In September 2018, the founder of a Korean-based health tech startup approached MACIAS PR for help promoting his smart belt wearable.
The founder had hired a different PR agency earlier in the year to promote their wearable at CES 2018 but didn’t get any traction. He was hoping our agency could promote the exact same wearable at CES 2019. He heard about our agency from another Korean entrepreneur who had worked with us.
Media Challenges with Campaign Launch
We faced several challenges from the start. One, we were promoting an “older” tech gadget that wasn’t technically “new” by CES standards. The Consumer Electronics Show is famous for unveiling the newest, hottest gadgets so the fact that this wearable was introduced the previous year put our agency at a disadvantage. We were essentially selling a story that was already out there.
In addition, the founder spoke very little English and had no employees or physical presence in the US. This created obstacles when it came to introducing the product with a spokesperson who could talk to the media about the product. Our founder had to sell this story directly to reporters and TV producers with very little input from the company.
MACIAS PR received little guidance from the company when it came to messaging or strategy, but we turned this to our advantage. This empowered decision-making enabled us to develop, pivot and push new angles to the media with very little time lag.
Under our media narrative, we positioned the wearable as the world’s first smart belt that helps you lose weight. The company later adopted this as their tagline.
Media Coverage for Consumer Wearable
Our media approach led to prominent placements with national news and tech organizations, including NBC Today Show, Channel 11 in NYC, Inverse, SportTechie, ABC News, NBC News, ZDNet, Wired, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Telecom Reseller, AdWeek, USAToday, Digital Trends, The Times, Late Night Parents, and more.
This media coverage had a direct impact on future sales for the belt, according to the founder. You can see a summary of our coverage below. If you click on the media logos, you will go directly to the story.
We can also share a more detailed case study by clicking here. You can also get a quick PR estimate for your health tech or consumer product by clicking here.
ABOUT MACIAS PR
Our founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. City & State Magazine named him a PR Power Player in New York in 2021, while marketing peers named MACIAS PR the 2017-2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the Financial PR Firm of the Year.