Public Relations for outdoor industry media

CASE STUDIES Gore in the City – Brand Building 2003
Situation	W.L. Gore & Associates, manufacturers of GORE-TEX®, faced a unique challenge. While GORE-TEX® is a well established brand in the sports and outdoor industries, many consumers are not aware of Gore Citywear, GORE-TEX® fabrics that are used in high fashion brands including Hugo Boss, Prada and Rainforest.
Tactics	To raise brand awareness and generate media coverage, CGPR recommended that Gore hold a media luncheon in New York City, inviting top fashion, gear and business journalists from long-lead and short-lead publications. The “Gore in the City” lunch was held at Aquavit, a trendy New York restaurant, with over 60 journalists in attendance. The lunch included a fashion show, showcasing high fashion clothing and footwear featuring GORE-TEX®.
Results	“Gore in the City” resulted in brand awareness for Gore Citywear among national consumer media, along with coverage including hits in BusinessWeek, New York Post and USA Today.
	Gore Media Roundtable – Industry Leadership 2000 - Present
Situation	Four years ago, CGPR approached W.L. Gore & Associates and suggested various leadership initiatives. Our key recommendation was to hold a series of media roundtables at the Outdoor Retailer Winter and Summer markets. The goal of the roundtable was two-fold: 1) Raise visibility of the GORE-TEX® brand among the outdoor, consumer and business media, and 2) Position Gore as an industry leader among industry manufacturers, retailers and distributors.
Tactics	To accomplish this goal, CGPR developed a biannual media roundtable for Gore, designed to bring together outdoor industry media and industry leaders to discuss topics important to the outdoor industry. Past topics include: “Generation Y: Teens and the Outdoors”, and “Is the Outdoor Industry Doing Enough to Market the Outdoors?” The format for 2004 O.R. Summer Market was changed in order to enable one speaker to share their thoughts on a national topic. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at this past O.R. Summer Market with standing room only.
Results	In its ninth season, the Gore media roundtable has become a staple of Outdoor Retailer shows and is regularly covered in the show daily.
	Winter Feels Good/SIA – Building a National Consumer Outreach Campaign 2003 - Present
Situation	CGPR has been working with SnowSports Industries America for the past five years. This past season, CGPR played an integral role in the planning, development and execution of “Winter Feels Good”, a national consumer awareness campaign designed to educate consumers on the health and fitness benefits of wintersports activities.
Tactics	CGPR planned and executed a national media relations program. In addition, CGPR established a partnership with the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (PCPFS) to launch the first winter clinic in the President’s Challenge, adding snow sports and snowshoeing to its extensive list of sports programs.
Results	CGPR’s proactive efforts resulted in AP coverage of the clinic, which ran in over 70 newspapers across the country, with over 12,228,296 reader impressions. The Winter Feels Good press kit won an Award for Excellence from the Pubic Relations Society of America. CGPR secured the equivalent of over $759,673 in media coverage, and consumer visits to the Winter Feels Good website tripled from November (224,085) to December (616,627).
Fischer Skis Leveraging the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics 2002
Situation	Fischer Skis had an opportunity to leverage the performance of Bode Miller, an up and coming athlete, making U.S. ski history. Fischer did not have internal public relations expertise. Fischer turned to CGPR to quickly plan and execute a media relations effort to take advantage of Bode Miller’s wins.
Tactics	Working with Fischer, CGPR quickly developed a media relations plan to leverage Bode Miller’s wins. This involved trade media relations, and local and regional media relations targeted at business editors and national media relations.
Results	CGPR worked on site in SLC and in Park City, generating a series of press releases specific to Fischer. Articles on Fischer and Bode Miller’s performance appeared in trade publications, local and regional newspapers.
Eagle Creek Travel Gear Breaking Through The Clutter After September 11, 2002
Situation	Eagle Creek Travel Gear suffered as many travel companies did after September 11, 2002. The challenge was to continue the company's media relations effort in a difficult media climate.
Tactics	CGPR developed a targeted, sensitive media relations effort that provided packing tips to consumers who were traveling in the new world of travel. This pitch combined a logical, how-to pack pitch with a suggestion of various products that made sense for the heightened security systems. The pitch was written in a subtle, educational manner.
Results	CGPR generated media placements in the Boston Globe, the New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, in addition to The Today Show travel segment.
W. L. Gore & Associates Increasing Visibility in the Footwear Category 2000
Situation	W.L. Gore & Associates wanted to raise the visibility of its technology in the footwear category. It wanted consumers to ask for its products, e.g. Gore-Tex, when they went into a shoe store. Its own customers and consumers understood the benefits of Gore-Tex in apparel, but didn’t have a good sense of how the technology performed in the footwear category. The challenge was to communicate the Gore footwear story to manufacturers and consumers alike, very different stories indeed.
Tactics	CGPR developed a three-prong strategy that included: regular media tours to meet with key consumer and business editors in New York City, media roundtables at the Outdoor Retailer trade show (the industry trade show), media fam trips and a pro-active media relations campaign.
Results	CGPR generated a front-page story above the fold in The Wall Street Journal that not only explained Gore’s unique testing procedures, but also, generated new business leads for Gore. In addition, the media roundtable that now is held at the Outdoor Retailer trade show has reinforced Gore’s leadership position in the industry and generated media coverage in outdoor trades and national wire services.
