Situation: Mission Playground, an organic outdoor clothing company, selected SZPR to launch their new brand into a very cluttered and competitive retail marketplace. The goal of the campaign was to introduce Mission Playground’s conscious lifestyle clothing line to the media and gain greater visibility within the outdoor and LOHAS industries. With a minimal budget to start and no previous marketing campaign, the first step was to put a strategic plan to reach their target market and ensure awareness of the Mission Playground mission and their unique innovative designs. The goal was to reach as many relevant audiences as possible through traditional media, tradeshows and online in emerging media outlets. Mission Playground wanted to be recognized as a leader and innovator in the sustainable clothing market and target outdoor enthusiasts and conscious lifestyle consumers. SZPR got to work to ensure streamlined messaging and the biggest impact possible for this small start-up.
Trade Show Strategy: SZPR researched the key media and editors attending key trade shows such as the Outdoor Retailer Market. We leveraged our media relationships to get in-person interviews with influential editors allowing Mission Playground to unveil their next clothing line. With only one month to prepare for the first tradeshow, we hit the ground running to pull together the key messaging and materials for a press kit. We contacted each of the editors individually and scheduled as many face to face interviews possible.
Results: For the first tradeshow, the interviews resulted in coverage in some of the leading outdoor media outlets, including SNEWS, Urban Climber Magazine, Backpacker, Reno Magazine, National Geographic Adventure Magazine, Rocky Mountain Sports, Windy City Sports, Wend Magazine, and more. Additionally, by the second tradeshow, we scheduled over 20 interviews resulting in even better coverage and established crucial relationships for Mission Playground with its target media.
Media Relations: To maintain top of mind awareness with Mission Playground’s target media influential’s, we established an ongoing communication channels with the media to build a rapport in both traditional and Online media. SZPR mined for topics that would be deemed newsworthy or interesting to key media outlets rather than sit back and wait for a huge company milestone. SZPR proactively output stories for Mission Playground on topics such as “Tips on Being Sustainable,” “Going Green,” and “Mission Playground pioneering a new space in the apparel industry.” Online, we leveraged social networking sites, Wikipedia entries, and key blogs and websites where consumers go for product news and information. Using a combination of press releases, pitches, media alerts and interesting fact sheets, SZPR helped Mission Playground to stand out from the thousands of apparel companies that exist in the retail space and made the media curious about why this new up and comer had so much to say.
Results:
In less than one year, Mission Playground and their gear appeared in Outside Magazine, National Geographic Adventure Magazine, Body + Soul, US Airways In-Flight Magazine, The Denver Post, Outdoor Retailer Magazine, 944, San Diego Magazine, San Diego Union Tribune, Diet & Nutrition, Delicious Living, Organic Products Retailer, TreeHugger.com, Digg.com and many others. During the first year of the campaign, the web value of the campaign totaled $23,725 and impressions on the web were 14,393,653. The total print value in coverage was $123,246. and the number of impressions totaled 3,338,905. Total readership was estimated at 44,331,395. In 2007 the coverage has increased across the board and we have secured a web value of $61,519 with 16,435,629 impressions. The total print value over an 8 month period surpassed $275,000 and the number of impressions totaled is over 5 million. Total readership is estimated at 53,671,000 for a year and eight months.
Overall Results: Mission Playground has developed into a well-known brand throughout the outdoor and conscious lifestyle industries with over 100 million media impressions spanning over a year and eight months. To date, we have secured coverage in several of the leading outdoor publications, online blogs, and regional media throughout the country, while establishing solid relationships with key editors at other publications. In a matter of months, this unknown four-year-old company was being featured in national publications alongside leading companies that have been around for decades.
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