Division A - Public Relations Programs
Category 4 - Public Information
Armor Holdings IACP Press Reception
Reese Riggle, Trista Wallace, APR, The Dalton Agency
Golden Image Award
Research/Situation Analysis:
Armor Holdings, the parent company for dozens of industry-leading
brands serving the military and law enforcement markets, has seen its
law enforcement product brands market share and market position erode
during the past 10 years. This is due to myriad reasons, most notably
the lack of formal and sustained media relations to the domestic law
enforcement trade media. Surging competitive brands have increased
their customer perception (distributors, agency purchasers and
officers) through effective and sustained editorial coverage. Armor
Holdings partnered with The Dalton Agency to manage brand awareness for
all brands late-summer 2006. The Agency targeted the International
Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) trade show in Boston to
“re-introduce” the parent company and its brands to the domestic law
enforcement media community.
Objectives: 1. To introduce the 12 Armor Holdings
brands to at least half (18) of the domestic law enforcement media
outlets attending IACP. 2. To secure at least 10 media placements from
the brands’ new product announcements in the targeted media as a result
of this campaign.
Implementation: The Dalton Agency prepared three
separate and distinct launch strategies for Armor Holdings to consider,
all of which were designed to build and reinforce relationships with
the media, introduce new product lines, and reinforce brand and
corporate messaging. After careful consideration, we chose to plan and
execute a media reception, which distinctly and creatively gave the 12
Armor Holdings brands a forum to discuss overall company direction, new
product developments and market position in an informal atmosphere.
Since
none of the Armor Holdings companies have proactively managed media
relationships during the past 10 years, coupled with the fact that the
media have never heard from anyone at the agency, we were fighting an
uphill battle for media attention. The law enforcement products
industry is saturated with hundreds of companies. For all of these
reasons, a creative and substantive introduction and event were
crucial. The agency developed a custom, “chunky” invitation: a metallic
tin that contained a left-handed glove from Hatch (an Armor Holdings
company exhibiting at the media reception) with a tag attached stating
“Get the Right Information from the Right People – And Get the Right
Glove – The Armor Holdings Media Reception at IACP.” On top of the
glove was the invitation to the reception with the necessary date,
time, RSVP and other information. Wrapped around the tin was a teaser
stating “Would You Like to Get Both Hands on Some Hot New Products?”
We
obtained a list of media who had registered to attend IACP and
identified those that fit within our target market to receive the
invitation to our media reception. Additional media were also targeted
from all law enforcement media outlets (who were not “officially”
attending). The agency personally contacted every member of the
targeted media to follow-up on this invitation and collect RSVPs. In
addition, agency representatives walked the show floor the day prior to
the event with flyer versions of the invitation that they distributed
to additional media representatives. Finally, to ensure attendees
didn’t forget about the reception in the hustle of the IACP trade show,
agency representatives sent an email reminder the afternoon of the
event to all media who had RSVP’d to attend.
The event itself was
held in a private room in the hotel adjoining the IACP convention
center and was catered with heavy hors d'oeuvres, a carving station and
beverage service. A crucial component of the marketing of the
individual brands owned by Armor Holdings is to give them brand
autonomy while supporting the parent company. Room configuration
supported this, as each brand had its own table with media material and
actual product on display. To distinguish the 12 brand “stations”
around the room, oversized visuals were placed behind each brand’s
table. Brand managers and other Armor Holdings representatives stood
casually near their respective brand areas to meet with the media
representatives as they browsed the room.
While the press kits for
each brand were available during the event, we offered to mail the kits
to the journalists following the event so they wouldn’t need to carry
them back from IACP in their luggage. The day after the event, we
mailed the press kits to all attending journalists and followed-up with
them via phone and email to ensure they had all necessary information
to cover Armor Holdings’ brands and products in their publications.
Evaluation: 1. Response to the invitation was
exceptional. More than 20 journalists RSVP’d representing more than 25
publications. Actual attendance exceeded RSVPs, with more than 29
journalists representing 29 outlets attending – exceeding our first
objective goal. Attending media were impressed with the invitation and
commented on its uniqueness and cleverness. They were excited to get
their “right glove.” Our thorough follow-up techniques also proved
successful in ensuring a large turn-out for the event as several media
mentioned getting the reminder on their Blackberry that afternoon. 2.
Directly resulting from the media relations before, during and after
the IACP media reception, a total of 37 media placements have been
secured (with additional placements expected), totaling nearly 12
million impressions at a value of $172,000, far exceeding our second
objective goal.
Budget: The total budget for this event was
$19,600 ($600 for invitation design and mailing, $2,300 for signage,
$3,000 for press kit materials, $4,700 for room reservation, food and
beverage, $2,000 travel for agency representatives, and $7,000 for
Dalton Agency account service).