Case study - Lime
Entering the Czech market, Sept-Oct 2018
Pavel Safranek: External PR Consultant
Challenge
In summer 2018, California-based Lime, a global e-scooter sharing provider, has chosen Prague as the first city to launch its electric scooter offering in Eastern Europe and the 7th capital in Europe where people can use their e-scooters on the streets. I was approached with my team by my Berlin-based business partner who works for Lime globally, to help entering the Czech market (two-month project).
Insight
Among the first things was to prepare very quickly a simple PR strategy, to introduce to the client´s global team (including the CEO) which communicated with each other mainly via digital platforms as WhatsApp, etc. Personal participation in the launch of the service in Prague was a matter of course. Most of the time we worked with business and tech media, from the Czech Republic or Brussels-based. Immediately after the start of communication, as a reaction to the news and the first troubles, we had to deal with the crisis communication. In the team, we fortunately had a colleague, a former spokesperson for several important institutions, who from the very beginning professionally neutralized the strongest reactions to the launch of the service, especially on the most watched commercial TV. Providing ongoing information to journalists about numbers, scooter security, price and availability, we also followed by gradual education of the public on how to ride new scooters, personal responsibilities on the roads, etc.
Challenge
Within two months, September-October 2018, all important Czech media knew about us (including the most visited online portals and the most listened radio stations), plus we also attracted the influential Brussels Politico, which opened a discussion on the future need to set certain rules for this mode of transport. The biggest success was probably the interview with Caen Contee, the Lime´s Co-Founder for the Czech mutation of Forbes magazine. Altogether, we generated publicity with almost 70 media outputs.
