AMD is a Sunnyvale-based multinational company that manufactures microprocessors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. Though AMD did not have huge marketing budgets, its products received positive coverage in most technology publications except for one leading journal. This cast a shadow when AMD’s next-gen GPU, the ATI Radeon 4850 and 4870 were launched. The products secured extremely positive reviews in most of the publications; however, DIGIT published a very prejudiced review that contrasted almost all global reviews.
DIGIT was a highly-reputed technology magazine, and was one of the largest selling magazines. Reviews published in DIGIT played a very influential role in buying decisions.
AMD’s senior leadership was keen to establish a rapport with DIGIT. As AMD’s Public Relations partners, it was up to The PRactice to protect the client’s reputation. We convinced AMD’s top leadership about the importance of having a strong relationship with DIGIT. The PRactice engaged with the publication at a senior editorial level and aggressively pushed for making more AMD products available for review. When DIGIT’s review team went through changes, The PRactice saw an opportunity and started addressing individual journalists, especially new recruits. This was followed up by sharing regular briefs and updates on AMD, apart from inviting the team for AMD events. A two-day facility visit was organised in Bangalore and Hyderabad. During this visit, the DIGIT team were introduced to all of AMD’s spokesperson and were given access to AMD’s labs in Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The active engagement with the editorial and review teams at DIGIT yielded extremely positive results. As strategized, the results were extremely positive. The publication started recognizing AMD’s potential and started talking about it positively and on a regular basis. They appreciated our efforts to share relevant information with them as this enabled them to publish fair reviews for their readers.