MBS Mountainboards: Building A Sport 1999 - 2000
Situation	MBS Mountainboards, a small company in Colorado Springs, Colorado, needed to execute a media relations campaign that was both consumer based and business to business in order to educate its customers about the new sport of mountainboarding, basically “snowboarding for the summer.” It had no budget for advertising. MBS had to not only build a sport, but also, sell product.
Tactics	CGPR devised an aggressive media relations campaign that involved a tour of New York consumer editors, regular mailings to the media and proactive outreach to editors via phone. The PR campaign also involved supporting grassroots events and appropriate trade shows. Finally, CGPR used its existing client relationships to form marketing partnerships that were beneficial to both clients.
Results	CGPR generated substantial media coverage raising the visibility of the company and reinforcing the credibility of the sport. Coverage included: the Associated Press, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The San Diego Union Tribune, The Denver Post, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, and a number of other consumer publications including Maxim, Men’s Journal, Stuff, Wired, among others.
Pharmacia & UpJohn "Nicorette" Fastest monohull sailboat crossing of Atlantic 1997
Situation	Pharmacia & Upjohn sponsored the racing yacht Nicorette in order to highlight visibility for its anti-smoking gum. Nicorette was trying to break the record for sailing from New York to Lizard’s Point in the UK. The challenge was generating visibility for this adventure when many news stations wouldn’t cover the event because of the name of the boat.
Tactics	CGPR positioned this as an adventure, focusing on the human interest side of the story and the equipment the crew was taking, e.g. freeze dried foods, infra-red night glasses and the survival suits they were wearing.
Results	The Today Show did two segments, once before the crew left and when they arrived. CNN, countless other television stations and national and local newspapers covered the event with worldwide distribution. In the U.S. alone, CGPR generated over 800 million impressions during a 3-week period worth over 9 million dollars.
Wild Roses and Gore-Tex^®, A product Launch
Situation	Wild Roses, a women’s-only outdoor performance line, needed to announce its birth to the consumer and outdoor media. The marketplace was competitive. Wild Roses needed to make a splash.
Tactics	CGPR organized a media lunch in New York City featuring the rainroom from Gore-Tex and a fashion show at a trendy restaurant. CGPR devised a two-part invitation which created an air of mystery," On July 23, you will be standing at the intersection of 54th St and 6th Avenue taking a shower in front of countless strangers,…". Invitations were sent to key editors from Women’s Sports & Fitness, Vogue, The New York Times, Family Circle, etc.
Results	65 editors attended resulting in excellent media coverage in the key outdoor trades and relevant consumer publications.
Backpacker Magazine – Positioning the Magazine as A Leader in Its Field
Situation	Backpacker magazine, a respected resource in the outdoor industry, needed to increase its visibility in a marketplace that was becoming very competitive.
Tactics	CGPR devised a public relations strategy including a media roundtable in Manhattan for consumer magazines and national editors, leveraging a Backpacker reader survey and positioning Backpacker’s editors as a resource for the media.
Results	An article in The Wall Street Journal, positioning Backpacker’s Thom Hogan as an expert in travel; a nationwide wire story which ran on AP about the trends in the outdoor industry (using Backpacker’s own reader survey); and a 4-minute segment during the summer of ’99 on Good Morning America with a Backpacker editor.
Launch Of Two Dot.Coms PlanetOutdoors.com and WomenOutdoors.com 1999
Situation	Towards the end of 1999, the dot.com space was extremely crowded. CGPR worked with PlanetOutdoors.com and WomenOutdoors.com to develop a launch strategy that would set these two sites apart from the competition. The media had been overwhelmed with stories about new sites. We were obliged to be heard through the clutter.
Tactics	For PlanetOutdoors.com, we organized the Lost Tribe Expedition in New York City, where the "Lost Tribe", a collection of people from PlanetOutdoors.com "landed" in New York in rubber rafts, equipped with enough camping equipment to last 3 days in New York City. They scaled a building in NY's financial district, camped in Chinatown and bartered for food. The "Blair Witch" directors produced a creative television advertising campaign to launch the site, telling the story of The Lost Tribe. For WomenOutdoors.com, we organized a major event in New York City with Ann Curry from the Today Show, who spoke about her passion for the outdoors and how this impacted her life both on and off camera. Over 60 editors, including editors from Time, People, Cosmopolitan, Forbes FYI, National Geographic Adventure, Sports Illustrated for Women and WWD, attended.
Results	In both instances, we generated media coverage in national newspapers (including front page of business section of USA Today), key trade publications, national television, local television and regional newspapers.
America's Cup Syndicate Young America – Crisis Management 1995
Situation	CGPR handled all public relations for Young America, an America’s Cup syndicate competing in 1995. CGPR was on site in San Diego when a waterspout struck the compound of Young America. The yacht was knocked off her cradle, the compound was flattened and the mainsail was found two miles away at Sea World.
Tactics	CGPR managed round-the-clock media relations, providing timely, informative updates for local and national/international media. In addition, CGPR planned and executed a major special event, the yacht’s christening, only two days later.
Results	CGPR generated national coverage throughout the U.S., and in particular, on the Today Show, focusing on the human interest story of the team pulling together in order to continue racing and host the christening on schedule. In addition, working with Walter Cronkite, a friend to the team, CGPR helped to produce a short video featuring the impressive clean up that became a fundraising tool.

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