Press Office Automation for a Developer
We replaced manual Excel databases with our system. The developer now sends info about 12 new investments to 86 newsrooms with two clicks.
A developer building housing estates in Poznań and Swarzędz could not keep up with informing the media about construction progress. With 12 active investments, manual management of a database of 86 newsrooms took a marketing employee over 1.5 business days every week.
The challenge
The main problem was a mess in data. Nowe Horyzonty Dom was using an old Excel sheet that had 214 rows, but half of the contacts were outdated. Journalists often changed newsrooms, and the company didn't know it. With every distribution about new apartments, the employee had to manually attach heavy PDF files and 400 MB photo packs, which often blocked recipients' inboxes.
The result was that on March 17, 2024, an important message about the completion of construction in Wilda reached the media with a 3-day delay. Through this error, the company lost the chance for publications in two key regional portals because the news simply became outdated. They were looking for a way for distribution to be instant and reach the right people without checking every email one by one.
Our approach
In April 2024, our 3-person team from Odra Media Link conducted an information flow audit. We checked how construction site photos reach the marketing department and why their formatting takes so much time. (Truth be told, the biggest bottleneck turned out to be the lack of a clear division on who approves the final text).
We designed a system that collects all materials in one panel. We divided the database of 86 journalists into specific thematic groups: real estate, local business, and architecture. Thanks to this, the developer stopped sending everything to everyone, which significantly improved relations with newsrooms.
The solution
We implemented the OML Pressroom module, which we connected to the client's internal photo server. Now the process looks like this: the marketing specialist uploads text and marks which of the 12 investments the message concerns. The system automatically selects the right contacts from the database and generates a safe link to download high-resolution materials.
We added a tracking function: the board sees in real time which editor opened the message and who downloaded the photos. You no longer have to call and ask if the email arrived. Everything works in the cloud, so access to the message archive is possible even from a phone during a construction site visit.
Results
The press release preparation and distribution process was shortened from 14 hours to about 26 minutes. Journalists now get lighter messages with ready links, which translated into concrete publications.
Timeline
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February 2024Error analysis in the old contact database and Excel cleaning.
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March 2024Construction of the Pressroom module and integration with photo archive.
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April 2024Training of 2 employees and the first test distribution.
"Previously, distribution was stress and constant checking whether attachments went through. Now I click 'send' and I'm done. Implementation took 10 days longer than planned, but the result stands up."