Client: Escalent

PR Goal: The pace of change in the automotive industry is accelerating, evolving into a myriad of new dynamics, and bringing fresh challenges for car brands. One of these dynamics is the host of Chinese brands entering the market, particularly bringing highly competitive electric vehicles (EVs).

But are car buyers favourable to Chinese cars – and, if not, what would convince them to trade in traditional brands for new entrants?
For award-winning data analytics and advisory firm, Escalent, these questions formed the basis of its Chinese Automotive Brand Impact Study of more than 1,600 new car buyers in Europe.

The question for the PR team was how to launch such an insightful and timely report when there was already so much noise – both positive and negative – about EVs and Chinese brands.

Relatively unknown in Europe before the acquisition of Hall & Partners and C Space in 2023, we also wanted to show the company and its key European automotive spokesperson, Mark Carpenter, as a voice of authority in the automotive sector, a key business area for the research firm.

Our idea in a nutshell: Strong news and thought leadership story angles were critical to this campaign. We focused on the consumer issue of the cost of EVs, using the headline that even among consumers who are normally reluctant to buy from Chinese brands, price is a powerful motivator, turning them from biased to buyer with little effort.

While car buyers expect Chinese models to be cheaper than established brands, Escalent’s study findings showed that Chinese brands are moving away from their “cheap copy” image to be seen as innovative.

Execution: By pre-pitching automotive journalists and China reporters at automotive, business and broadcast media, we were able to maximise news coverage and secure three article placements ahead of launch. We always like to focus in on the top tier titles in our campaigns. We believe this approach means that the story is read by everyone in the sector that matters.

Global automotive publication, Automotive News, was absolutely key to the success of this campaign – and we pitched a news exclusive and a guest column, securing both.

Also, the team was able to successfully tap into media interest around EVs and tariffs on Chinese products. The recent launch of AutoTrader’s Road to 2030 Report on Chinese brands threatened to derail our own launch, but instead we used it as an opportunity to offer a different perspective. Many of these same journalists covered Escalent’s study.

Early interest from Ben Clatworthy, Transport Correspondent at The Times, in breaking the embargo gave us an opportunity to signpost the research a few days ahead of launch in Ben’s piece on Chinese EVs.

Finally, with news coverage in the European edition and a guest article by UK Managing Director, Mark Carpenter, for the US edition, we secured two fantastic pieces of coverage in Automotive News – a truly global result.

Impact:

While 30+ pieces of coverage (news and three bylined articles) is impressive enough in reaching a global audience, Escalent also reported:

• More than 60 leads from the launch release, including new business opportunities
• Potential client leads from OEM and tier 1 brands include Dentsu, Hyundai, VinFast, Great Wall Motor, Volkswagen and Denso, among others
• More than a dozen meetings and sales conversations with the aforementioned leads, including Lotus Cars, Alcantara, and BYD, among others

As a result of the campaign coverage, inbound leads and new business development, Escalent is already planning to conduct another study on the impact of Chinese automakers in Europe to be launched later this year.