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Case Study: Sapa

Challenge

On September 18^th 2017, Sapa, one of the world’s largest aluminium solution providers, were re-opening an aluminium plant in Bedwas, Wales to provide lightweight aluminium components for the new hybrid London Taxi.
Following the recent acquisition by Norsk Hydro, Sapa wanted to showcase this investment and job creation story to the UK business media, as well as communicate the benefits of positon aluminium as an innovative, sustainable material that can address the specific manufacturing challenges of tomorrow.

Approach

Sermelo held a media day at our offices a week prior to the launch, where the Sapa EVP John Thuestad met with a number of different national business/sustainability focussed reporters to discuss the launch (under embargo).
To secure the Financial Times, Sapa’s key target, we provided the publication with the opportunity to publish 24 hours early online on Sunday 17^th September.
To secure other top-tier interest, we had to focus on more than just the investment into the plant. The additional focus of our message was that aluminium is the most important emerging material for the trend of ‘light-weighting’ in an automotive industry that is shifting towards batteries.
We allowed Bloomberg and Reuters (international newswires) to publish at 6:00 BST so that the news could be re-syndicated across the UK media throughout Monday morning on the 18^th.

Results

We secured 8 top-tier interviews under embargo (including Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Guardian, CityAM, Independent.co.uk) and followed this up with a media sell-in on the day of the launch.
In total on the day, we secured over 30 pieces of UK national and trade media coverage and were able to dominate the UK business news on the day.

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