Apr 09
13
Launching A New Product
A good example of using a mix of public relations along with new and traditional media to launch a new product was manifest earlier this month in the electric vehicle industry – specifically in the electric motorcycle industry.
Less than 7 days ago, Zero Motorcycles, a startup electric motorcycle manufacturer in Santa Cruz, CA, announced the availability of their first electric street motorbike, the Zero S. That’s newsworthy itself in the rapidly developing revolution to create efficient, affordable and eco-friendly electric motorcycles. But that was 2 days after they staged a “24 hours of Electricross” endurance competition to feature their existing off-road electric motorcycle, the Zero X. What they accomplished was creating a big splash of international exposure and conversation about their existing AND new product, while using the 24-hour race to highlight that the electric motorcycle technology has moved beyond that of a toy.
It was a brilliant strategy which garnered a wealth of attention in the major news outlets, in terms of new articles, videos and TV interviews, as well as propagation throughout the Internet via social media channels, including blogs in the motorcycle, gadget, technology, ecology and electric vehicle communities.
For a product that wasn’t available less than a week ago, it’s pretty impressive to find over 27,000 search results in Google for “‘Zero S’ electric motorcycle.”