MICROSOFT IGNITE AND ENVISION CONFERENCES

Transcription

1 MICROSOFT COMMUNICATIONS THIRD-PARTY PRESS RELEASE TEAM MICROSOFT IGNITE AND ENVISION CONFERENCES PRESS RELEASE/CONTENT GUIDELINES We are thrilled to have you be a part of Microsoft Ignite and Envision 2017, September in Orlando, FL. Partners like you play a vital role in helping us deliver on our promise to customers and we want to help you succeed. We ve outlined the following guidance to help you plan your participation at the event, including announcements during the conference, media engagement and social media. QUICK LINKS CONTACTS CONTENT APPROVAL PUBLISHING CONTENT SUBMITTING CONTENT MEDIA ENGAGEMENT SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT MICROSOFT THIRD-PARTY PRESS RELEASE REVIEW PROCESS MICROSOFT THIRD-PARTY PRESS RELEASE GUIDELINES CONTACTS For all questions related to third-party press releases partnerrelease@microsoft.com CONTENT APPROVAL Press releases or blogs that you want to publish during Ignite or Envision 2017 should be reviewed by Microsoft to ensure correct branding and positioning of Microsoft technologies. To ensure approval of your content, please follow these guidelines which will help reduce the time needed for Microsoft to complete the review management process. Microsoft third-party release review process takes on average 10-business days to secure approval from relevant stakeholders, spokespeople and PR leads. Please submit content by Friday, September 8, 2017 to ensure approval in time for the event.* *Note that we cannot guarantee approval in time for the event if your release is submitted after September 23. PUBLISHING CONTENT All approved third party content, including press releases, blogs and social can be published at the following times: Partners who are NOT included in a keynote presentation may publish press releases and online content after 9:00 am ET on Wednesday, September 27, Partners who are making a news announcement in a keynote presentation should notify the Microsoft contact they are working with and ask them to connect with the appropriate PR lead.

2 SUBMITTING CONTENT In the event that your content needs to be reviewed by Microsoft, please take the following steps to ensure efficient review process. Step 1: Submit content by sending your draft press release or blog along with the following information via to no later than Friday, September 8, o Partner Name o Contact name and for point of contact o Microsoft product/product group involved in release o Microsoft point of contact o Draft of proposed Microsoft quote (in the release) Please refer to the following guidelines regarding inclusion of Microsoft in partner releases, including headline positioning, format and Microsoft quote attribution. Step 2: Microsoft will review your release or blog to ensure that it complies with the aforementioned third-party press release guidelines. Step 3: Upon approval, Microsoft will return all edited press releases, including any approved spokesperson quotes, to partners as Microsoft approved. Step 4: Please accept all edits and answer any outstanding comments/questions and send the final press release or blog, before it is published, to partnerrelease@microsoft.com. MEDIA ENGAGEMENT Press List Access The press list will only be provided to 10x20 Exhibitors and Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium and Diamond Sponsors. This list will be sent out by the Sponsor and Exhibitor Sales and Support Team approximately two weeks before the start of the event. SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT Official Ignite and Envision Hashtags: #MSIgnite or #MSEnvision *Social media content may be amplified with other #MSIgnite and #MSEnvision-tagged content brand channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) as well and other product handles. This includes: Following your brand on Twitter Recommend to executives that they follow your brand/executives on LinkedIn Share our Twitter list of attending press with you (expected by September 25) Please adhere to the following: Please confirm which social handles we should use if mentioning your brand Please adhere your social sharing to the event embargoes Please note: social promotions from brand channels should mention our company collaboration so it makes sense for our audience *Note: Please do not solicit Microsoft to consider social media amplification. Microsoft will arbitrarily decide what brands/content to amplify. 2

