Flying high with blanket media coverage
THE CHALLENGE
Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing Vehicle (eVTOL) startup, Vertical Aerospace, wanted to unveil the designs for its new aircraft – the VA-1X – to support the company’s fundraising efforts. But without a prototype that media could see, or any partners that could be publicly named, convincing media that the announcement was significant presented a challenge. And timelines were tight; Babel won the brief on the 14th of August, and the announcement had to go out by the end of the month.
THE SOLUTION
Babel quickly got under the skin of the client’s messaging, and created a narrative that could be easily understood by a mainstream media audience, positioning the VA-1X as a pioneering ‘flying taxi’. We highlighted the significance of the announcement for the UK aerospace sector, and used the example of travelling from London to Brighton in 30 minutes to provide real world context that a layperson could easily understand.
In the space of just nine days, Babel drafted a launch release and secured exclusives with Bloomberg and Sky News, to ensure the Vertical Aerospace would be highly visible in the investment community. Following this the team proactively sold the story in to key targets, arranging back-to-back briefings for the company’s CEO with a wide range of national and trade media to enable press to dig deeper into the story.
THE OUTCOME
Over 180 pieces of coverage secured around the world, including blanket national and business press coverage. Alongside the Bloomberg and Sky News exclusives, coverage was secured in The Times (print, online and radio), The Telegraph, Fox News, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Mail, Forbes, International Business Times, and The Daily Express.
On the first two days of the launch, Vertical Aerospace experienced a 1,566% increase in website traffic– the greatest spike the company had ever seen. This continued throughout the week, making the launch the company’s most successful ever.
July 4, 2022