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3 interesting event focused product launches.

With the Football World Cup on at the moment, we’ve been looking out for some product launches linked to this world stage event. We’ve been surprised there has been so little if none despite the large amount of commercial activity going on. As covered in our Real Time Marketing blog post, events can give you a huge platform that already exists to pull off a new product launch and if you can get the cut through, it can be a very powerful channel.

We look into four event focused product launches and their varying techniques that have definitely caught the eye of the consumer and gained mass exposure.

Looking back through the generations.

As one of the world’s biggest fizzy drink producers, we can all say we’ve tried or drank PepsiCo before right? So, it makes sense that they play a huge part of the Super Bowl each year.

This year’s Super Bowl, 2018, saw the relaunch of its brand by bringing to life its point of purchase, introducing a new retro-inspired packaging design that became available at selected retailers to contribute towards the promotion of the fizz. It used its previous influential ad star Cindy Crawford, reprising her 1992 Super Bowl Commercial, though this time with her son, Presley Gerber, drinking from one of the retro cans. Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and Jeff Gordon are among others joining her on the greatest hits styled ad.  The launch also offered fans some real time marketing by encouraging fans to log onto PepsiHalftime.com for a behind the scenes look into Justin Timberlake’s halftime show performance and use the hashtag #pepsihalftime, furthering awareness and interaction between fans and the brand.

Furthermore, a big advertising campaign was shown titled ‘Pepsi Generations’ in which the highly anticipated 30 second ad took us back through the generations, celebrating the brands rich history in popular culture for 120 years. Throughout the decades, Pepsi has been a leader in encouraging us to have fun and live life to the fullest and the company used its window during the Super Bowl as an opportunity to showcase that.

The launch was picked up by key titles such as Forbes, CNBC, and the Daily Mail.

Key learning – To us, what better way is there to re-launch a product, with a new feel whilst sticking to its core values, than at the Super Bowl with its estimated 103.4 million viewers?

BMW turned green.

Urban areas across the globe are always looking to improve their environmental performance and sustainability, and the 2012 Olympics was London’s opportunity to show the world how green their infrastructure can be.

After BMW scored the position as the official Olympics sponsor, they made sure to show off their green side to the 215 million viewers of the games. To us, they did the right thing and thought about what the games were trying to achieve, successfully tailoring their sponsorship opportunity around it. Their logo was seen on almost every corner of the park as well as being centred in promotional campaigns and background shots, supporting them as they encouraged a standard of low-carbon and healthy living challenges throughout the event.

In the months leading up to the games, specific athletes were featured in advertising, social media campaigns and tradeshows to actively encourage and influence their brand and promotion of the event as well as the overall green message they wanted to shout about.

They were already picking up a lot of kudos with being aligned on the green front on the run up so when the big news came that they were launching a brand new eco-friendly car at the event, it was like the icing on the cake! They already had the limelight and the big following and the model perfectly aligned with the sustainability angle taken by London 2012. BMW provided 2500 of these models and 400 bicycles for both athletes and officials at the event. Not only were athletes and officials tweeting about their rides but the models were seen driving around in the city throughout the games. Furthermore, the media pickup was enormous as the ride for sustainability is ever increasing. 

Key learning – align the event’s values with your product launch and half the work is already done.

Encapsulating the rowing style.

Hackett became the first official apparel sponsor of the world-renowned Henley Royal Regatta in 2017. With all the coverage they were getting off becoming the first sponsor of this kind, they announced the official launch of a new capsule collection called The Hackett Henley Collection. The range consists of striped and plain cotton shirts, navy and striped blazers, striped and white chinos and the striped inspired jackets that are synonymous of this world.

The launch campaign included a booze cruise for high flying male fashion icons during London Fashion Week 2017 to start the momentum. Guests included Robert Konjic, Johannes Huebl, Toby Huntington-Whiteley, British Olympic-winning diver Tom Daley, Royal Ballet soloist Eric Underwood, actor Craig McGinlay and Hollywood style consultant Andrew Weitz. They were encouraged to share the experience on their social media channels to start the ball rolling. On top of that a film being released with one of the founders, Jeremy Hackett, skulling up the Thames with the 5 time Olympic Gold Medallist, Sir Steve Redgrave went live across many social channels (seen above) and they stylised a number of their shop windows throughout the country with a Henley theme.

Key learning – This launch campaign started way before the event with celebrity endorsement, in store exposure and online coverage to pick up momentum. This is a good way of building awareness of the new event related product before the event takes place.

Image Credits
  • https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/Hackett-becomes-the-first-official-fashion-partner-of-the-Henley-Royal-Regatta,827007.html#.W_V7zzj7SG4

By Alexis Eyre
Head of Marketing

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