SAN FRANCISCO: Better known as the agency of record for established blue-chip tech companies like Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard spin-off Agilent, Burson-Marsteller is showing that it can play the dot-com start-up game as well.
SAN FRANCISCO: Better known as the agency of record for established
blue-chip tech companies like Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard
spin-off Agilent, Burson-Marsteller is showing that it can play the
dot-com start-up game as well.
The agency’s San Francisco branch has been tapped to handle PR for
BigEdge.com, an Internet sporting goods and apparel retailer. BigEdge, a
Chicago-based private company founded in April, handed the dollars
150,000-dollars 200,000 launch PR assignment to Burson/SF two months ago
after a comprehensive agency review.
’Burson showed a deep understanding of the dot-com model and immediately
understood our business proposition,’ said BigEdge VP of marketing Doug
Nesbit, whose team is based in San Francisco. ’Because our vision is
global, we needed an agency we could grow into, not out of.’
Throughout the fall and holiday season, BigEdge is aiming to gain
coverage in select media and to build awareness of the brand among its
target market of serious athletes. The company will also pursue various
sports sponsorship opportunities, like the Chicago Marathon. Burson will
support these efforts with media relations and what the firm calls
creative concepting assistance.
’Reaching the right people is more important than reaching tons of
people,’ Nesbit said.
Reaching anyone at all could pose a major challenge for BigEdge. With
competitors like Fogdog.com grabbing headlines by signing deals with
Nike and offline retailers like Copeland’s preparing to launch
e-commerce ventures of their own, the online sporting goods field is a
crowded one.
According to Nesbit, the site will be positioned as a collection of
specialty stores under one roof.
