Brulimar

Brulimar Optical Group is one of the largest designers, manufacturers and distributors of branded eyewear in the UK with 15 per cent of the spectacle market.  The company is licensed to produce frames for brands including Pineapple, Lee, Bench and Hooch and holds major contracts with most of Britain’s best-known high street optical retailers.  In 2006, Brulimar began selling its frames in Europe where it is now expanding its market share and attracting new distributers and retailers.

Smith & Smith PR specialises in pan-European PR and employs a team of PR practitioners withc ombined expertise in six languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian and Hebrew.

In August 2007, Smith &Smith PR was appointed by Brulimar to create a campaign of B2B PR targeting the international optical trade media.  The campaign spans the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Portugal.

At that time, European sales accounted for 18 per cent of the 1.2m frames Brulimar produced each year buta wareness of the company and its products was low and the company had received hardly any coverage in its trade media anywhere outside the UK.

What We Set Our Sights On

• To position Brulimar Optical Group as a leading international eyewear manufacturer, distributor and brand specialist
• To raise awareness of Brulimar and its products among a European market of opticians, optical retailers, eyewear distributors and brand managers
• To increase Brulimar’s credibility and share of voice in its trade media

Keeping it Focused

We identified four target audiences whose interests would shape the campaign’s messages.  These were opticians, eyewear retailers, distributors and brand managers.

An audit of media coverage referencing Brulimar revealed that, while the company was relatively well known among UK trade editors, in Europe awareness was very low indeed and media coverage almost non-existent.

Working closely with the organisers of two of the world’s top optical trade shows – Silmo in France and Mido in Italy - we were able to identify the industry’s trade media titles and rank them in order of their credibility and influence in the market.

As major focal points in the European optical trade calendar, we went on to design our campaign of media relations around these two trade shows which would create excellent opportunities for face-to-face meetings between key editors, Brulimar’s senior management team and Smith & Smith PR.

20 / 20 Vision

We began the campaign by arming ourselves with materials that we could use to educate those editors who knew very little about Brulimar and its products.  We created a detailed profile of the company, charting its history, growth, business strategy, achievements and ambitions.  We also identified positive news stories, including contract wins and new collections.  These were translated by our in-house team of PR practitioners and linguists so that they could be syndicated across territories and used to form the basis of our ongoing discussions with editors.

We arranged meetings with the editors, including news and feature editors, not only at the industry’s trade shows but also during dedicated press trips into Europe designed to nurture and strengthen our working relationships with them.  All meetings have been held in the editors’ native languages - an approach which is boosting our relationships with them by generating goodwill and making the whole process as easy as possible for them.

We hosted one-to-one meetings with the top optical trade magazines and journals in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Portugal and have arranged face-to-facea and telephone interviews for the managing director of Brulimar with some of the most respected publications in his market, including Optician, Eyewear Intelligence, Les Annonces de L’Optique and Der Augenoptiker.

Using the intelligence we have gained in our discussions with editors, in particular about trends and regional interests, we have designed a series of core texts which have been translated and adapted to reflect the consumer tastes and editorial styles of each country and publication.  These illustrate Brulimar’s work in a way that is relevant and attractive to different audiences and has been crucial in ensuring the successful syndicationof media communications.

Vision - ary Results

With Brulimar firmly on the media radar, journalists from many of the most respected optical trade magazines across Europe regularly contact us for expert comment on topics such as the direction of children’s fashion frames and the growth of branded eyewear.

The account grew from strength to strength and Smith & Smith PR extended the campaign to address the emergence of new media and additonal licenses to the Brulimar stable.

Smith & Smith is now also handling Brulimar's consumer public relations and the campaign that the team crafted for the launch of Pineapple has been shortlisted for two key industry awards. Brulimar has been with Smith & Smith PR for over six years.