-
Feb 14 2020 
How An NYC Commute Won “Best Public Relations”
Public Relations is the marketing communications art of having people tell your story to audiences of people that you want to hear it. There’s science and best practices behind good PR and there’s also knowing what’s a questionable seed of an opportunity and fertilizing it properly to watch it grow it into a redwood forrest. In today’s media landscape that seed of a story can turn into a forrest in hours, or even minutes. That’s called PR gold, when your brand story goes viral.
In the later half of last summer we were sent a seed of a PR opportunity via e-mail for our BFF client Sea-Doo watercraft. Mr. David Pike of Jersey City, NJ sent an e-mail about an opportunity to do something unique on a Sea-Doo and that the media may pick up on. Now, as the PR agency for the global, industry leading personal watercraft brand for the past 15 years, we get dozens of, “great ideas” every year about how people can promote Sea-Doo through exotic, sometimes crazy rides. We do our due diligence on everyone of them. LOOK makes sure we don’t miss that hidden, golden nugget. Nearly all of the ‘pitches’ are passed on for various reasons; no plan, lacking physical skill, no experience, not thought out, doesn’t understand what the media are interested in, doesn’t understand brand positioning, or is simply so wacky you wonder what bar stool they were sitting on when the idea developed.
the golden seed.
David Pike was one of the rare idea guys that actually had a solid, and very doable idea. Pike is smart, business savvy, and simply found a better way to commute around New York City. And at the same time live the Sea-Doo Life. For years he was commuting 90-minutes each way from his home in Jersey City to his business, The New York Trolley Company, in Brooklyn, New York. That’s an hour and a half each way or three-hours out of each day lost simply getting from one point to another.
Pike, sick of the grind and losing his time looked at a map. He realized a straight shot across New York Harbor is less than three-miles. This is where his e-mail to us comes in. He figured out how to beat the NYC Commute by riding a Sea-Doo from his condo with a private marina in Jersey City, past the Statue of Liberty and to his office in Brooklyn. He would cut his commute down to 20-minutes door-to-door and do it with a smile as he lived the ‘Sea-Doo life’ everyday.
It all fit. David is a good looking, young entrepreneur with a young family and figured out how to make his life better by riding a Sea-Doo to work. Great story right? Right. After a few weeks of commuting via Sea-Doo the New York Media (the biggest in the country) were, ah hum, informed of his ‘system beating’ commute. Then ABC called and the 2:57 segment aired on Good Morning America and the ‘seed’ exploded. Pike on his Sea-Doo smiling and cruising by lady liberty was picked up by The New York Post, CBS Radio, Yahoo News, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal and more.
David’s NYC Sea-Doo Life Commute went viral…Public Relations Gold.
Neptune Award for Best Public Relations
At the 2020 Miami International Boat Show LOOK Marketing won two Neptune Awards. One for Best Public Relations. The Neptune Awards are presented by the Marine Marketers of America organization to celebrate the best marketing campaigns and activations in the Marine Industry. These are LOOK Marketing’s fifth and sixth Neptune Awards, and includes wins in five different marketing categories.
Great PR includes great story telling. David Pike’s Sea-Doo life was unique, engaging and relatable for so many New Yorkers. He had a great story to tell and the media of NYC loved sharing it. It would’ve been easy for us to delete his short e-mail as ‘another dude with a crazy idea,’ yet we studied that seed, fertilized it and low and behold it grew bigger than we ever expected. Every person and every brand has a story. Tell your story. And if you need help. #lookatus
-
Aug 08 2018 
EPIC EVENT INVITATION FOR AN EPIC PRESS EVENT
How do you get the attention of boating media editors whom are invited to dozens of incredible press events every year? Produce a disruptive event invitation. To stand out in Public Relations you have to disrupt.
The invitation is one of the most important elements of the entire event production. The invitation also sets the tone and expectations of what the attendees will experience. A well crafted and executed invitation can bring your brand to the forefront and set the stage for an epic event. You have to have people attend the event to have an event. Our strategy related to this specific event entailed a custom printed video book with personalized invitation video.
LOOK Marketing received two 2018 ADDY awards from the American Advertising Federation Space Coast Chapter for the production of a Press Event Video Invitation for client Sea-Doo watercraft. The two 2018 ADDY awards received for this project included; Judge’s Choice Award and Gold Addy for the category of Card, Invitation or Announcement.
Project Objective
Produce an invitation that disrupts normal in-mail and introduces the brand’s new model year campaign and key messaging. The goal was to create an invite that intrigued and demanded invitees to attend the event and learn about the new product.
