SAN FRANCISCO: Self-driving car tech company Velodyne LiDAR has picked Landis Communications as AOR, following a competitive RFP process.
The San Francisco-based PR firm was one of two finalists chosen to pitch after Velodyne decided it wanted a different comms approach, said David Landis, president of Landis Communications. The firm started working with Velodyne last month.
Porter Novelli subsidiary Voce Communications was the incumbent on the account.
"I think the agency they had did a very fine job and you need to tell that tech story sometimes," said Landis. "And now they are ready for something different."
The acronym LiDAR stands for "light detection and ranging." LiDAR systems are used to produce real-time 3-D maps to help guide self-driving cars.
Velodyne sells LiDAR to automotive companies. But it wants consumers to ask for LiDAR tech when purchasing self-driving cars or self-driving car services, in the same way consumers were asked to buy computers with "Intel Inside."
"So what we brought to table, and what they liked, was we weren’t a niche agency," Landis said. "We are a well-rounded agency and one that brings a different, broader based consumer approach."
Landis said he and three other senior members of his company will directly support the account, along with other employees as needed.
Budget information was not disclosed, but Landis said LiDAR is his agency’s biggest client.
LiDAR systems use laser lights to produce very high-resolution maps of surfaces. In addition to self-driving cars, LiDAR is used in geography, geology, forestry, and even in archeology to find ancient structures from past civilizations hidden beneath centuries of overgrowth.
