Xeros: Launching a New Industrial Superstar into an Old School Market

      Challenge:

      There hasn’t been a major innovation in laundry for more than 60 years. The challenge was to launch an innovative near-waterless commercial laundry system that replaces up to 80% of the water with 1.3 million polymer beads into a traditional market resistant to technological change. To give you a sense of how resistant, some owners of commercial laundry companies, as well as equipment distributors, do not have e-mail addresses. The challenge was to convince the targeted audiences that the Xeros system could clean textiles better than traditional aqueous washing machines.

       

      Our Work:

      • Red Javelin developed messaging and took a multi-pronged strategy to target science and environmental publications, hospitality, dry cleaner, and commercial laundry trade publications, and national press.
      • The Red Javelin and Xeros team developed a robust content strategy that supported the multi-pronged strategy that included blog posts, video, infographics, photos, bylines, white papers, customer case studies, and news releases.
      • Almost every pitch, byline, award submission, social media event and press release included a visual or video.
      • Red Javelin created and managed a blog editorial strategy that included three posts per week with content that mirrored the PR strategy in the segmented markets as well as regular promotional posts.
      • The entire effort was complimented by a social media amplification program.

       

      Results:

      • Red Javelin garnered hundreds of media hits and 60 unique standalone articles in science, trades, and national press. Standalone feature coverage included stories in USA Today, Fast Company, CBS News, Forbes, Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Industrial Water World, Physics Today, Green Lodging News, The Guardian, Hospitality Upgrade, Hotel Online, and many more.
      • Xeros is now regularly covered in the hospitality, laundry, and dry cleaning trades.
      • Publications such as The Guardian and Forbes now contact Red Javelin looking for updates on the company’s progress.
      • The Xeros online press room is one of the top 10 pages visited on their website.
      • Press release views have risen from less than 500 per release at the beginning of the program to more than 4,200 views for recent releases.
      • Since the blog was launched in September 2014, website traffic has almost doubled – from an average of 5,700 visitors per month to well over 11,000 visitors per month.
      • Awards: Edison Awards – Bronze, Environmental Leader Product & Project Awards – Top Product of the Year 2015; Editor’s Choice Award for Best New Product in Hotel Operations at IHMRS 2013.