The Press Event Invitation video book gained immediate attention among media.
Press Event Video Invitation Project Strategy
LOOK Marketing would design a physical, video book invitation that would be sent by express mail to targeted editors. The book visuals would include key message copy and high level event details including location and dates over imagery of the actual event location. The auto playing video included a brand hype reel and a personal, event invitation message to to engage media through a sensory experience of visual, audio and tactile modes. The three sensory modes would work together to help convey Sea-Doo’s 2018 story theme of “Escaping the Everyday” with Sea-Doo.
Execution
Targeted North American and international marine media and regional vertical and general press received the video invitation. The invitation set the tone for the Sea-Doo “Escape the Everyday” Press Event. It immediately pulled invitees into the world of Sea-Doo by sharing a unique, adventure-themed video.
The video began with auto play when the book was opened. It opened with vintage clips of Sea-Doo watercraft, sharing the news that 2018 marked 50 years of Sea-Doo revolutionizing the personal watercraft industry and followed by teasing the 2018 adventure-ready platforms.
ADDY JUDGES CHOICE AWARD – 2018 Sea-Doo Escape the Everyday Press Event Invitation from LOOK Marketing on Vimeo.
A glimpse of everyday epic adventures being lived out by Sea-Doo riders around the world would follow the 2018 launch reveal. The video then invited them to attend the made-for-media event to experience their own epic adventure on the Colorado River aboard the all-new 2018 Sea-Doo models. The video invitation culminated with imagery of the natural beauty of the epic event location, and how the PR team would ensure a production and fun event.
Results
The video invitation generated exceptional results. 91% of the media targeted by LOOK attended the press event. Feedback from the media also noted the invitation strongly influenced their decision to attend. Three mainstream media noted that the invitation alone intrigued them enough to attend, where a traditional letter or e-mail invite would not have. Four boating media noted this was the best press event invitation they had received in years. This invitation was the first step in a complete brand immersion that carried the key messages from invitation to published articles. #lookatus
Event Invitation Project Awards
ADDY: Judge’s Choice Award
ADDY: Gold Award-Card, Invitation or Announcement
Select Published Media Generated By The Event – (three of the 21 published articles)
-
Jul 14 2018 
PR Win – Gigi Hadid and Sea-Doo Stars of V Magazine Cover
With the cover and a multiple-page spread in fashion glossy V Magazine featuring the world’s top supermodel, Gigi Hadid, LOOK Marketing secured a big public relations win for our client Sea-Doo. The culmination of months of LOOK Marketing’s behind the scenes PR and logistics work resulted in over 75 million people across the world being exposed to the Sea-Doo brand from this publicity campaign – just in the first day and a half. The V Magazine cover and article excerpts were shared by Gigi Hadid to her nearly 55 million social media fans, as well as picked up and published by dozens of top media sites including the Daily Mail.
V Magazine July cover with Gigi Hadid riding Sea-Doo RXP-X 300.
Supermodel Gigi Hadid shares the V Magazine cover with her Instagram fans.
Daily Mail highlights V Magazine cover of supermodel Gigi Hadid outfitted in a custom Fendi life jacket racing across the waters of Miami on a matching Fendi wrapped Sea-Doo RXP-X 300.
Entertainment Online Canada headlines with V Magazine Gigi Hadid and Sea-Doo cover.
Making It Easy For Those Involved
LOOK has years of PR experience activating influencer and celebrity projects, some opportunities simply come our way more than others. This opportunity came about through a friend of friend of a friend and we simply took the opportunity and ran with it. We made our client’s involvement in the project very easy for V-Magazine. The easier we can make it for them the easier it is for them to say “yes” to us.
Behind The Scenes
We helped pick the right Sea-Doo model for the look the creative team wanted. We worked with a local Miami vehicle wrap company to deliver the unit and help with the Fendi wrap graphics. For the actual shoot, we made the Sea-Doo portion as turn-key as possible. It also helped that Gigi Hadid was a genuinely nice person, with a great work ethic, and admitted adrenaline junky. She listened intently to our instruction on-set and did indeed ride aggressively for a full four hour shoot.
To date (mid-July) the effort has generated over 456 million impressions from being featured in 38 different outlets. The biggest hits have come from Gigi’s own social media posting. Again we helped Hadid and photographer Mario Sorrenti have a great experience and they shared their appreciation with more posts. #lookatus
The private V-Magazine shoot location on Key Biscayne.
