A Bright New Day for Cree Lighting
In March 2019, Cree, Inc. announced its intention to sell its Cree Lighting division. The deal was closed in May 2019 and Cree Lighting became a standalone business within IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC.’s family of companies. Cree Lighting had a long history as a pioneer and market-leading innovator of LED lighting fixtures, lamps and commercial lighting solutions for interior, exterior, and intelligent lighting applications. With the LED lighting industry’s premier trade show – LightFair International 2019 (LFI2019) – occurring at the end of May, Cree Lighting needed to introduce itself as an independent entity, reinforce its position as an industry leader, establish social media channels and re-engage trade media contacts.
Faced with a compressed timeline before LFI2019, the McDougall team initiated an intensive 60-day planning process to use the trade show as a launching pad for the newly established company and lay the foundation for a comprehensive 12-month public relations plan. Over the course of 2019, the team engaged in primary and secondary research to form their insights and analysis, determined baseline metrics, and create fresh goals and objectives:
Using multiple tactics around media relations, social media and thought leadership, McDougall Communications executed its strategy of leveraging Cree Lighting’s past as a pioneer in LED lighting to speak to the company’s future, products, and people.
The results of the strategy were a resounding success. The plan produced a steady cadence of news that re-engaged and expanded trade media contacts, positioned Cree Lighting as a “go to” thought leader in the industry presenting at multiple industry events, established a comprehensive social media program with impressive growth, robust engagement and insightful content, and earned multiple industry awards and recognitions.
A thorough review of 2019’s PR activities showed strong results against its goal of elevated brand reputation thanks to robust execution of the strategic planning efforts:
In March 2019, Cree, Inc. announced its intention to sell its Cree Lighting division. The deal was closed in May 2019 and Cree Lighting became a standalone business within IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC.’s family of companies. Cree Lighting had a long history as a pioneer and market-leading innovator of LED lighting fixtures, lamps and commercial lighting solutions for interior, exterior, and intelligent lighting applications. With the LED lighting industry’s premier trade show – LightFair International 2019 (LFI2019) – occurring at the end of May, Cree Lighting needed to introduce itself as an independent entity, reinforce its position as an industry leader, establish social media channels and re-engage trade media contacts.
Faced with a compressed timeline before LFI2019, the McDougall team initiated an intensive 60-day planning process to use the trade show as a launching pad for the newly established company and lay the foundation for a comprehensive 12-month public relations plan. Over the course of 2019, the team engaged in primary and secondary research to form their insights and analysis, determined baseline metrics, and create fresh goals and objectives:
- Re-establish the newly independent Cree Lighting as an LED industry leader.
- Increase awareness of Cree Lighting’s products and innovations as solutions for their key audiences of lighting specifiers, architects, lighting designers, engineers, building owners & operators/facility managers and contractors.
- Provide Cree Lighting’s distributors and agents with product and innovation information through traditional media stories and social media posts to repurpose and promote the brand with end users.
- Position Cree Lighting as a source of information, news, and opinion with industry media
Using multiple tactics around media relations, social media and thought leadership, McDougall Communications executed its strategy of leveraging Cree Lighting’s past as a pioneer in LED lighting to speak to the company’s future, products, and people.
The results of the strategy were a resounding success. The plan produced a steady cadence of news that re-engaged and expanded trade media contacts, positioned Cree Lighting as a “go to” thought leader in the industry presenting at multiple industry events, established a comprehensive social media program with impressive growth, robust engagement and insightful content, and earned multiple industry awards and recognitions.
A thorough review of 2019’s PR activities showed strong results against its goal of elevated brand reputation thanks to robust execution of the strategic planning efforts:
- Media Relations. Cree Lighting distributed nine news releases between May and December 2019 that had a direct impact on retaining 100 percent of active media relationships, converting 60 percent of dormant media relationships to active and establishing engagements with 12 new media outlets. Additionally, Cree Lighting fielded 29 media interviews during this timeframe and achieved 100 percent positive/neutral tone of 91 total stories.
- Industry Awards and Thought Leadership. Cree Lighting entered product submissions for six industry award programs in 2019 and as of March 12, 2020, the company has earned six total awards – including major industry awards that they hadn’t received in the past. Cree Lighting executive speaking proposals were submitted for six industry events with three being chosen.
- Social Media. 2019 saw Cree Lighting establish a presence on social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Over the course of the year the social media strategy produced a regular cadence totaling 634 posts. Facebook followers grew from 0 to 227 followers and LinkedIn followers grew from 15 to 3,007 followers. The Twitter handle was inherited from the company’s consumer bulb business and saw a net increase of 60 users as consumers unfollowed and primary targeted audiences began following the channel. Average engagement rates for 2019 across all channels were outstanding compared to the industry average: Facebook 6.57%; Twitter 0.87%; LinkedIn 6.5.