3 MICROSOFT THIRD-PARTY RELEASE REVIEW PROCESS The third-party press release review process begins when the partner or partner's contact at Microsoft submits the release to our partner press release team. It then follows a four-step review/approval process. Editing review/approval: During this stage of the review, the release is edited to ensure our brand and products are referenced in accordance with Microsoft guidelines and that the relationship with Microsoft is accurately described (e.g., removing any references to it being a joint release, don't claim your company has an "agreement" with Microsoft unless there's a signed, binding agreement, etc.). During this review, we also check for negative or controversial implications towards Microsoft. Technical review/approval: The release then goes to relevant subject matter experts to ensure technical accuracy in the way the Microsoft product are positioned and represented. (e.g., is the product built on Azure or is it simply adapted to the platform and available in the marketplace) Quote review/approval: If the release includes a proposed quote from Microsoft, we will verify the appropriate spokesperson to be listed and contents to be included. Quote review/approval often times will run parallel to the technical review. PR review/approval: After the release has completed the above steps, it is provided to the PR lead(s) for final approval. Once we have final approval, the approved release is sent to the person who submitted the original release with any changes tracked and comments or directions to the partner included. MICROSOFT THIRD-PARTY RELEASE GUIDELINES Below are guidelines for how to correctly reference Microsoft products and services in a thirdparty release. Following these guidelines will help expedite our review and approval process should you request review. HEADLINE AND LEAD PARAGRAPH Make it clear that your company is taking action, not Microsoft. Headline, subheadline and lead paragraph must not say that your company and Microsoft announce or do something together, or that Microsoft is doing something. Headlines that include Microsoft should also include the name of the company issuing the release so that it's clear it is not a Microsoft release or a joint release. Otherwise, Microsoft should be removed from the headline. Incorrect Positioning Correct Positioning 3

4 Company X Announces a New Partnership with Microsoft to Launch X Product on Microsoft Azure Marketplace Or Microsoft Azure Makes X Product Available for Customers Who Want to Move to the Cloud Company X is Making its X Product Available in Microsoft Azure Marketplace GENERAL TONE/POSITIONING Ideally, the company's press release should include information about why they chose to support a given Microsoft product or initiative. The press release should focus on the solution and benefits that the company delivers to the customer and the Microsoft products or technologies that facilitate success. For any Microsoft products mentioned (e.g., "Partner's solution integrates with Microsoft XYZ"), there must be details explaining the Microsoft product's connection/integration/role in the partner's solution. Please be as specific as possible.* * Please see Microsoft Terms/Usage section below for additional guidance Incorrect Positioning Partner product X works with Office 365 Correct Positioning Partner product x works with Microsoft Outlook to enable users to XYZ MICROSOFT QUOTES Microsoft's support for the company's press release may include a quote from a Microsoft spokesperson. Note: Microsoft quotes may only be included if a quote from the partner spokesperson is also included in the release. If a Microsoft quote is desired, please provide a draft quote. If a draft quote is not supplied, the release will be returned to the partner so one may be provided. The quote should focus on how the application, new product or alliance will benefit customers in unique ways. The name and title of the Microsoft spokesperson quoted in the release will depend on the nature of the announcement and will be determined as appropriate. Microsoft cannot provide quotes that imply endorsement of any partner solution over another nor editorialize the value of the product relative to other competitive offerings, e.g., Microsoft cannot assert that the company offers the "best" service. Any Microsoft quote must be placed below any quotes from the partner. The quotes do not need to be next to each other, but this is the order that is standard across third-party releases. Incorrect quote placement XYZ company, a leading Data Science as a Service platform offering visualization for cross-channel behavioral insights data and Correct quote placement XYZ company, a leading Data Science as a Service platform offering visualization for cross-channel behavioral insights data and 4