A busy day on Biscayne Bay was the location for the V-Magazine shoot with client BRP Sea-Doo.
The custom Fendi wrap on the Sea-Doo RXP-X 300 watercraft connected the fully branded cover shot.
-
Mar 04 2018 
Celebrating ADDY Award Wins for Branded Content
LOOK Marketing was recognized by the American Advertising Federation Space Coast Chapter with two 2018 ADDY awards for its video production and interactive branded content. The winning project was produced for client Sea-Doo, partnering with Boating Magazine titled “Summer Spring.”
A family explores Silver Springs, FL on their Sea-Doo Spark and Sea-Doo GTI.
Project Objective
Produce and publish via digital platforms a branded content video. The feature article and video should showcase how easy it is to have ‘one fun day’ with Sea-Doo watercraft.
Branded Content Project Strategy
LOOK Marketing would leverage the topical ‘record heat’ of summer through a branded video. The LOOK produced video would highlight the experience of escaping the summer heat by riding Sea-Doo watercraft at Florida’s refreshing and picturesque Silver Springs. That video would then be shared on the media partner’s digital platforms including Facebook and their website. Then Sea-Doo would share the posted video on their Facebook page.
Storyline
Capturing the cool water of Silver Springs, Florida
Follow a young family as they explore Silver Springs, Florida, where they show you that even in a more laid-back setting your PWC can still give you an escape from the everyday.
You get to see the family enjoying the peacefulness of the springs by exploring the crystal-clear waterways at a much more tranquil pace. This helps them to enjoy snacks and take a peek at the marine and wildlife life along the way.
The laid-back environment allows them to spend some quality time as a family as well as giving them an opportunity to relax at the nearest tree branch while having some fun, making memories and cooling off. What better way to beat the heat then a day on the water!
Results
Sea-Doo and Boating Magazine shared the branded content video on Facebook, reaching over 677,000 fans between the two pages. Boating Magazine additionally published a companion article on their website.
Project Awards
ADDY: Film/Video/Sound Branded Content More than :60 seconds
ADDY: Online/Interactive Branded Content & Entertainment
All Awards
Jump in to Branded Content
LOOK’s awards and accomplishments.
-
Feb 11 2016 
LOOK WINS TWO 2016 NEPTUNE AWARDS
Miami, Florida – LOOK Marketing was honored by the Marine Marketers of America with two Neptune Awards for Best Video and Best Social Media of 2015 in the $50 billion marine industry. The Neptune Awards were presented to LOOK in front of the elite of the marine industry at the NMMA Industry Breakfast to begin the Miami International Boat Show. These are the second and third Neptune Awards won by LOOK marketing for their work with the Sea-Doo Watercraft brand.
BEST VIDEO
LOOK, in collaboration with Fiction, brings ultra targeted creative to BRP that tells the Sea-Doo story in a manner that talks directly to the intended audience. This explains the science behind the NEXT LEVEL of performance watercraft riding fun.
We focused on key messages to build video assets that complimented the overall promotional effort. We looked at how we can produce videos that connect and drive launch and promotional efforts such as; press intro, dealer meeting, boat shows, special events, dealer showrooms, social channels, but most importantly to the online, video watching consumer.
The Science of Fun
From design, to testing, to production, to the on-water experience – this concept is motion graphics driven and tracks linearly from the concept phase through to the user experience – reading like a modern blueprint.
We focus on the people that bring their passion for product progression to the job everyday. We focus on the science behind their work and how the new technologies come to life for a better product experience.
The overlaying motion graphics evolve from the science to the user experience. There it highlights aspects of the fun being had in the same execution, with the same scientific look at the rider experience – like an objective study of the machine itself and the payoff, the fun.
This video series lays the foundation providing the PROOF of why to believe these new models are BETTER.
BEST SOCIAL MEDIA
This campaign was developed and executed in partnership with Cramer-Krasselt. We asked fans to, “Show Us How You #SPARKSOMEFUN” to win the Ultimate Sea-Doo Beach Party that would be filmed by YouTube star videographer Devin Super Tramp intended to create something to talk about and promote – a share-of-voice tool for the Sea-Doo SPARK and full line of Sea-Doo models leading into the selling season. The effort must have a “hook” element for media and consumers and should be integrated across multiple mediums to maximize limited budget.
The Spring Push campaign included a three tiered approach.
- Five week photo/video sweepstakes beginning on March 24th – Devin Supertramp asked fans to show how they would #SPARKSOMEFUN via uploading a photo or video to a dedicated aggregator app in hopes to become one of the top five finalists and win the grand prize. – Tier One Results – collected over 40K unique visitors and collected over 2500 leads.
