Project
Cortina retainer
Cortina has been the market leader in bicycles in the Netherlands for years. With the arrival of the e-bike, there has been a lot of competition in recent years. This raised the question: how can Cortina continue to claim its position as a bicycle specialist in this constantly evolving market? Fitzgerald was asked to help answer this question with communications and PR and to create a continuous layer of visibility among Dutch media and influencers.
We took a broad approach to this challenging issue. In addition to setting up an ongoing layer of work (reviews, news highjacking, establishing and maintaining media relations), we realized a number of peak moments in 2022 to position Cortina in different areas. Here we focus on themes such as design and urban mobility with, for example, the electric bike as the sustainable alternative to the car and the “bike of the future.
Each quarter we worked to bring these themes to life, including capitalizing on increased gasoline prices in the spring – making the e-bike an increasingly interesting alternative to the car – and “Bike to Work Day. For the latter, we set up an internal and external PR campaign, developing kits for Cortina employees to encourage them to bike to work. These kits included an energy bar, mirror and deo, everything needed to give extra encouragement to cycling to work. For external PR, we challenged SlamFM DJ Martijn La Grouw to ride a Cortina bike to work on the day.
Results
With our approach, we achieved high media visibility during the year and made significant strides in positioning Cortina as a thought leader in innovation and road safety. Specifically, during 2022 we achieved over 60 positive and publications in media such as de Volkskrant, FD, Algemeen Dagblad, , Bright and on Radio 538 and Slam FM. In these publications, Cortina’s core messages and positioning were clearly highlighted.
In partnership with Fitzgerald, brand awareness was increased from 62% to 67% in 2022 and brand consideration from 22% to 24%. And this is just the beginning; also in 2023, Fitzgerald will continue to work on building the Cortina brand in the Netherlands as well as in Belgium.