lotus823

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of ChillaxCare, and video baby monitor company that provide APP and cloud storage features.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire lotus823, and what were your goals?

we are in Asia, and do not understand NA culture. and our brand is new. we need a locate agent in USA to bring awareness to end users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

including referrals, we have 3 candidates, finally we selected Lotus823. The management and the CEO were very nice and helpful and even introduced sales representatives to me.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

They help to define the brand image after discuss with us. They help me to reach out to influencers, press and other media. participate in Events, and help bring our products know via Forbes and CBS etc...

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

they have 2 people helping out, but we are always to reach out to their management if needed. but so far, the management call if just extra help to us by introducing us sales opportunities .

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

our brands and products are vetted by Forbes, reported by CBS, digital trend etc....., over 100M impressions in last 12 months.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

we have biweekly call, and quarterly review on KPI, and they will submit us a detail report. there is always a PR calendar of what to do in coming 3 months.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

very proactive, I feel like they are part of our company, they take it as their own brand and promote. the Boss David is very nice and always very helpful. and he play music.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Maybe they can communicate with our Hong Kong during Hong Kong Day time. but that will be night day in NY time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a co-founder at SKORDO, a cooking lifestyle brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire lotus823, and what were your goals?

We hired Lotus to enhance our brand's national presence/PR and to engage in inYuencer marketing. The goal was for their team to help us build a strategy and then execute these initaitives.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Lotus reached out to us after they saw what they perceived to be an opportunity for us in national marketing and PR. We had several in depth discussions with the Lotus ownership team and account executives prior to engaging with Lotus. Their client roster, knowledge of our brand, industry connections, and ability to execute gave us confidence in hiring them as our first PR team.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

• An initial brand immersion call
• A copy of SKORDO's custom integrated strategy
• An initial benchmark report
• Scheduled bi-weekly calls to go over strategy/KPI standing
• Comprehensive quarterly reports
• Competitor analysis reports, bi-annually

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We've worked closely with 3-4 Lotus team members at a time, mostly Account Executives and Assistant Account Executives.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since working with Lotus, our business has been covered by several high profile outlets including Food & Wine, The Kitchn, Oxygen Mag, Forbes and more. Our sales have increased 60% year over year, and we believe the PR placements we received because of Lotus contributed greatly to this increase in sales.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We have biweekly meetings with our Account Executive and several other team members to go over each part of the team’s outreach, KPIs, and open items. The team is very quick to respond, as well as quick to reach out with opportunities. They keep us updated on potential placements and consistently provide feedback as it’s received.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We are impressed by their ability to be agile and implement strategic changes, their strong list of relationships within the PR world, and their unwavering effort to keep SKORDO top of mind for media outlets.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

One improvement would be to find a way to track the important KPI of revenue per placement (as opposed to just impressions).

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Daan Technologies, a home appliances manufacturer headquartered in France.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire lotus823, and what were your goals?

As a foreign company willing to enter the US market, we needed to be known. We were thus attending CES 2021 to get some visibility in the US for our product range. We thus worked with Lotus823 as a PR agency to cover the event.

SOLUTION

How did you select lotus823?

Lotus823 has been recommended to me by a French PR agency. I absolutely wanted NOT to work with French people on the US market, since I believed the cultural fit would be better with a company employing natives.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Lotus823 did a great job. They contacted many journalists several times before the CES to ensure they come to our booth at CES unveiled. Many did. Every time, they told us they heard about us from Lotus823. It was a great success, we were featured on Techcrunch, USA Today, Foxnews, among other.

Based on this success, we decided to continue working with them to carry our crowdfunding campaign and introduce our product to the US.

How many people from the lotus823 team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked directly with an account manager and the PR team, in total, 4 people worked on our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Lotus823 did a great job. They contacted many journalists several times before the CES to ensure they come to our booth at CES unveiled. Many did. Every time, they told us they heard about us from Lotus823. It was a great success, we were featured on Techcrunch, USA Today, Foxnews, among other.

Based on this success, we decided to continue working with them to carry our crowdfunding campaign and introduce our product to the US.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Very detailed and timely, I was really surprised for what I am used to work with French companies. They are reactive and diligent.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Outstanding will to contact journalists relentlessly (some told me they had received our pressbook 8 times!), remarquable reactivity. Before each meeting they prepared and shared with us a detailed agenda. Each meeting was thus fast and efficient. I definitely wish French companies take example on them!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I usually prefer to use whatsapp or instant messaging over emails (since I'm flooded with emails as company CEO), but it's OK.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the brand manager for a company called Method Sourcing, which owns a variety of houseware brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with lotus823?