- Five finalists were chosen and forwarded to the second level of the sweepstakes, to a five day fan vote to determine the winner. The winner received a new Sea-Doo SPARK and trailer, plus an all expense paid trip for he and two friends to be part of the filming of the Ultimate Sea-Doo Beach Party. – Tier Two Results – collected over 46K unique visitors
- LOOK produced an actual Ultimate Sea-Doo Beach Party with Devin Super Tramp video capturing the May day and launched June 15th to extend the effort, and reach his massive fan base as the next generation of boaters.
- Tier Three Results – Devin’s videos received over 700K views on YouTube with over 1600 shares, reach of 450K on Facebook, and in total generated content for over 100 posts over five months.
Among nearly 100 entires from the biggest brands and agencies in the marine industry, these two entries from Melbourne, Florida based LOOK Marketing were chosen as the best. #BESEEN
Thank you to BRP and the Sea-Doo marketing team for allowing LOOK to work on such an inspiring and fun global brand – Julie Tourville, Kim Turcotte, Marc-Olivier Drouin, Hector Rodriguez, – Next Level Video Talent – Henrique Rosa, Allen Walker, Christian Stiebinger, Jacques Mayrand, Kim Ross, Patrick Raffelsberger, Erminio Iantosca, and Anya Colley. The Fiction crew of Josh McWilliams, Matt Staker, and Nick Sambrato and Jordy Klein. – Social Media – Dave Racine of Cramer Krasselt and Devin Grahm (Devin Super Tramp). And of course the LOOK team – Cody Hawkins, Bianca Blottie, Christos Meimaroglou, and Mark Quavillon.
-
Jan 14 2016 
LOOK at One Word Answer Friday – Business Efficiency
It’s a busy time for LOOK as we enter 2016. We are assisting with PR and event leveraging at North America’s largest boat shows, planning some big event marketing and big time visual merchandising projects and immersing our newest spark plug and social media specialist, Carmen Natschke into our world. There is a lot going on and everything we can do to be more efficient is appreciated.
During the New York Boat Show we were passing time by talking to some sales managers and they were explaining their boss’, “one word answer Friday,” policy.
Avi Laub is a regional sales director for BRP in the North East and has a rule for his team who send him e-mails or texts on a Friday. They can only send a question that can be answered in one word – yes, no, or maybe. “I don’t want to dick around on a Friday,” Avi exclaims. “This forces people to think through their question at a deeper level, forcing them to be more clear and concise. Or ideally they figure out the answer before they ask the question.”
Avi concludes, “If I can’t answer with Yes, No, or Maybe, they need to go back and rethink their question…on Monday.”
We like the idea and the result even more. It’s the simple second grade, “do you like me” note strategy. But lets not save this policy for Fridays only. It’s kind of like the wasted, “Weekends are made for Michelob,” campaign, isn’t it good enough for everyday of the week? Think things through and this is very relevant for your branding and communications. Avoid throwing stuff at a wall and hoping it sticks. Think your strategies through, integrate efforts and use logical tactics to make true progress.
#onewordanswer #BESEEN
-
Dec 17 2015 
LOOK at Spreading Holiday Cheer…with 300-Horsepower
We know we have something good at LOOK Marketing when we can’t wait for the second we can share it with the world. LOOK produces content and a big portion of that is web videos. In 2015 we shot roughly 5.5 terabits of imagery and from it produced and published 86 videos for our clients, with a few of them being for our own self promotion. All of them generated engagement but there are always a few that stand out as our favorites. Today we posted a definite top three favorite, The Next Level of Present Delivery.
This video for our main client Sea-Doo is joined by, “Lake Hawaii” for Four Winns Boats and, “The Science of Fun” as our top-three for 2015. Our friends at Fiction played major roles in the production of the later two while “SantaDoo” 2016 was kept completely in-house with four of our spark plugs making it happen. This was shot and edited in one day and was by far the lowest budget shoot project of this year’s favorites, but arguably the most fun.
Behind the scenes at LOOK Marketing’s video production for Sea-Doo’s “SantaDoo” Christmas web and social video.
Merry Christmas from LOOK and special thanks to Ted “Santa” McKercher, Elf #1 Ryan Gros, and Elf #2 Mark Quavillon for enduring wearing their costumes for over an hour in 85 degree weather on an abnormally busy day at the Grant, Florida boat ramp. #BESEEN in 2016.
