When B2B-focused semiconductor company Maxim Integrated launched its Pocket IO™ programmable logic controller (PLC) development platform, the company wanted to gain visibility for its thought leadership in the industrial market and put its new tagline “Empowering Design Innovation” into action. They wanted to demonstrate how Pocket IO “puts the power of Industry 4.0 in your pocket” and showcase its creativity and innovative thinking so its customers could invest in the new product, but also get new leads and customers.
Another goal was to creatively reach various groups and cater to them. This included visiting customers at the huge electronica tradeshow in Germany with a soccer-themed booth and tapping into top-tier trade editors via global media events in Europe and Asia to get the word out through meaningful articles, social media, videos, and other great collateral.
Read on to see how Maxim met and exceeded its product visibility and outreach goals with an exceptional PR campaign that earned them a Gold Award in the “Best B2B Product Launch” category in Bulldog Reporter’s 2018 PR Awards. Their nomination is titled, “Pocket IO: Putting the Power of Industry 4.0 in Your Pocket.”
The Strategy: Maxim formulated a comprehensive outreach strategy, consisting of several components:
- Implementing various marketing tactics well before the Germany event to get customer and media attention and stand out from all the electronica noise
- Developing a steady drumbeat of announcements and good follow-up after events
- Setting up pre-tradeshow events months before electronica, including three global media events to get ahead of the noise of last-minute announcements in November. Top-tier journalists attended to get a sneak peek of Pocket IO under embargo, generating hundreds of articles worldwide about the new product.
- Showcasing thought leadership by submitting abstracts for speaking opportunities and building creative demos. This included landing pages with regular updates, booking meetings early, promoting eight industrial demo videos right before the show, and organizing a lead-gen process to track and nurture leads and other opportunities.
“Our campaign was centered around a tradeshow in Germany that is very large and crowded,” says Ferda Millan, Senior PR Manager at Maxim Integrated. “We wanted to capture the attention of journalists and achieve plenty of good product coverage, so to avoid the flurry of news announcements and noise we scheduled a global media tour months before the event with embargoed product information.”
In total, the team unveiled its flagship products to an exclusive group of about 100 influential global journalists.
“Editors wanted to see the products in action, too, so the media tour was also a great way to entice them to visit our booth where we could provide them with updates. This had a big impact on our overall campaign,” added Millan.
The Execution: electronica is a very busy event and people’s calendars book fast, so to get meetings the team sent “save the dates” and enticing newsletters with messages like, “What do industrial manufacturing and soccer have in common? Visit us at electronica to find out!” They also posted information on their company website to inform customers of what to expect at the event.
Since they weren’t able to post details of the Pocket IO until it was announced via a press release, a teaser video was a helpful way to capture people’s attention and provide them with some information in the meantime.
Since the event is so large, they implemented onsite advertising to prominently let people know where their booth was located and how to get to them. G
iveaways attract attention at events, so the team handed out professional-sized soccer balls to everyone who visited their demo, which would do things like test out the pressure in the ball and then sign it with the person’s name for a customized gift. Maxim gave away 800 soccer balls in just 2.5 days. These balls were so popular that the team began giving away the soccer balls in their throwing stations toward the end of the tradeshow.
The Results: The team brought terrific visibility for the new launch via media coverage, thought leadership and new business.
- Journalists who attended their pre-conference media event
- generated hundreds of articles worldwide before the show even began
- At the tradeshow, over 60 one-on-one media briefings were conducted with global journalists
Maxim effectively displayed creativity and innovative thinking in the following ways:
- Centering industrial messages around soccer, which is immensely popular in Germany.
- Demonstrating a “factory of the future” with Pocket IO to showcase technology expertise via soccer balls and industrial demos.
- Demoing owners dressed in Maxim-branded soccer jerseys at various soccer demos, including a creative soccer ball-throwing station which detected goal throw and demonstrated Maxim-enabled light curtains.
- Reaching social media followers with posts before, during, and after the event.
Secrets of Success: Early planning, cutting through the noise, and having fun with creativity were some of the tactics used by Maxim which helped them earn the Gold Award for “Best B2B Product Launch” for Bulldog’s 2018 PR Awards.