PHOENIX EXPANSION ANNOUNCEMENT
When the communications director at Google headquarters called to say Google was expanding to Phoenix and that it was hush-hush, we knew our lives were about to become 24/7 and very fast-paced. On Sept. 29, they asked if we could set up meetings the following Monday (Oct. 3) with the Arizona Governor’s office, as well as the Mayor of Phoenix. This was quite a request with such little lead time.
We secured the appointments and took the Google team to meet with the state and local officials. They were briefed on Google’s plans and were very excited that the greater Phoenix area had been selected out of all possible locations in the world.
We agreed later that day that we wanted to ask the Governor to host a press conference in her office to insure maximum impact and press attendance. Google wanted to hold the press conference as soon as possible as they did not want any press leaks – they wanted to announce it themselves and control the message. Amazingly, we got the Governor to agree to hold it the following week, Oct. 12.
Now things really started to get busy. We crafted messages and talking points for the Governor and Google and created a targeted press list. The biggest challenge was to invite the press but not tell them what would be announced on Oct. 12. What press person would possibly take that leap of faith? This was not going to be easy.
We sent the press humorous versions of the Magic 8 Ball (the black 8 ball you turn over to get answers to your questions – a childhood toy), like the Excuse Ball (“my dog ate it” or “I was abducted by aliens”) and an invitation to the press conference with all of the information except Google’s name. It was long before the press started to call to try to squeeze info out of us, but amazingly, the story did not leak before the announcement – there was only some online speculation a few hours before.
The press conference was standing room only. Every TV crew and print and radio reporter was in attendance. Stories appeared online within minutes. The AP wire picked up the story and it went nationwide. Every news organization in Phoenix covered the story that day and every day following, with fresh twists on it, such as who the company would recruit, where they would look for a facility, etc. The press coverage thus far is valued roughly at well over $100,000 for a budget of less than $10,000 and stories continue to appear weekly so that total will rise.
Google’s feedback was that if they had not had us on the team, they would have forgone a press conference and just sent out an announcement via email which would have amounted to a blip on the radar for the press.
The communications director said “Thanks for your *terrific* work last week on the Phx launch. Huge success from all angles. Sonya loved working w/you, as did Douglas and David (and I'm sure, Naomi too!).” We continue to work for Google on other Phoenix-related projects.