From Russia with ...

Rapidly growing foreign language markets offer many opportunities but present a particular set of challenges and it's advisable to enlist help on the ground before choosing media.

In this case we were in touch with a reputable exhibition organiser who is partnered by the magazine 4EMEHT. Again the article was case study based and showed how new players in the Russian cement market could benefit from the experience of sector experts like the client.

Targeting a market in Spain (2)

Picking up from the 03.09.09 post, PR plan was rooted in the client’s marketing strategy (there are confidential aspects that I won‘t go into) but this overview is in the public domain: the world is experiencing an ever-increasing per capita requirement for water while at the same time uncompromised sources get scarcer and scarcer. Water reuse is the key to the puzzle and senior decision makers need reassurance of the efficiency, reliability and cost-effectiveness of the technology.

The big annual water event was coming up in Zaragoza and the client had taken a good stand. I arrived during the build up and walked to halls to find where the media would be. In those terms it was the best attended event I’ve seen for a long time. When the show opened the next day we (the client and I) were immediately in the halls making appointments with editors and journalists.

One by one, over the course of the next two days, we got them all back to the client stand for a briefing. We identified unique angles for each journalist and floated the idea of contributing major articles, doing interviews, commenting etc. We had staff from the local office on hand to translate where necessary - but it rarely was. In a face to face situation English was fine because in each case we graded our language to suit our visitor. And our discussions had context because we had all the exhibits and images on the stand to help us.

Sure, there was a lot of follow-up over the next few months. But there’s no doubt that we really cracked it during those two days in Spain.

Targeting a market in Spain (1)

It was the client that threw down the gauntlet at a review meeting. "Good English language coverage - but can you roll it out in southern Europe?" That was two years ago and looking back I now have a blueprint for thought leadership campaigns whatever the geographical region or language.

Sometime I'll tell you how it's done. But for now just think about three similar articles - this one ran to five pages with images - in the space of six months in the key sector media. That's about Euro 10000 apiece in space equivalent to say nothing of profile building.