Integrated Marketing and PR
Situation: Vivick, Inc., a highly profitable electronics accessories company based in China, sought to expand into the United States market. To start, the company opened an office in California where they hired personnel, secured warehouse space and began researching outlets for distribution. With a desire to generate brand awareness for their company and drive demand for their product line in the United States market, the Vivick executive team decided to exhibit at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, alongside hundreds of their closest competitors. As a veteran of several dozen major trade shows, including more than a decade at CES, Brotman/Winter/Fried Communications (BWF) launched a full-scale awareness campaign that aimed to create demand for Vivick products in the U.S. market.
Objective: Despite their Asian roots, Vivick wanted to position themselves as a U.S. firm while creating product and brand awareness to drive demand for their products in the U.S. market.
Process: Vivick, Inc. engaged the services of BWF to manage their message and launch a full-scale awareness campaign. For the campaign, BWF used a number of tactics to spread the message about Vivick’s products, including distributing three pre-show news releases to a media list of more than 3,500 carefully cultivated members of the media; arranging for the company to exhibit at a major show-oriented media event, attracting more than 1,500 editors, reporters, commentators and bloggers; pitching personal stories and product reviews to several dozen key writers; and launching a full-scale social media campaign using You Tube videos, twitter feeds, a Facebook page and blog entries to both enlist followers and attract media, analysts and distributors to their booth.
BWF also hired two highly accomplished American women, who were trained by Vivick to effectively understand the unique selling propositions of the various product offerings. These women then served as temporary booth staff at CES and played an integral role in effectively communicating the unique selling propositions of Vivick’s products to both media and show patrons. In addition, BWF worked with a translator to facilitate interviews and product demos all week long.
Results: The combination of the promotional efforts lead by BWF’s helped elevate Vivick’s message and cut through the clutter at the event, helping them gain the recognition and attention of the media. By the time CES ended, Vivick appeared in more 750 separate and distinct media outlets, nearly a hundred of which were personalized stories, features and product profiles. Dozens more stories surfaced after the show, enabling Vivick to later use these features to support their outreach efforts to procure distributors and manufacturer representatives.
