Intro

Germany is a saturated market for food and beverages. Therefore it is extremely difficult to enter this market from scratch. Nevertheless the Bulgarian Association of Milk Processors started a campaign financed with aid from the European Union and the Republic of Bulgaria to introduce the Bulgarian cheeses Sirene (white cheese of cow´s, cheep´s or goat´s milk) and Kashkaval (a yellow hard cheese) to the German market. But do the Germans need Bulgarian cheese? The project really bore a challenge. Bulgarian cheese was unknown to German consumers and products only were available in a Bulgarian online shop managed from Berlin at this time. In addition, for the first event in Hamburg we had only three weeks for the whole organization.

Project

The task was to launch Bulgarian cheese by organizing promotional and press events in different German cities. The most important objectives were to increase awareness for Bulgarian cheese, motivate the demand of wholesalers, retail and final consumers and raise sales in Germany. For the start of the campaign three cities were chosen: Hamburg, Cologne and Munich. The attending guests (expected 50 persons per event) should result in a good mixture of the most important members of the target groups (opinion leaders, journalists of trade and consumer media, representatives of consumer organizations, professionals, importers, distributors, wholesalers).

Strategy

The first hurdle to clear: Convince the client that a high standard culinary school is a better choice for a tasting event than a four-star hotel (too boring!). After this topic was settled to the satisfaction of both parties, we choose three culinary schools, which were central, full of atmosphere and really popular in Germany at present.

Additional to the locations we assigned three chefs to create six typical Bulgarian recipes. We told them that they have to prepare the food in the traditional way, but we also gave them the chance to pep it up with their own ideas. That was really amazing! Afterwards we had three completely different interpretations, although every chef got the same recipes from us. Last but not least we decided to work together with the Bulgarian Embassy and Consulates to benefit from a Bulgarian network in Germany (wholesalers, retail, journalists, etc.), which has already existed.

In terms of communication work we bet on the appeal of novelty to arouse peoples curiosity for Bulgaria and its products. We mostly worked with very inviting messages like “Bulgaria surprises with culinary enjoyments”, “Did you ever taste Sirene and Kashkaval?” or “Have you ever tried Bulgarian cuisine?”. Most of the journalists, especially from the food or travel departments were grateful, as the Bulgarian topic was nearly untouched.

Results

• Instead of 150 persons 200 guests took part in the three events
  • Important food journalists
  • Importers of dairy products
  • Food experts of the association of German nutritionists
  • Bulgarian Communities
• Significant print and online coverage across the country
• Video on Youtube about the Cologne event

Event images: bulgaria.ic-gruppe.com
Video on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knrn-ndkL9A
Further information about IC: www.ic-gruppe.com

Introduction

The Finish national carrier Finnair flies to six destinations in Germany. Its strategy focuses on transporting passengers between Europe (Germany) and Asia via its hub in Helsinki. Due to Helsinki’s geographical position Finnair can offer its guests the shortest way to Asia. This advantage needs to be communicated Finnair costumers, above all to business travelers.

In Germany the national carrier dominates the airline market. Therefore, other airlines try to focus on their profiles. To boost public awareness, Finnair was looking for an unique characteristic. The aim was to find a “German face” which symbolizes for the costumer a “bridge” between the local market, Finland and Asia. The football legend and world champion Pierre Littbarski was an ideal cast due to his personal background and biography. He is still well known for his football carrier in Germany. Moreover, in Japan Littbarski is one of the best-known Germans due to his carrier as coach. He lives in both countries.

Project

Germany is an important market for the Finish airline in Europe. The “local hero” concept was new for German speaking costumers. The key element of the project was to promote this so-called “local hero” during the campaign. The agency participated during the whole process, which included finding the appropriate hero and presenting him to the media on a press conference in Dusseldorf and at the German travel fair in Berlin (ITB). Furthermore, the agency accompanied the ad campaign on different national TV channels, the Internet and on display boards in three German airports (Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Berlin) with a current blog (www.finnair.com/litti), provided public relations and press releases to key media in the travel section.

