This week saw the launch of Panasonic’s most recent device, the Toughbook 55. Said to be the thinnest and lightest laptop in its class, it also has a host of features making it invaluable in challenging environments. Robust and ready to endure all terrain and designed for durability, it seemed quite apt to host the media event at the home of England Rugby, where we put the product through its paces in front of UK media. Panasonic is a long-standing C8 client and we were delighted to be invited to organise this media briefing event to announce the Panasonic Toughbook 55 to market.
Make briefings interactive, engage with the media
The key to any successful media briefing is making it interactive and engaging. The event C8 hosted for Panasonic provided a great opportunity to bring together 20 key target media from the UK and Europe to get first sight of the Toughbook 55, to play with it, interact with it, and to check out some of the new features first-hand.
On the subject of key spokespeople Kevin Jones, Managing Director, Panasonic; Jan Kampfer, General Manager, Panasonic; and Dirk Weigelt, Product Manager Panasonic, not only gave insightful presentations on the Toughbook 55, they also formed the panel for an interactive session to discuss the technology aspects of the product. Attendees also benefitted from a presentation about Security from Nick Hedderman, Windows & Azure Director, Microsoft.
Long gone are the days of sending out an embargoed release to the media. With so many channels, tactics and methods to engage and communicate, it’s great to see brands like Panasonic go the extra mile to get their story across, positively and succinctly to the media, whilst also building rapport and stronger relationships.
Our recipe for success – Panasonic Toughbook
There’s a saying that goes ‘the devil is in the detail’ or as some like to say ‘the success is in the detail’, and C8’s approach to events follows this train of thought. It’s essential to think of every opportunity to engage the media and to make the event memorable for all the right reasons. For Panasonic we ensured we had three key elements in place:
- Brand ambassadors at the forefront: Give the media the opportunity to speak with a spokesperson who is able to talk informatively and provide anecdotal commentary, this will bring the product to life and make it more relevant to your audience.
- Build your relationships: Remember at all times that journalists are people first and journalists second; relationships are key. Moreover, when you pick up the phone to pitch your story, make sure you have covered off the basics (what, why, where, when, who) as journalists typically don’t warm to a straight product pitch.
- A picture paints a thousand words: Imagery is a core component to securing your story more space in the media, it will also help bring your story to life. Assets include photos, infographics and video – the latter is getting more popular to deliver a narrative quickly and efficiently, directly to your target audience.
There’s also a lot to be said for selecting the right venue, not only one that’s enticing in its own right – Twickenham Stadium certainly ticks that box – but one that has an affinity to the product being launched, is easily accessible, and is somewhere people don’t usually have the opportunity to frequent.
Giving your client and your guests something out of the ordinary, like access to a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the grounds at Twickenham Stadium and a three-course meal in the Presidents suite (usually occupied by royalty or global sporting celebrities), is certainly an additional tactic for making your event memorable, and to give it the ‘talkability’ factor. Not only was the food sensational, the views over the floodlit stadium at night are quite spectacular.
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