Can anyone recommend/help with PR?

[bikeglowshane]

An ex-colleague of mine in Santa Cruz, CA has invented a safety light for cyclists that increases side visibility tremendously.

We are bringing the product to the UK and European cycling community. We've been concentrating on developing the site while the product has been revamped from weatherproof to waterproof and expect our first delivery to be 14/15 August.


We have a press release but need to really get the word out. Given that sales are zero at the moment, our budget is pretty tight.


- Shane

[3tyretrackterry]

local press may help
review by a cycling magazine
get out to the skyrides and show it off
local police cycling officer
local council
Hope this helps

[frank9755]

You could try some independent testing to see if motorists notice bikes fitted with your gadget earlier than the same cyclist without the gadget?

[bikeglowshane]

Good info thanks. Our market research on the weather proof models has been extremely positive. ETA is mid Aug for the waterproof ones.

Looking at press and cycle mags for press release distribution. Skyrides tend to be daytime(?) and this really is aimed at nighttime visibility and is difficult to demo in the daytime but Skyrides would be a great source to chat and point people to our site to see it in action. Didn't think about "Police Cycling Officer", thanks, will look at that too now...

- Shane

[climo]

Viral.
You tube vid & PR to cycle press. Post to forums as a PR. Facebook /twitter.
Best of all is give a few to journos to try and review. Get a car / caravan mag to review it. I believe that the dailies have cycling journos. Local papers are desperate for copy, make their job easy and spoon feed them.
Above all get some decent photographs of it and have a PR written by someone who can write.

Advertising / PR is about buyer awareness and 'buzz'

[Edwards]

CTC Newsnet might put a feature out. SimonL6 on this forum organises night rides, so might be worth contacting him especially with free bees.
A video showing how effective they are would be useful to see.

[frank9755]

SimonL6 on this forum organises night rides, so might be worth contacting him

Drop him a line, but I can't quite see one on Simon's Colnago. However, even better, there is a night ride to Newhaven this Thursday, so come along!

[NUKe]

Hand out freebies to this forum

[byegad]

Try AtoB and Velovision magazines. Offer an example for review and place a small advert in each.

[Russell160]

Dont want to be patronising but obviously wait till September/ October when lighting season starts.

[snibgo]

But what is the lead time for a monthly magazine?

[mark a.]

Find out how Fibre Flare got their side-visibility lights to market?

[bikeglowshane]

@Edwards thanks for the tip re SimonL6.

@frank9755 ahhh, today is Thursday. Wish I'd checked the forum yesterday ... although I think the research and sending out the PR to MTB Instructors wasn't a day wasted.

@NUKe nice try. The moderator removed the URL in my original posting to avoid any perception of 'advertising' but if you're interested in finding out what I'm talking about, please friend me (Shane Reed in Swindon/Bristol) on Facebook.

@Russell160 It's not patronising at all. Publications need lead time and products to review way ahead of time.

@mark a. Fibre Flare is a good product and certainly in the same genre.

[bikeglowshane]

@climo thanks for all the input. Sounds like we're on the right track. Rob Spedding @Cycling Plus requested one and it should be on his desk about now for the upcoming article on lighting.

We've created a few short demos on YouTube and our homepage has a YT video embedded.

Need to add more 'fans' to our Facebook page though ...

We've also contacted a few Mountain Bike Instructors and have pushed out a few samples there.

[climo]

Rob Spedding @Cycling Plus requested one and it should be on his desk about now for the upcoming article on lighting.
We've also contacted a few Mountain Bike Instructors and have pushed out a few samples there.

Get the cycle plus guy to have a competition with 3 lights as prizes. Gets more people reading the article. Get permission to reproduce the article in text, not damn scans
Web competition - every 100th customer to buy gets it free.
facebook fans get 10% discount
blog with LOTS of factual info on bike lights, lumens, light spread, regular updates on night rides. Think like a customer searching the web for bike lighting info & supply that info. It'll be ranked by google. Google searches for info, not sales spiel.

Get the packaging right

Tell them, tell them again, then tell them that they know.