Strategy

The agency’s strategy was to increase the general awareness for Finnair in Germany. The most popular sport in this part of Europe is football – winning the world championship draws the attention from a wide range of people. Pierre Littbarski is a member of the 1990 winning team and well known for his dribbling arts. This positive public opinion in mind the agency convinced Finnair with a concept to choose him as German local hero.

Once Mr. Littbarski was elected by the airline, we started to organize a press conference in Dusseldorf (an important destination in Germany) before the ad campaigns release in January 2011. The ad was produced by Finnair’s media agency from SEK & Grey from Finland. Simultaneously, the IC planed a regularly blog starting with the campaign in February 2011 and invited journalists to the international travel fair in Berlin to learn more about the campaign. Continuous contact to journalists provided public interest during the TV spots in February and March 2011.

Results

The PRGN team achieved:

• A higher awareness of travelers for Finnair (also business travelers due to coverage in business media)
• Further coverage from travel, marketing and local media. Especially at the Finnair destinations in Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin Finnair’s message was communicate.
• TV spots at several programs and in the Internet reached a wider audience.
• Feedback and comments from bloggers at www.finnair.com/litti.

Situation

max.xs, a Frankfurt-based financial services firm, had a great pitch for U.S. asset managers proposing to act as their dedicated sales and marketing agent in German-speaking Europe. max.xs provides experienced and well-deployed sales and marketing functions and is remunerated on a performance basis and, therefore, asset managers are able to cut back on in-house sales organizations, which dramatically cut operating costs. With so many asset management firms headquartered in the U.S., max.xs needed a U.S.-based representative to arrange meetings with senior sales and distribution executives at asset management firms with $5 billion to $100 billion under management.

To get the job done for a planned one-week trip to New York and Boston, max.xs hired Adam Friedman Associates (AFA), a corporate and investor communications firm with an established and successful track record of putting its clients in front of senior money managers at asset management firms located across the U.S. AFA also had the skills and a reputation for generating positive media coverage that established a client’s credibility in the investment community at large.

Strategy

AFA created a plan of action that included targeting defined asset management firms in Boston and New York for potential meetings with max.xs executives. The plan also included arranging meetings and interviews with major business and financial news media in Boston and New York. AFA used its extensive financial- and media-contacts to ferret out just the right people to approach on the money management side and in the business and financial news media. AFA’s plan went into effect three months before the scheduled trip was to take place.

Result

AFA delivered five full days of meetings for max.xs with senior sales and marketing executives at asset managers in the Boston and New York metropolitan areas, and in interviews with representatives of major business and financial media in each location. As a result of its initial meetings, max.xs executives carried out extended discussions with a number of asset managers in New York City and Boston. As for media exposure, AFA generated in-depth interviews with reporters at mainstream news outlets including the Financial Times, Institutional Investor, The New York Times and Bloomberg Television.

The success of this effort led max.xs to hire AFA for another round of asset manager meetings and media interviews in the Spring of 2011.

Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building for Management (CRTR) Program received widespread international media coverage.

Situation

Human activity, carbon emissions and global warming are damaging the health of coral reefs worldwide. Policy-makers in coastal areas and marine management officials need better information about what they can do to sustain the life of coral reefs. To fill this gap in knowledge the World Bank implements the Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building for Management (CRTR) Program. The CRTR Program provides credible, factual and scientifically-proven knowledge for improved coral reef management and policy development. The Australian affiliate for the PRGN, Currie Communications (www.curriecom.com.au), coordinates all communications for this global program.

Strategy

The strategy was to raise awareness that, in order to save coral reefs, there needs to be immediate action from world leaders to urgently cut CO2 emissions, and from policy-makers and reef managers to stop over-fishing, pollution and unsustainable coastal development. To generate media interest the CRTR Program published its first “synthesis” paper in the prestigious Science Magazineas the cover story. The paper, The Carbon Crisis: Coral Reefs under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification, highlighted the urgent action required to protect coral reefs from rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. The publication of the paper was timed to occur on the eve of a landmark meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali where world leaders were gathering to create a road map for lower carbon emissions.

