Babel TV case study

Squeezing TV, Internet, email, web and computing into an everyday appliance

Serial entrepreneur and Internet pioneer, Peter Dawe, had [yet another] vision: to make computing and the Internet as easy as switching on the TV — indeed, to make just happen when you switched on your TV.

The public relations challenge

By 2007, trade and media journalists were more than used to being bombarded with press releases about “convergence”. But precious few non-vapourware devices had found their way into ordinary consumers’ homes.
If you weren’t an Apple or a Microsoft—companies that had been launching but selling small numbers of not-quite-converged devices for some time—attempting to launch such a product was bound to be met with scepticism from jaded editors and industry analysts. Peter Dawe asked Creative Industry to help him launch Babel TV. He wanted us do so quickly and inexpensively. He chose Creative Industry because we had successfully launched and help sustain several of his previous ventures.

The Creative Industry PR solution

If you follow this link you’ll find a satisfying quantity of largely positive coverage of Babel TV’s launch. Creative Industry delivered on its promise to enable Babel TV punch above its weight. Something we were able to achieve because of our high quality contacts in the media and analyst communities. But, with candour seldom found in self-promoting PR company case studies, we have to tell you that, if you search for Babel TV’s website today, you won’t find it. Although we propelled Babel TV high enough to achieve escape velocity, its orbit rapidly decayed. Babel TV might not have been "the next big thing for all sorts of reasons". But the most immediate reason it didn’t fly? Bad luck and bad timing.
Peter’s note to self: “Remember not to do this kind of thing on the cusp of the biggest credit crunch in history.”