Background
Arevo, a US-based 3D printing business, planned to launch a new bicycle brand, Superstrata - the planet’s first true unibody carbon fibre bicycle - via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The initial target of the project was to raise £75,000 to begin manufacturing, but the end result was a funding total of £5,270,388 from 4,563 backers across the UK, Europe and USA.
Challenge
While Arevo is well-known in the US, it is not a familiar brand within the UK so the company sought a UK PR agency partner to support promotion of the Superstrata launch across the country and to manage introductions with UK media contacts and, as a result, secure coverage to help drive interested buyers to the Indiegogo page.
Vitis PR was selected as Arevo’s UK PR partner after a competitive pitch, to work with the company’s US and international PR agencies, thanks to our team’s extensive media relations experience with technology and national media titles. Our previous experience in successfully delivering campaigns for international clients alongside collaborating with a wide group of PR agencies was also an advantage for Arevo.
Solution
Reviewing the project brief, the Vitis PR team soon identified that the Superstrata’s custom 3D-printed unibody design, available in both traditional (Terra) e-bike (Ion) models, was a world first as the combination of custom, unibody and carbon fibre frame had never been done before. So, Vitis PR created press materials specific to the UK and split outreach amongst a variety of verticals, including retail, cycling, start up, consumer technology, national, lifestyle, luxury, design, and 3D and industrial media contacts, offering them interviews and additional information on the new bicycle brand, with supporting stats and figures which would be of most interest to their readers.
Recognising that the made-to-measure, bespoke down to the spokes offering made the Superstrata stand out in the e-bike marketplace, Vitis PR focused media outreach efforts on securing inclusion of the Superstrata in seasonal buying guides and as a focal point for e-bike features.
Results
We secured a fantastic amount of coverage in a wide range of media, including Daily Express, Gadget of the Week in the Times, Wired, Stuff magazine, The Engineer, Cycling Weekly, Cyclist, BikeBiz, the Financial Times and StartUps. A great many media were also very keen to trial the Superstrata too, from Forbes, BBC Top Gear and The Gadget Show to the Telegraph, ZDNet, Wired, Stuff and a whole host of luxury media titles.
Our coverage drove more traffic to Superstrata’s Indiegogo page, which had soon exceeded £2 million in pre-orders within the first 9 days – absolutely smashing the initial funding goal of £75K, by over 2600%
The Vitis PR team didn’t rest there though. After revealing that an exclusive Superstrata Oxford Edition would be showcased at SmartTech’s store in Selfridges on Oxford Street, we invited selected journalists and influencers to come to the store for a pre-opening press event so they could see the bike for themselves, before consumers. The retail media, such as Retail Times, Charged Retail and Retail Gazette, covered the showcasing, as did London sites like LDNFashion.
We also secured Arevo’s CEO, Sonny Vu, a speaking slot at the 2020 Net Zero Festival, where he shared insight into why the company had developed the Superstrata and the innovations that his R&D team had brought to the bicycle brand for consumers.
Although this project was only a short six month one, Arevo’s Superstrata exceeded £5.2 million in pre-orders by the end of the campaign on Indiegogo, which is a testament to just how popular the new bikes were with consumers, but also thanks to the media interest, coverage and other opportunities Vitis PR secured in the UK.
Walter Tran, Brand & Communications Manager, Arevo:
"Ranbir and the Vitis team have been an absolute pleasure to work with. Hardworking, committed, relentless, and most importantly, they deliver. They were instrumental in the success of our product launch in the UK market."