Execution

To coincide with publication of the scientific paper, an international media campaign was designed, targeting science, political and environmental journalists from influential print and electronic media worldwide. An embargoed media kit was distributed internationally prior to the paper’s release, in order to generate timely coverage. Extensive media liaison with newswire reporters and advocacy agencies in Australia, the Philippines, North America, East Africa, the United Kingdom and Mexico was undertaken before and after the announcement. A media conference, broadcast on-line through the Australian Science Media Centre, was staged in Brisbane, Australia, where world-leading marine scientists were meeting.

Results

The media announcement received widespread international media coverage. On the day of its release, 165 media outlets worldwide reported its findings with dramatic images from the Science Magazinepaper widely used to illustrate the story. Within 24 hours the paper’s main message made news headlines in 20 countries, including Australia, USA, United Kingdom, Canada, France, New Zealand, Spain, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Singapore, Cayman Islands, Russia, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, the Philippines, Portugal and China. The CRTR Program’s authors were quoted on the front pages of leading national newspapers, including USA Today, The Guardian and The Australian.

Situation

• Vocollect is located in Pittsburgh (USA) with an European HQ nearby London.
• The company’s portfolio of products and expertise for enabling Voice-Directed Work® creates direct communication between operators and information systems. Especially in distribution centers and warehouses, Vocollect Voice helps to achieve greater productivity, accuracy and safety.
• When Vocollect started their business in Europe in early years of the new millennium this innovative way to direct operators through their daily tasks was almost unknown.

Strategy

Vocollect’s communication strategy was to create media awareness for the company and its technology through PR in horizontal and vertical trade media in their various target regions.

For this purpose, Vocollect appointed Industrie-Contact in Germany, a former PRGN member in the UK, Sound PR in Italy, Multi Communications in Poland and S2 in Brazil to install regional PR programs. In some other countries the client commissioned non-PRGN agencies.

With regards to Germany, the client reported that Industrie-Contact won the business based on three key criteria: industry expertise, strength of its international network, and price-performance ratio.

Key elements of the campaign

• Writing and send-out of at least 12 product-oriented releases per annum inclusive pro-active media contacts
• Writing and placement of by-lined articles and case studies in key print media
• Arrangement and moderation of individual meetings between Vocollect’s European senior managers and editors of key media at German trade shows
• Comprehensive consultancy not only regarding PR but also regarding other local marketing communication activities like mailings and advertising

Results Germany

• Starting with 65 pieces of coverage in 2003 in Germany, Industrie-Contact has made for more than 200 editorial placements in horizontal and vertical media in 2009. Even German business media have already reported on Vocollect’s voice technology.
• Since the start of the campaign in the end of 2002, the awareness for the technology and the brand increased from almost 0 to 100 % among the key target groups.
• Industrie-Contact was able to avoid negative press coverage of voice technology or Vocollect. All reporting is positive or at least neutral.
• Feedback from the market confirm that Vocollect solutions have achieved a positive image.
• Voice-directed work has become a key technology on the material flow market.
• Vocollect is the market leader for voice technology, in Germany and globally.

Results other countries

• In each country Vocollect started PR the development driven by the agencies is similar to Germany: The number of reportings increased rapidly to a high level, negative reporting could be averted and the target groups became highly aware for Vocollect’s solutions

Invencys climate is one of GMC Marketing clients who are part of PRGN through JMC Marketing Communications & PR, base on New York. This company has a factory plant in Mexicalli, Mexico. JMC and GC&A partnered to manage a crisis situation when one of the employees had an accident that caused his death. During the accident, the Company rapidly advised its agency in the US and through PRGN they got in touch with GC&A for the local know-how, which is a key ingredient of effective PR. The strategic reaction was immediate to prevent and avoid a possible crisis situation.

