Challenge

Business France and La French Tech wanted to spotlight French startup companies attending the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to highlight the pro-innovation drive of the government and opportunities to invest in the French high-tech industry to U.S. media, trade press, leading online opinion makers and venture capitalists.

Approach

Leading up to CES, APCO devised an integrated communications campaign employing both social and traditional channels. Social platforms were developed to rally the campaign’s stakeholders and traditional media outreach spread the message about France’s entrepreneurial, innovative and business-friendly climate.

Results

A Yahoo Tech article declared France the “winner of CES” for its dominant performance and the establishment of France as a leading tech country with CES attendees. Twelve top-tier outlets wrote about France at CES, and more than 150 stories were specifically written about the La French Tech startups, which included key messages derived from media pitches and the press kit.

Results At A Glance

• Yahoo Tech published an article titled “France is absolutely crushing it at CES”
• Bloomberg, CNBC, TechCrunch, The Economist, USA Today, VentureBeat, Yahoo Tech and other top-tier outlets covered France at CES
• ABC News, BBC, CNET, Huffington Post, Engadget, Forbes, Mashable, WIRED, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other top-tier outlets wrote about La French Tech startups
• #FrenchTech tweets reached an estimated audience of 12.5 million
• Increased Facebook engagement and page likes
• The French Minister of the Economy and the Minister of State for Digital Affairs led an exclusive closed door dinner with 15 high-level executives and venture capitalists on investment opportunities in the Tech sector in France.