One global client that had a budget for a limited three-month engagement asked us to increase U.S. exposure by promoting an employee event that could reveal the spirit and creative culture of this equipment finance enterprise. While based in Europe, the client has significant vendor finance business in North America. An event culminating in New York City needed to be promoted there as well as in multiple U.S. locations where this company has offices. The event showcased a clipper yacht team the company had sponsored in a world race. We worked with the company’s internal PR professional and his videographer to produce a video news release that followed media call outs and an advance release leading up to the event.
We focused on a particular U.S. participant, a young woman from the company’s Georgia office, for our story pitching. Our client primarily wanted exposure in its local markets and within the equipment leasing and finance industry. The challenge was that the U.S. offices had done little PR in the past, so there were no established media relationships and the event was occurring in New York.
In our second news story and pitch to media we not only focused on the U.S. participant in the race, but also on the support given by employees at several U.S. locations. They had flash dances and special events at each. We had only a month to prepare and much of our work was concentrated in a two-day span while in the NYC harbor. We succeeded in gaining a two-page feature spread in the Monitor, a leading equipment finance industry trade publication. We also gained placements in online news aggregators and a team photo was displayed in Times Square during the week our client was there. In addition, we were able to gain coverage in community newspapers at all three regional locations and arranged a personal interview for the U.S. chief with one of the digital leasing publications.
The news releases were widely picked up online as was the video clip we helped to produce. We wrote the script, narrated the film, interviewed the U.S. chief and a crew member, and worked with the videographer on edits. The client was able to expand its corporate online news room with new multimedia material and can now further develop new media contacts. See attached reporting on this campaign.