We wanted more visibility for our products in the mass market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lotus823 connects the story of our brand to various media outlets, and their deliverable is to achieve as many pieces of earned media as possible — basically, they’re providing us with PR work. They take our information to present our brand to all their contacts in mass media, and we get written about by various publications such as magazines, blogs, TV, and websites. In addition, they advise us on the content of our media 

Initially, we provided them with all of our marketing materials like our brand story, photos, and videos. They then did some research to find the correct outlets to approach. We had a wishlist of places that we wanted to be in, and the rest was filled in by their experience.

What is the team composition?

We have two people who are strictly assigned to work on the project. I don’t recall their roles, but I believe they’re both account managers. There’s also another person who isn’t necessarily assigned to us, but they’re more of a senior position that comes in and out — They're there to ensure that everything is working well between us and the team.

How did you come to work with lotus823?

lotus823 actually found us at a trade show. We’d been generally looking for a PR representation as part of our marketing strategy, and they approached us asking for an opportunity to work together. Out of the range of people that approached us, some were exceedingly expensive and small, but lotus823 fit the middle ground between those.

They also had extensive experience within our industry, and our attitudes matched so we hit it off pretty well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership began in January 2020, and it’s still ongoing. We’ve actually added another brand to our partnership with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

PR is tough, but I think the evidence has been overwhelming. The quality is very high, and in terms of the efficacy of their work, we've seen a remarkably large increase in sales. That may just be us being the right thing for PR at this particular time, but it’s undeniable in our case that the actual work is very effective at raising our sales.

How did lotus823 perform from a project management standpoint?

lotus823 is very on top of everything. They remind us more than we remind them of things, which is a big plus in a vendor. They follow up when necessary, they give us reports unprompted, every week, on the dot, at the same time. they’re also very open to changing the report format. If there’s information that we do and don’t need that’s not there, they will accomplish it without question.

We typically communicate with them through email, phone, and Zoom for our meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s hard to decide whether it’s their knowledge of the market or the fact that they’re incredibly engaged, because both are very strong. The project wouldn’t work without both of those things present, and they’re exceedingly good at both.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to say because when I tell them they need improvement, they change things right away. Additionally, we as a company are new to using PR as a tool, so I don’t have a point of reference to answer this question. If there’s an issue or we need to change strategies, we tell them, and they do it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to come prepared with branding artifacts such as stories and photographs — if you’re prepared, it makes you hit the ground running faster. Moreover, you should trust lotus823 to find the most coverage they could possibly do.

When we started, it took three months for things to really pick up, but once they picked up, they continued to pick up. You’re not going to see results in months 1 or 2, you need to go to months 3–4 to start seeing results because that’s the nature of public relations. This isn’t necessarily advice that’s specific to lotus823, but to any PR firm — results don’t happen instantaneously.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as the executive director of marketing at Audio-Technica. We’re a company that makes audio products, primarily transducers such as microphones, headphones, and phonograph cartridges. We also offer a selection of turntables, from lower-entry level to mid-level price points.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with lotus823?

We mainly needed them for social media marketing and SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an ongoing retainer agreement with lotus823. Our main target is to grow our community exposure through rapid advertising on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We also tap on Pinterest and Youtube, where we post a fair number of videos. 

Being a company with multiple vertical markets, our main challenge is to find an authentic voice that we can constantly use to appeal to different market segments. To help meet our goals. lotus823 is also responsible for understanding the core of our brand and our verticals before they drive organic traffic growth for us.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with three of their people, but lotus823 can always pull resources from their team according to our needs.

How did you come to work with lotus823?

David (Co-Founder) was one of our previous biggest customers before the retailer he worked for had halted their business operations. I wasn’t aware of how many years he’s been in business with lotus823, but he always found the time to tell me something about this agency when we had the chance to talk. 

When it was finally time for us to look for a partner that could boost our traffic through digital marketing, we narrowed down our list to three marketing agencies — it didn’t take long before we decided to go with lotus823 and put our meaningful connection to work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $1,500,000–$2,000,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership with lotus823 started in July 2013, and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our continued engagement is all because of the great traffic growth we’ve seen through lotus823’s work — that’s the kind of engagement we need. You can have the biggest numbers and metrics in the world, but that could be nothing without regular engagement that exceeds industry benchmarks.

Our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter channels have grown five times more than when we first started, and those are really great numbers for us. lotus823 has done a good job in understanding our brand to deliver the traffic growth that our business needs.

How did lotus823 perform from a project management standpoint?

We currently communicate with their team via email and Google Meet. We have regular meetings to go over what they’ve accomplished and to look at how everything is going according to our timelines. We also have strategy meetings with lotus823’s team to plot out the direction of our project and realign our project goals. They’re a very organized team — lotus823 is on top of the project management game, and that makes us extremely happy.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our company is not a difficult client, but we have complicated needs given our vertical markets. lotus823 listens to our needs while understanding the complexity of these, and that just paves the way for our successful partnership. They’re not just an agency that we work with —  they’re our true partners, and that works to our mutual benefit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think we’ve encountered one so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront — have a good idea of what you want to accomplish. We’ve been an open book to their team, and that’s been really helpful in achieving our goals.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the public relations manager in charge of the US market at Roborock. We make smart cleaning solutions that includes robotic vacuums and cordless stick vacuums.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire lotus823?

