Case Studies

Featured Case Study

Bell Direct

Background

Our brief was to create a PR strategy to establish an entirely new online share trading company, Bell Direct, in the business, finance and investment media.

Bell Direct was launched in November 2007. Our objectives were to launch the company as an aggressive new player in a cluttered, mature market sector and establish Bell Direct as a credible challenger brand to its much bigger and better-known rivals, CommSec and E*Trade.

We developed key messaging and a program of PR activities to position Bell Direct
as a pioneer in the online share trading sector with a suite of innovative products and features, offering the most cost-effective brokerage rates of any online share trading company in Australia.

Our program involved us proactively demonstrating Bell Direct's product innovation and customer service initiatives to key finance media who are used to receiving scores of financial and investment product pitches every week.

A key objective was to ensure that in any of the newspaper and magazine special reports on online share trading, Bell Direct would be seen by writers as an essential source for editorial content.

Results

Our PR program has consistently allowed Bell Direct's message to stand out against the "noise" of the online trading sector, and we have successfully positioned the company as an innovator offering the best value for money in the market.

Bell Direct's unique market offering was formally recognised in 2008 - less than a year after its launch - when it won awards for cheapest online share broker in the prestigious AFR Smart Investor "Blue Ribbon" and Money Magazine "Best of the Best" awards.

Bell Direct has maintained a regular and prominent editorial presence in key target media, with universally favourable coverage and not one negative report.

CEO Arnie Selvarajah is now sought out for comment by journalists as an authority on the entire online share trading marketplace.

We conducted a media audit in September 2007, two months prior to Bell Direct's launch, to gauge media awareness of the online trading sector. The findings of this audit showed that key media viewed CommSec, E*Trade, Macquarie, Westpac and NAB as the only players of note in the online share trading sector.

In March 2009, we repeated this audit. The results showed that the majority of key media believe Bell Direct is now the third largest player in the market, just behind CommSec and E*Trade, a position ahead of its actual market share. This audit also showed the effectiveness of our key messaging, with key media spontaneously describing Bell Direct as pioneering, innovative, cost-effective and competitive.