Strategy

GC&A designed a management crisis plan focused on internal and external communications. The objective was to maintain all key audiences informed such as authorities, employees and the family of the worker. With this effective internal communication plan we avoided a bigger issue and the appearance of the news on the Mexican media. Also we developed a variety of scenarios to react if the news reached the press, developing key messages, preparing a spokesperson, a media map and preparing all the elements to react if necessary. We also kept strict media monitoring to detect any news at any time.

Results

GC&A helped Invencys thanks to PRGN relations and a solid coordination team with JMC Marketing Communications and PR. Fortunately the case did not reach the press because of great internal management with employees and the family. Invencys climate was very receptive to our advices and to respond in a legal, professional and close way to the crisis. It was very useful to react immediately, to have all the scenarios prepared and to talk on the precise moment with the key people.

In 2006, Mattel and GC&A had the idea to create a customized, real-size car for grown-up Barbie fans, and their daughters. It had to be an aspirational, chic vehicle, inspired by the World’s most famous doll.

Strategy

On behalf of Client Mattel, GC&A approached Volkswagen Mexico to explore the possibility to create a special edition Barbie Beetle. VW immediately realized the potential of this co-branding opportunity, and they got to work right away, customizing their popular VW Beatle with selected Barbie colors and decoys. Because of logistic limitations, all parties agreed to produce a limited edition of just 13 vehicles. All fuss would be PR-based, with GC&A in charge. For additional promotion, eight cars were initially exhibited at branches of Palacio de Hierro, Mexico’s leading high-end department stores chain. Afterwards, all 13 vehicles were sold through VW Dealers.

Results

Both lifestyle and automotive media were all over the Barbie Beetle. This project, which cost virtually nothing, generated massive coverage, worldwide, with well over 500 positive notes from every Continent. The story achieved a huge impact not only in the press, but also in blogs and other social media.

Commercially, the VW Barbie Beatle helped boost local Barbie sales: During the exhibition of the vehicles at Palacio de Hierro, Barbie sales went through the roof with an increase of 500% vs. the same period, one year prior.

Also, VW welcomed more customers in their selected dealerships, and offers to purchase Barbie Beatles were pouring in well after all 13 vehicles sold out. Three years later, FIAT and Mattel emulated this initiative in Italy with a Barbie Fiat 500 “Cincuecento”.

The European Tissue Symposium (ETS) is a trade association, organized as a non-profit association established in the International and European Union environment of Brussels, Belgium. The members of ETS represent the majority of tissue paper producers throughout Europe and about 90% of the total European tissue production.

Project

The ETS Tissue Category Growth Task Force faced a declining shelf space for its premium products in the retail chains due to increased interest from the large chains for private label and discount products. A communication project needed to enhance more awareness for the added value of these premium products for both consumers and retailers.

Strategy

ETS and PRP (Belgium) opted for an integrated campaign targeting 500 top retail managers in 19 European countries. The campaign needed to demonstrate the added-value of premium products also for retailers. She was built in three waves to enhance increased visibility and presence, using one wave per type of product. Personalised direct mail and media relations with a selection of the key trade publications in each market, were the two channels used.

To achieve a perfomant placement of the information in the media, PRP (Belgium) brought in several European members of the PRGN network, a.o. Industrie-Contact (Germany), Cullen Communications (Ireland), SCR Relaciones Publicas (Spain) and Peter Sawell (United Kingdom). PRP was responsible for the editing of the messages and materials, as well as the guidelines for both the colelague agencies and the local partners of the ETS-members, and for the overall coordination and reporting.

Key elements of the campaign included a.o.:

• Pan-European mapping of the trade magazines;
• Collating and stringent handling the clients lists of the ETS-members;
• Research and analysis of the special projects and relevant innovation cases provided by ETS-members;
• Editing the press and DM-documents;
• Translations;
• Direct mail to 500 top retail managers;
• Providing guidelines and procedures to both PRGN-agencies as local ETS-representatives;
• Coordination with the ETS Tissue Category Growth Task Force and with their representatives in the markets;
• Coordination with the PRGN-agencies;
• Monitoring of print and online results and evaluation;

Results

Multiple articles in all concerned markets in more than 70% of the targeted trade magazines, ongoing media presence for an overall advertising value of almost 0.5 mio EUR.