We were looking to promote our new product line - the cordless stick vacuum line in the US and wanted to leverage Lotus' PR experience in the consumer goods field.

What were your goals for this project?

To build awareness, measured by media reach and overall SOV vs key competitors.

SOLUTION

How did you select lotus823?

We found Lotus823 via an online search and were keen on their PR experience in the robot vacuum space, specifically. After having a conversation with the Director of Client Services (who would then go on to manage our program), we were convinced that Lotus823 and Roborock would be a good fit, as we reached alignment on the strategy which we would adopt for our program.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Organic media outreach - always-on public relations efforts - new product launches

What was the team composition?

I work closely with the Director of Client Services, who is assisted by a few other members on the team. Worth noting that the composition of the team has remained the same throughout the 12 months of our collaboration, which brings consistency to the project. This is something I appreciate, and I believe this is a testament to the great people/ management culture within Lotus823.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our media SOV has steadily increased in the 12 months Lotus has came on board. The team has consistently exceeded the monthly KPIs.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, especially taking into account a 12 hours difference between us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Not only is the team responsive, they also consistently deliver on follow-up items in a timely manner. You can count on them to handle requests or inquiries professionally.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are generally pleased with the results in terms of media coverage. We're always on the lookout for even more buzz and exposure!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing director for a pro audio brand that makes live sound / studio recording equipment and consumer electronics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire lotus823?

Primarily for PR help and coverage, brand awareness, and social media presence and growth.

What were your goals for this project?

To build brand awareness, reach new markets, and enter new verticals with our suite of creator-based products.

SOLUTION

How did you select lotus823?

They came with high recommendation from a new member of our executive team.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Lotus has produced press releases, given editorial pitches, sourced reviews of products and established influencer relations by way of giveaway promotions on social media.

What was the team composition?

Approximately 3-4 people handling different objectives depending on the present need.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have had consistent growth in our facebook profile, which was slowly declining. Our brand presence is now in a much healthier state of growth across the digital landscape.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Lotus has been punctual and adaptive to our high output of releases and fluid between our various user groups.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have been reliable and up to every challenge, and have landed what I would call "big fish" PR pieces for us on a consistent basis. It has been unlike any of our marketing efforts before.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The team has incredible strength in building awareness and getting our brand in front of high traffic consumer publications. Lower funnel initiatives require more attention, but that's just a universal truth.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director - Product & Marketing of ErgoAV

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We design and manufacture Audio/Video and Office accessories for the home and office environments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire lotus823 to accomplish?

• Provide PR Strategy and execution
• Provide advertising strategy and execution

SOLUTION

How did you find lotus823?

Referral

Why did you select lotus823 over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from lotus823 were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We hired Lotus to drive and execute our PR strategy. We are a start up company with limited public exposure and limited internal resources.

Key objectives were:

1. Provide PR support for New product launches
2. Provide PR support for Tradeshows and events we attend
3. Advise and create an advertising campaign around a new product launch
4. Provide Advertising content

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

number of impressions were a key metric for us.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team at Lotus823 was very responsive and had very prompt communication. we would have bi-weekly meetings to align on priorities. The team at Lotus823 always hit deadlines and timelines.

What was your primary form of communication with lotus823?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Communication. Appreciated the prompt and clear communication.

Are there any areas for improvement or something lotus823 could have done differently?

none we can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Brand Marketing Manager

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Trailblazer in providing a whole new lifestyle. With a keen curiosity for lifestyle trends, we strive to bring our users the most futuristic products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire lotus823 to accomplish?

• Public Relations

SOLUTION

How did you find lotus823?

Referral

Why did you select lotus823 over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from lotus823 were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

lotus823 recommends targeting a variety of media outlets, to best get in front of our key consumers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Benchmark: From August-December 2022, the period lotus823 used as the benchmark month for PR coverage, the brand received 101 media hits in small-tier tech blogs, national tech publications, and paid media sites. 
• Growth: Since its benchmark period, client has received more than 100 media placements, increasing the brand’s impression share and visibility by 576%. 
• Consumer Breakthrough: Since the benchmark period, client has expanded its media presence to consumer outlets, and has been featured in consumer outlets and tech publications alike, including but not limited to CNET, ZDNet, Best Products, Tom's Guide, Digital Trends, and more.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

During the project, Lotus consistently delivered content with clarity and punctuality, particularly excelling in the realm of public relations. Additionally, Lotus actively engaged in video conferences to ensure alignment with project timelines.

What was your primary form of communication with lotus823?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

lotus823's prompt responsiveness left a lasting impression on us.

Are there any areas for improvement or something lotus823 could have done differently?

We hope Lotus can achieve a greater presence at offline events when extending invitations.