The Challenge: Solar thermal energy industry leader Ausra was launching its first-ever U.S manufacturing facility. The company needed extensive local and national media coverage of the Las Vegas event to create a turning point for the solar thermal industry and open a gateway to subsequent projects.

Tigercomm responded to the challenge by:

• Designing and running the launch event, which included dispatching a two-person team to Nevada to provide a week of on-the-ground support.
• Developing the event's theme, and using it to develop speaker talking points, media advisory, news release, and collateral materials.
• Using our extensive federal, state and local political experience to recruit state VIP speakers to attend the event - including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the solar industry's trade association president and the Nevada Development Authority president. We worked with the offices of these leaders to ensure everyone was on message in their remarks.
• Writing the speeches for both Ausra executives, and utilizing our experience in media training more than 1,600 people to prepare our clients for dozens of interviews that day.
• Pitching the event to local and national broadcast, print and online media, as well as specialized trade media consumed by the company's potential customers.

Results:

The event attracted a who's who of Nevada business and political leaders. It generated 18 local television stories in the Las Vegas market, as well as live national coverage by FOX Business Network, NPR, Bloomberg Television, and Telemundo. We also secured 32 print stories, including coverage by Reuters, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Associated Press, The Arizona Republic, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Sun, Rocky Mountain News, and United Press International. The event received coverage from top cleantech outlets, including: Greentech Media, CNET, MSN Money, earth2tech, Green Wombat, Cleantech Group, and Renewable Energy World.