The first effort launched the Otis NextStep™ escalator, a breakthrough product that employs a technologically advanced Guarded™ step design. CooperKatz distributed b-roll and created electronic press materials that enabled reporters internationally to view the Guarded Step in motion. We also arranged for editors to visit the Otis test tower for a first-hand experience.
The second effort commemorated Otis’ 150th anniversary. The centerpiece of this celebration was a re-enactment of Elisha Graves Otis’ historic demonstration of his ‘safety elevator.’
Together the two PR initiatives reinforced Otis as a reliable, enduring manufacturer of people-moving systems, as well as a technological innovator and safety-minded market leader. Results of the combined campaigns include major stories in the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Seattle Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Financial Times, Berliner-Zeitung, Bangkok Post, Corriera Dela Sera, US News, USA Weekend, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, WB, CNN, PBS and “Late Night with David Letterman,” among many others. The campaign’s crowning achievement was a page-one Wall Street Journal article that positioned Otis as the ‘jewel’ in United Technology.
