www.dollyblake.com

"Hi Chaz, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for your help in getting my very first bit of press (Daily Mirror). It was so exciting to see the web address printed in a national newspaper and as a direct result I got sales, which was fantastic. Loaded magazine are also featuring my egg cup set for a mother’s day page, again this is directly as a result of your help. Thanks again. Caroline"

ADS Tech - Marketing Team

"Thanks for this and all your efforts throughout the year. Its been a great help to have someone so enthusiastic" - UK Sales Manager

"Thank you for your efforts and hard work. It has been wonderful having you on our team" - Director of Marketing Communications

"We just had a review here on PR in the UK. You were reviewed at 5 out of 5 stars" - General Manager

Background

ADS Technologies (www.adstech.com), a world leader in Universal Serial Bus and IEEE-1394/FireWire solutions, appointed CBC as its PR agency in 2002. The company's success to date has been fuelled by its ability to introduce niche or high-end technologies to the consumer marketplace, with quality devices sold at a reasonable cost.

The Challenge

As the adoption of USB and FireWire technology continues to grow, ADS Technologies finds itself in an increasingly crowded marketplace. As such, the ability to differentiate its products from competitors' solutions was identified as a key PR goal. At the same time, the company wanted to develop and strengthen its brand, so that its products were more easily recognisable in the eyes of consumers, as well as potential retail and distribution partners.

The Solution

CBC tackled both strands of the PR campaign simultaneously, and thus sought to raise awareness of ADS Technologies' products with consumers as well as with influential industry contacts. To bolster the company's profile with consumers, the PR campaign focused on putting ADS' products on the desks of News Editors and Reviews Editors across a wide variety of the company's target publications. To help strengthen the brand, CBC also placed a number of ADS products as competition prizes for reader prize draws – including its nationally recognised World Cup competition – in return for editorial coverage. At the same time, CBC led a strong trade-focused campaign to gain the attention of potential retail and distribution partners. CBC arranged meetings with a number of publications that cater to this market, such as PC Retail and Microscope, and introduced key company spokespeople to the relevant trade journalists who cover this area.

The Results

On the consumer side, ADS enjoyed comprehensive, widespread press coverage – including a number of highly positive product reviews – in the majority of its media targets, both online and in print. Notable highlights include coverage in FHM, IT Week, Channel 4, Computer Buyer, Computer Shopper, PC Pro and The Observer. Articles also appeared in a number of important trade magazines as a direct result of the meetings organised by CBC, and thus helped to position ADS as an attractive choice for key Channel partners. In fact, following the publication of these articles, ADS signed retail and distribution agreements with both Ingram Micro and Dixons.

View results chart >

Consumer Electronics (201-500 employees) - Established Company listed on French Eurolist Stock Market

Background

Dane-Elec Memory is one of the largest manufacturers in the world of memory modules and boards for computers, telecommunications and digital appliances. It designs, assembles and distributes its products through its own distribution network in Europe (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Scandinavia, Holland, Italy and Spain), in the U.S.A., ASIA and most recently in Israel. The company was established in 1985, and has been listed on the Paris stock market in Eurolist compartment since 1997. The Company's base is in the Paris area of France. www.dane-elec.com and www.danedigital.com.

Then:

CBC started working with Dane Elec back in 1998. Dane Elec was already a large established company at that time. CBC was engaged by Dane Elec UK to create and deliver a strategic PR campaign focused on helping raise brand awareness of its consumer products in the UK market (Both to Reseller/Trade Media and Consumers/End Users) and to widen the perception of the company's expertise (Not just memory module experts). The campaign also focused on encouraging the Media to contact Dane Elec UK as experts on these new consumer products. CBC engaged with partners to maximise exposure, raise awareness and build the profile of the Dane-Elec brand and encourage Channel partners to distribute Dane-Elec products. CBC achieved this by generating high levels of brand proliferation and penetration into identified and prospective markets and through reaching the key target audiences.

The PR strategy involved launching new consumer products and peripherals to the UK Media, securing regular positive reviews of products in key publications and building lasting relationships with key Channel and End User journalists and publications. CBC worked with the Dane Elec PR/Marketing and Sales Team in the UK and liaised with France HQ to ensure worldwide coordinated press launches and messaging.

Now:

CBC has supported the Dane Elec in its transition from just a "memory" company to a company that produces quality consumer electronics. The company has invested heavily to diversify its product offering to meet the changing needs of customers and retail partners and distributors, as competition in this arena has grown.

Marketing and PR efforts in the UK are now focused on raising awareness and sales of specific products in the UK with high profit margins so as to increase profits both for retailers and Dane-Elec and to gain further UK market share.

CBC has promoted specific products over the past years, e.g.

• Z-Pen - Digital Pen - CBC successfully launched the Dane-Elec Zpen to the UK press in July 2008 with 16 selected journalists attending an event at the London Eye, followed by a drinks reception. The London Eye launch event was a good choice for spreading the word and creating positive journalist relationships. Feedback from the attending journalists was posted immediately with online coverage the next day and print coverage following over the next months. News of the Zpen not only appeared online on the big websites such as Computer Shopper, Personal Computer World, Coolest Gadgets, Bios Magazine, Mobile Computing News, Computing, Pocket-Lint but also in the LondonCareers supplement and newsletter of the Independent and Metro
• The Zpen has also been promoted several times on TV, including BBC Working Lunch in January 2010. Other TV coverage that CBC has secured includes reviews on UNED 5, the Channel Five Gadget Show (with the product voted Best Peripheral in the test - and bringing in sales of more than 2,000 units as a result) and BBC Click.
• To keep Dane-Elec close to its end-users, CBC opened a Zpen fan page on Facebook and a Dane-Elec UK Twitter account. Both accounts are managed and regularly updated by CBC and are used for distributing product and general news, for competitions and general communications with Dane-Elec end-users and journalists.
• G-Stream - In July 2009, CBC organised a launch event for the So G-Stream - a product presentation at the Charing Cross Hotel, followed by a Speedboating trip on the Thames and ending with drinks in a pub. Amongst the journalists attending were two from The Times . By the evening of the event, Pocket-Lint had already published an article about the launch, followed by other online publications with product reviews and news stories on big websites such as, TechRadar, TrustedReviews, Metro.co.uk, and Technology Blogs such as Randomly Accessed and Best Toys. Printed coverage soon followed in The Times, Which? Computing, Radio User, ComputerActive and PC Advisor.

CBC has also achieved significant press coverage for a range of other multimedia products:

• Gold Award in PC Format for Dane-Elec triple-channel DDR3 6GB Premium 1333MHz
• Zpen is ComputerActive's Best Buy in the category gadgets/peripheral since May 2009
• SoMobile coverage in Gadget Speak, What Laptop
• Zpen coverage in T3, Boys Toys. Stuff, Server Management, Women's Weekly, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, .Net, The People, The Scotsman, Channel Insider and OS Magazine
• PokerMate coverage in the Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mercury, The Register, Pocket-Lint, Shiny Shiny and The Inquirer
• Competitions with Dane-Elec multimedia products with Prizes Galore and Digital Photography Now, Neowin, First New and, GiftsGuide UK