Situation:

The North Face is the world’s leader supplier of technically innovative outdoor apparel and equipment. The North Face has a team of more than 60 professional global athletes from around the world which includes snowboarders, skiers, rock climbers, mountaineers and endurance runners. Among the latter, Dean Karnazes stands out as the Ultramarathon runner par excellence, having completed several endurance events, most notably the Endurance 50: 50 marathons in the 50 American states on 50 consecutive days.

The main objectives of The North Face were:

• to present Dean Karnazes, the man and the athlete, to the Italian media and consumers;
• to promote the Italian edition of his best seller book, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner;
• to increase The North Face brand awareness thanks to his athlete.

Strategy:

Since a preliminary study of Sound PR revealed that Dean Karnazes was almost completely unknown to the Italian public and journalists, Sound PR organized a promotional tour reaching Milan and Rome, the two main cities in Italy. An additional leg in Cortina was later added on, on the occasion of the opening of the local The North Face flagship store.

Nearly 6 months before the beginning of the promotional book tour, some preview copies of Dean Karnazes’ book were distributed by Sound PR to top sport journalists and VIPs connected to the “running scene” to make them acquainted with the athlete and his achievements. One-to-one interviews with a few selected major media have also been arranged in order to introduce the athlete at best.

After that, for each leg of the tour an adv campaign was set up, involving the local editions of Metro (free press in Milan and Rome) and a local radio station in Rome. In addition, a press release was distributed to free press and daily newspapers which published the news in their “local events” section: this helped a lot to increase the people attendance in Milan and Rome.

In order to reach the widest possible audience, two main target groups were identified:

• media representatives (journalists from newspapers and top sport/lifestyle magazines)
• consumers fond of marathons

Each leg of the promotional tour was therefore divided into two steps, with a press event (press conference or one-to-one interview) reserved to journalists in the morning, followed by a consumer event open to the public in the late afternoon. In between the press and consumer activities, a movie with Dean running through the most well-known places in Milan and Rome (Piazza del Duomo and the Colosseum for example) was shot.

The Cortina leg was structured in a slightly different way, in order to create one big event on the occasion of the opening of the local The North Face flagship store. After the press conference “Run for Fun” took place, a non-competitive race with Dean, the President of The North Face, other athletes sponsored by the company and a lot of fans. The Cortina day ends with a party in the local The North Face store. This multi-structured event made it possible to increase both Dean Karnazes’ popularity and The North Face brand awareness.

Results:

Before the start of the promotional tour, the launch of the press releases announcing Dean’s presence in Italy favoured the publication of several articles in the “local events” section of daily newspaper & free press titles.

During the events 13 interviews were organized: National TV La 7, Satellite TV Class Life, Radio Montecarlo, Radio Cortina

A lot of articles and interviews were published on:

• vertical monthly magazines
• lifestyle, men&women & sport magazines
• daily newspapers and free press
• TV and radio broadcasts
• online magazines

Number of journalists attending: 60

Number of clippings: 35 (50% big size articles – 1 or more pages with one or more pictures)

Equivalent adv value: Euro 645,765.00
(TV, radio and online excluded)

A long-time legal friend recommended The Ledlie Group to one of his Fortune 500 clients hours after one of the client’s subsidiary companies suffered a disastrous mine explosion that killed 13 miners. The company’s communications director was overwhelmed by the gravity of the incident and the number of media requests, which were multiplying at record speed.

Project

To ensure consistent and timely strategic communications with company employees and their families, members of the media, union representatives and government investigators, our team traveled to the site of the explosion and established a communications command center, where we worked side-by-side with the company’s communications director, as well as its corporate and legal teams.

Results

The client was pleased with how we diffused the situation and asked us to develop a crisis communications plan for future implementation. The Ledlie Group quickly became the company’s crisis agency of record (a year later the client also asked for our counsel when the government agency’s report was released).

We have since been asked for assistance in several other incidents involving one or more of the company’s subsidiaries.