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BPR’s Top 25 PR Projects: #6 BASF Car Color Trend Show (2011-2014)

When chemistry giant BASF needed assistance promoting its annual car color outlook and trend show, Bianchi PR was just the firm for the job. Having accumulated several years of experience helping another supplier with their car color expertise story, we knew what it would take to get key media attention for BASF’s color design experts and their work.

The Challenge: With several companies offering car color predictions to the public, BASF had been quiet about their trend predictions and expertise in recent years. Our goal was to help reestablish the company as a leader on the topic and promote its unique position as a chemistry expert that is able to draw upon inspiration and research from across the wide number of industries it serves.

Tactics: Re-introduce BASF OEM Coatings Group to the automotive, local Detroit and design media as experts in car color by promoting an exclusive Media Day at its annual color design exhibit.

This included offering up expert Paul Czornij, BASF’s Color Excellence Manager, for media tours of the new color displays and for interviews on the importance of color – discussing topics such as the technology behind creating the colors, the latest and greatest inspirations coming out of the lab, and the trends automakers were most interested in.

We also appealed to the artistic and consumer preference side of the story by using the inspiration behind the new color creations to center our press announcement around.

Results: Over the course of helping BASF promote its color story, the turnout for the Media Day and the resulting coverage from it and the press announcement was a resounding success. Coverage on BASF’s color trends and expertise was included in outlets such as NBC News, Autoblog, Consumer Reports, Automotive News, The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press and more. Total viewership of the press coverage for the story surpassed 180 million in one year.

Special thanks to BASF marketing / communications team members Stacey Russell, Susan Jackson and Mary Ann Short, as well as BASF color expert Paul Czornij, for allowing us to support this initiative.

BPR’s Top 25 PR Projects is a biweekly profile highlighting some of our favorite client projects, as we commemorate Bianchi PR’s 25th year in business.