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Product launch event in Nice

The situation
In January 2001, a major American appliances manufacturer chose DA to differentiate its brand more clearly in Europe via the launch of a new range of luxury, US-style refrigerators, aimed at high-income, design-conscious homeowners. The launch had to take place before the summer holidays in order to achieve press coverage that year; only a moderate budget had been allocated; and, the company spokesmen - from both side of the Atlantic - wanted to use the launch to re-establish corporate contact with key business media.

The solution
DA developed a four stage, two-prong campaign that focused exclusively on top-end interior design and lifestyle consumer magazines in the client's most important European markets and on the key influential national newspapers. Two events were at the core of the campaign: a consumer press conference and a national media road show of pre-planned one-to-one interviews. The critical factors common to both were: careful targeting via a selected media database; the effective, individual "selling in" of newsworthiness appropriate to the country, publication and journalist; and diligent post-events follow-up.

The results
Eighty-eight percent of the targeted journalists invited from key European markets, including 18 senior editors, attended the one day press conference which was held to coincide with a world famous ice sculpture exhibition in Nice in June. Within a few weeks of the conference, over half the publications had requested loans of product for interior shots and product testing columns for winter issues. Further coverage continued on into spring 2002 kitchen features.