Kinghorn-Davies | Case Studies

A hugely successful world-wide trade press editorial campaign spearheaded marketing activity and kept our client's profile riding high.

VA TECH, a leading international supplier of electricity power transmission and distribution systems offering integrated system solutions and cutting edge technology for world markets, achieved annual sales of €1,260 million with a workforce of 6,500 world-wide.

We had worked for ten years for several Rolls-Royce engineering companies, including Reyrolle, the inventor of the industrial electricity switching gear, based in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear. Work included design and production of product and sector brochures, a technical product specification Directory, CD Roms, international advertising campaigns and local PR.

Rolls-Royce sold the business to Vienna based VA TECH, unknown in the UK at the time. Our new brief was to carry out an active media relations campaign in the world-wide trade press, internal communications aimed at enhancing staff morale, and an integration of the visual look to balance the heritage of Rolls-Royce with the emerging VA TECH image. We reported direct to Vienna.

We researched and placed product development stories highlighting the new technologies, contract announcements, case studies and the development of major feature length technical articles to reinforce the client's position as a world leader. We were regularly invited by publishers to write multi-page feature articles either on major projects such as Goldisthal, the largest pump-fed power station in Europe or as overviews of the electricity supply markets in particular territories. We annually organised a tour to meet the editors of the influential publications to discuss world trends. This enabled us to set up exclusive stories for each editor for the forthcoming year so media coverage was exceptionally high.

We also dealt with a number of local crises as the engineering companies were downsized with the inevitable redundancies, and handled the media management for a major fire at their factory in Edinburgh, which turned out to be the biggest fire in the capital for 25 years.

Our work was extended to include the VA TECH HYDRO division, for whom we carried out similar activities. We promoted the concept of clean energy to counter the green lobby that were questioning the environmental aspects of hydro, emissions from standing water and population displacement. This also involved writing positioning papers for executives and briefings for journalists. We wrote their 24 page customer Magazine and Annual Report for many years which won several awards for the excellence of the writing.

Our work continued beyond the sale of the whole VA TECH business to Siemens.