We’re proud to announce that Alizila has won the Ragan’s 2018 PR Daily Award for “Best Online Newsroom.”
In a release issued on Wednesday, PR Daily said, “Even the name of Alibaba’s media site is innovative. Far from a press release repository, Alizila has become a destination in its own right.”
Alizila, a palindrome, means that the site offers the A-to-Z of information about Alibaba. The award follows Alizila’s win in February for “Best in Digital Brand Platforms” at the 2019 Innovation In2 Sabre Awardsfor North America.
PR Daily said the winners of its annual industry awards are “inspirational writers, insightful strategists and influential brand managers,” spanning categories such as content marketing and brand journalism, corporate social responsibility and thought leadership.
PR Daily highlighted Alizila’s key goals, including serving as the authoritative source for Alibaba news and information, driving media coverage of the company and supporting business development and growth for Alibaba. The publication also pointed to Alizila’s strong bench of veteran journalists, who bring decades of storytelling expertise to Alibaba’s International Corporate Affairs team.
“The results are impressive, both in terms of media pickup and organic views,” PR Daily said.
PR Daily is one of several corporate communications, public relations, social media and management websites run by Chicago-based Lawrence Ragan Communications. Ragan, founded in 1970, also curates live and virtual events, oversees two leadership councils and offers consulting for the industry, in addition to having the awards division.
The full announcement is below:
Alizila, the online newsroom for Alibaba Group, serves far more functions than simply archiving news releases. Alibaba Group, the world’s largest retail commerce company (with more than 700 million consumers) is Chinese, making it important for the organization to help western investors and media understand the complex company—one of the newsroom’s key goals. Its success has won first place in the “Online Newsroom” category of Ragan’s 2018 PR Daily Awards.
Named Alizila (conveying the idea that it provides the A-to-Z of information about the company), the newsroom serves three goals: being the authoritative source of what’s happening in the company, informing and driving accurate media coverage and supporting business development and growth.
The team of journalists assigned to the newsroom treat it like a beat; they’re embedded in the company’s news center with direct access to company newsmakers. One use for the site is supporting announcements. When the company signed a partnership with Starbucks, for example, Alizila posted the details of the deal along with a research piece about Chinese coffee consumption, an interview with Starbucks’ CEO, a video tour of a Starbucks roastery in Shanghai and visual assets for media to run in their stories.
The company also uses the site to reach audiences directly. The AliViews feature lets executives share their perspectives on issues and opportunities. The site also provides industry insights and shares original research.
The site makes media outreach easier when Alizila produced assets can bring a story to life. One example: When the company launched a new grocery concept, the team produced a video explainer that helped drive media coverage, resulting in 4.7 million organic views on Facebook. The newsroom team also knows to go to executives for responses to issues or crises.
The results are impressive, both in terms of media pickup and organic views.
Congratulations to the Alibaba International Corporate Affairs Team, especially Erica Matthews, Tom Brennan, Julie Huang Tsang, Adam Najberg, Jenny Hsu, Christine Chou, Woody Wu, Megan Tung and Jing Wang.
