Microsoft Imagine Cup

Fame from afar

When a team of bright-sparks from the University of Auckland won a place in the finals of the world’s largest technology competition we helped tell the story.

Team One Beep won the national leg of the Microsoft Imagine Cup in 2010 with a system for delivering information to computers in schools and communities where phone and Internet services are unheard-of luxuries. Their ingenious solution involved sending data through conventional radio transmitters.

With the Kiwi team on its way to Poland for the competition’s finals, our role was to maintain media interest and build excitement levels for the results.
 

We knew from experience the importance of getting a local reporter on the spot. So we sent David Farrier, entertainment correspondent for 3News and well-known social media personality, to ensure the story received widespread coverage on air, in print and online.
 

The guys from Team One Beep duly obliged by taking third place, making New Zealand history in the process. This, coupled with having our own reporter on the scene, led to some great coverage in every major business publication in the country including National Business Review, the New Zealand Herald, Unlimited magazine and Idealog online, as well as broadcast pieces on TV3 and KiwiFM.

Of course the story was also covered widely in IT specific media including Computerworld, PC World, IT Brief and Reseller News.

Microsoft was delighted, as were we by being able to contribute in some small way towards the ongoing success of a truly world-leading Kiwi innovation.

Porter Novelli team: Sarah Rutherford, Natalie Benning