groups and present a unified story that advanced the interests of everyone. Page One PR worked with Google to craft messages under the unified theme of the open web and then personalized each pitch to the interests, background and style of each individual blogger and reporter we targeted.

The Results

The number one metric was attendance. Our outreach campaign helped deliver more than 25 percent above the 3,000 paying attendees target. Indeed, on the opening day of Google I/O, the registration lines were so long that Google organizers shut them down temporarily so the keynote speeches could start on time.

In the two weeks leading up to the conference, Page One PR’s developer campaign placed 23 media stories and blog posts (up from an average of one or two a week before our engagement). The week of the show saw more than 350 story placements. TechCrunch teams blogged onsite every day. Mashable hosted podcasts. CNET ran 10 feature stories, including a cover story feature interview with Google’s open source guru. In all, the campaign generated more than 500 placements with a total reach of nearly 1.4 billion unique online views.