Shining a light on a leading lasers business
Who they are and what they wanted
Skylark Lasers is a world-leading provider of laser technology for analytical and industrial applications. The photonics firm briefed our technology PR team on boosting its profile in the industry, and among a Scottish and UK business audience.
Objectives
Based in the “UK’s laser capital”, Edinburgh, the truly innovative start-up wanted:
- To provide positive and authoritative media coverage and brand association for the company in its mission to provide pioneering laser solutions.
- Reposition the company and its long-term vision under the guidance of the newly appointed CEO.
- Reach financial audiences through earned media in advance of its next funding round.
Off the back of news that Skylark Lasers had been awarded £2.34 million in investment from Innovate UK to help develop the next-generation quantum-enabled navigation and time-keeping systems, we created an impactful and wide-reaching strategy. The strategy would amplify the business’s key messages – it is a provider of pioneering laser solutions, its transformational work in navigation and timekeeping, its lasers lower the cost of ownership, and the corporate vision of the new CEO, Ben Szutor.
CEO profiling strategy
Our strategy was to create a compelling collection of stories that explained the end-use of the innovation simply to a broader national news audience, while also touting the technicalities of the technology to industry-specific media. It’s vital that both messages are told to different audiences to optimise relevancy for individual media outlets.
What we did
We took a detailed brief on the business, innovations, new funding and vision of its new CEO, and created a campaign that would make the best use of this information for different media. The resulting media plan contains tens of angles and headlines, rather than a single untailored press release. The different stories were then outreached to media over a three month period reiterating the forward-thing tech company’s mission.
These stories we paired with a series of images which also brought to life the team behind the business, its leader and the new product innovation. The campaign involved securing media interviews and thought leadership articles in top-tier media. We also arranged face-to-face media interviews with the new CEO at an annual European industry trade show, giving the client rare face time with key journalists.
Corporate profiling PR campaign coverage highlights
On announcement day we secured a clutch of coverage announcing the leadership change, with key titles for the businesses sharing the story online. This was followed by significant coverage – print and online – in national and Scottish national titles, including, MSN, Yahoo!, The Scotsman, The National, and Edinburgh Evening News. We also placed the news in key tech titles, increasing its profile among multiple audiences – Tech.eu and EU Startups.
Corporate profiling PR campaign results
The corporate profiling PR campaign generated 39 pieces of coverage over a condensed time period with the vast majority appearing online. Half of the online pieces of coverage also included links delivering an additional and bonus SEO benefit.
As a result, Skylark’s brand visibility and brand consideration increased more than two-fold. The brand’s share of search increased 238% – a reasonable indicator of market share. Its share of market amongst its competitors also increased 140%. Beyond these metrics, PR has also helped generate conversations with key VC firms and investors ahead of its next funding round.
The campaign delivered:
- Opportunities with VC investors
- 4 media interviews
- 39 pieces of coverage
- 17 links to website the website
- 100% brand mention inclusion in coverage
- 100% of coverage included at least one key message
To find out more about how we can create corporate profiling campaigns alongside integrated PR campaigns, get in touch using our contact page, or call us directly.
