Two brothers working from a garage in Baraboo, Wisconsin had a mission to revitalize the aging aviation industry by designing and certifying the first truly new aircraft in more than 20 years: the SR20™. But as a new business, Cirrus Design Corporation did not have funds to pump into marketing, or even to start building the plane. How does a growing company use public relations to create demand and fund a plane that hasn't even flown off the production line yet?
After identifying industry hurdles and key differentiators, our team launched the SR20 with one of the industry's first multi-media platforms, featuring animated simu-flights and parachute deployment scenarios. LaBreche conducted media relations throughout the world to land the coverage needed to create awareness, answer safety questions, and solicit down payments for an airplane that had yet to be built.
In the end, the SR20 gained exposure to more than 100 million individuals in 15 of the top 20 market segments, and the new airplane was featured on the Discovery Channel and the prestigious Robb Report, as well as in Popular Mechanics and Consumer Reports. More importantly, LaBreche�s public relations efforts single-handedly generated enough interest in the SR20 to secure hundreds of down payments, which helped fund production.
