|
|
BrightecFounded in 1992, Brightec® is the developer of the world’s first night luminescent photographic paper. Brightec printer-friendly paper provides consumers and commercial vendors with a new eye-catching medium for displaying any image. Brightec’s unique brilliance made its landmark debut as the innovative medium for the Super Bowl XXXVIII tickets, thus generating excitement, enhancing attendees’ experience and demonstrating its commercial appeal. For more information, visit www.brightec.com IndustryBrightec night luminescent photographic paper makes its possible to print high-quality pictures that appear normal under conventional light but come alive in lower light or darkness. After just a few moments of exposure to light, Brightec “luminesces” for hours—dramatically outshining commonplace “glow-in-the-dark” products. Brightec paper combines high-quality and affordability with dramatic visual appeal, making it ideal for two high-growth markets: consumers who use inkjet printers for photo printing and businesses that seek to make standout promotional items and innovative products.Business Challenge- Brightec came to Schwartz Communications seeking a cost-effective means to create strong consumer and commercial awareness of its brand and technology.
- As a small company with limited resources, Brightec recognized that public relations could deliver the most cost-effective means of reaching a broad and diverse audience. In the end, Brightec relied on Schwartz and the power of PR to turn a small dollar deal into the opportunity to create a national consumer brand.
- The applications for Brightec are endless, which made PR a critical element of the go-to-market strategy. As the company weighed its business development and distribution options, PR opportunity was a driving force in the decision making.
Schwartz PR Strategy- By leveraging high-visibility applications, the right campaign could rapidly fuel consumer awareness and demonstrate growing demand to prospective distributors. The first such high-visibility application materialized as Brightec scored a deal with the NFL to make Brightec the innovative printing medium for tickets to Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston.
- The NFL contract was a financially modest sale but represented enormous PR potential. While Brightec added powerful aesthetic enhancement to the ticket, it also provided a tell-tale means of distinguishing authentic tickets from fakes. By showcasing the unique benefits of Brightec’s visual features to the NFL and its consumers, PR leveraged the world’s largest single entertainment event as an exciting platform to generate on-message, on-target media coverage.
- The primary goal for the public relations campaign was to raise awareness of night luminescent photo paper, positioning it as an exciting new technology with tremendous potential for consumer and commercial applications. Due to the length and multiple aspects of the launch, Schwartz drew up a three-phase plan for Brightec.
- Phase One of the PR campaign focused on educating the marketplace. The team had access to images printed on Brightec, which it shared with key media and influencers to introduce them to the “wow” effect of Brightec. This effort helped generate a pipeline of long-lead placements and built support for later phases of the public relations campaign.
- Phase Two of the PR campaign built off of the educational campaign and sought to educate consumers about a new technology being employed by the NFL to prevent ticket counterfeiting. Media targets included broadcast, short-lead national, local press for Boston, Houston and cities with Super Bowl play-off teams.
- Phase Three of the PR campaign, which put all of the awareness built around the Super Bowl into the service of the consumer product line, focused on promoting the general availability and consumer uses of Brightec photo paper. Timed to strike at the height of interest and awareness around Brightec, a relationship with Staples was announced the week before the Super Bowl.
Results- Schwartz introduced Brightec to audiences nationwide through television placements that incorporated a Brightec/NFL B-roll package. In Brightec’s home market of Boston, this strategy netted standout news coverage on every television network. TV affiliates in Boston fed their locally produced segments to sister affiliates across the country. Schwartz also contacted major news affiliate stations in those markets where NFL teams had qualified for the playoffs and Super Bowl interest was most piqued. As a result, stations across the country produced their own “localized” news segments.
- Schwartz also worked broadcast media on the national front, securing Brightec segments on Fox News Channel and Tech TV and booking in-studio interviews with its CEO on CNN Headline News, CNNfn and BusinessWeek Television. High-profile pieces on ABCNews.com and in USA Today drove media interest across the nation and as far away as BBC Radio in London.
- By the middle of the public relations campaign it became evident that the PR effort had created a “self-perpetuating” story. Fueled in part by a USA Today story that cited the tickets among “firsts” at this year’s Super Bowl, countless local radio and TV outlets across the country mentioned the news, including NBC’s “Early Today” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
- In a single month, the public relations campaign netted nearly 20 million media impressions. While the PR program rolls on, the launch of Brightec’s technology and brand continues to accomplish the program’s objectives. In only a few months, Schwartz has helped to generate intense consumer interest in Brightec for personal consumption and commercial interest in Brightec for other high-visibility applications.
|
|
