case study

Rapid Electric Vehicles: How To Leverage Company Activities to Get PR

Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV) delivered completely electric fleet vehicles that served as the first-ever mobile storage system for the electricity grid, in addition to powering on-site equipment for fleet crews.

They had a unique technology, blue-chip customers, a clearly articulated vision and an extremely quotable CEO. At first glance, it seems like they competed in a space that is crowded… until one digs deeper to find their truly compelling story.

The founder and CEO, Jay Giraud, travels and speaks extensively as a passionate advocate for clean technology in Canada and the US. In a single month, we observed Jay:

• present at the Canadian Financing Forum, be named in Vancouver’s Clean Tech “Ready to Rocket” award list
• speak as a panelist at the California Vehicle to Grid Consortium
• present on “Smart Grids, Smarter Cars” at the Niagara Development Forum on Innovation & New Concepts in Ontario
• participate in a local tech industry reception, and
• attend a micro-grid military unveiling in Oahu.

So, how does one get media excited about a company, in order to maximize a busy CEO’s activities?

Here’s what we did:

1. Offer an exclusive if possible
In REV’s case, we persistently contacted local TV stations to let them know of REV’s “Ready to Rocket Companies” award nomination. We spoke to the first station – asking if they would like an exclusive to receive the list prior to the official release and obtain camera footage of the event. This creates a sense of urgency and also assures the station unique content, which they love.

2. Create and maximize a photo opportunity
The station agreed and sent the day crew to REV’s engineering lab in the morning and the night crew to capture the CEO’s evening ride with the Mayor of Vancouver in one of REV’s fully electric SUVs. The Mayor was a keynote speaker at the event and is a big advocate of clean tech. In addition to the photo opp at the event, Cross Border reached out to our other media contacts and began telling REV’s story. The photos of the event were then sent to relevant media who specialize in automotive and clean technology.

The night of the event, two different TV segments on REV aired.

3. Reach out to bloggers too
While traditional media can carry a lot of weight, they are often short-staffed and have long lead times. However, don’t forget that traditional media often have an online presence and bloggers writing for their site. We secured the inclusion of REV in a Forbes blog, which stated: “One solution to the electric vehicle adoption continuum comes from Canada’s Rapid Electric Vehicles...REV is focusing on the estimated 68 million gas-powered passenger fleet vehicles in North America.”

REV had a big vision and as we saw them solve many pieces of the puzzle in electric vehicle adoption – using sophisticated and creative ways – we were thrilled to be telling their story.