5 cultural intelligence for brands, is proud to announce its implementation of Microsoft Azure for increased global scale, predictability, and continuous development of the XYZ platform. "As the cloud continues to transform entire industries, companies can benefit from the global scale, enterprise-grade security and high availability of Microsoft Azure," said [MSFT Spokesperson], [title], Microsoft Corp."We are pleased to see XYZ company benefit from Azure as it helps our mutual customers translate big data into real insights." XYZ company envisions business strategies that empower and connect people through their common interests. With a big vision and exponential growth in data processing, XYZ company needs the ability to handle massive amounts of data at optimal speed and efficiency, while providing the best insights possible. [Partner Spokesperson], co-founder and chief technology officer at XYZ company, explains how Azure has changed the game for his company: "Microsoft Azure Machine Learning lets us pull in massive amounts of 1st- and 3rd-party data signals. These capabilities have allowed us to integrate a whole new set of insights into our platform, otherwise inaccessible, including topic profiling, music, images, and video analysis." cultural intelligence for brands, is proud to announce its implementation of Microsoft Azure for increased global scale, predictability, and continuous development of the XYZ company platform. [Partner Spokesperson], co-founder and chief technology officer at XYZ company, explains how Azure has changed the game for his company: "Microsoft Azure Machine Learning lets us pull in massive amounts of 1st- and 3rd-party data signals. These capabilities have allowed us to integrate a whole new set of insights into our platform, otherwise inaccessible, including topic profiling, music, images, and video analysis." XYZ company envisions business strategies that empower and connect people through their common interests. With a big vision and exponential growth in data processing, XYZ company needs the ability to handle massive amounts of data at optimal speed and efficiency, while providing the best insights possible. "As the cloud continues to transform entire industries, companies can benefit from the global scale, enterprise-grade security and high availability of Microsoft Azure," said [MSFT Spokesperson], [title], Microsoft Corp."We are pleased to see Affinio benefit from Azure as it helps our mutual customers translate big data into real insights." Sample Microsoft Quotes "Customers have told us that security-enhanced, fast Internet connectivity is critical to the success of business-to-business e-commerce," said <spokesperson, title> for <product and/or business group> at Microsoft Corp. "The addition of <company X product or service> to the electronic marketplace will help improve security through packet-, circuit- and application-level traffic screening." "In today's environment of increasingly sophisticated criminal attacks, our mutual customers rely on proactive solutions such as <company X's product> to help protect their computer systems from desktops to servers and server applications," said<spokesperson, title> in the <business group name> at Microsoft Corp. "We are pleased that <company X> will continue 5

6 to make its security expertise available to help Microsoft customers improve the security of their systems." MICROSOFT BRANDING/MESSAGING When referencing a Microsoft product, please align with the product's top-line messaging. Branding should follow the below guidelines: Headline: Products should be referenced in accordance with its branding (e.g., "Microsoft Azure," "Microsoft Teams," etc.). If the product has an abbreviated name, spell out the name with an abbreviation following it in parentheses (e.g., "Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA) 2004" or "Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) for Windows Server 2003." Lead paragraph: Follow the same guidelines in the lead paragraph as with the headline. Products should be referenced in accordance with the brand and any abbreviation should be spelled out in its first instance with an abbreviation following it in parentheses. Quotes: First mention of products in quotes should also follow the headline/lead paragraph format. Rest of release: In subsequent references, use the abbreviated product(s) name and version, as applicable, e.g., "ISA Server 2004" or "RMS." Logos/Trademarks: Do not include Microsoft's logo, trademarks, company boilerplate, or Microsoft press contacts in your third-party press release. However, you may choose to include your company/product boilerplate text at your discretion. MICROSOFT TERMS/USAGE Microsoft Partner: The term "Microsoft partner" may be used in a press release if we work together with your business toward a common business goal or objective. This could range from working together on joint initiatives to incorporating Microsoft technologies into a third party's products or services. Often times, a Microsoft partner will be a member of one of our partner programs like the Microsoft Partner Network. Strategic Partner: The term "strategic partner" should only be used in press releases where we have established a long-term signed agreement to share physical and/or intellectual resources in achievement of a defined common objective while remaining independent organizations. Typically, these partners possess one or more business assets or have expertise that will help Microsoft enhance its businesses. Partnership: Use of the word "partnership" should only be used in press releases where there is a legally binding agreement or contract with shared liability. In this case, your release will likely take shape in the form of a joint release. Instead of partnership, consider words like "alliance," "relationship" or "working with." Global Partner vs Regional Partner: The term "regional partner" should only be used in press releases where a partner does business in one region (e.g. EMEA or APAC) but not another. The term "global partner" should only be used in press releases where a partner conducts business across multiple regions. These guidelines are intended to help expedite our review process and ensure a successful announcement. Should you have questions or are ready to submit your release for review, please contact us at partnerrelease@microsoft.com. 6