Pantone: Colour management story
Inuits reportedly have 15 words in their vocabulary to describe ‘snow.’ Pantone, the world authority on colour, has more than a hundred ways to describe yellow. The company’s colour systems have become the worldwide language for the accurate communication of colour in the graphic design, printing, publishing, fashion apparel, home furnishings, commercial interiors and industrial design industries over the past 40 years. But in early 2004, Pantone realised that while its business in Europe was strong and almost every company in its target sectors was using its PANTONE® Colour Referencing System, sales opportunities were being lost.The problem lay in the fact that some messages, hugely important to the ongoing revenue stream of the company, were not communicated in Europe. Many customers were not aware, for example, that the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® and many formula guides (a fan book that displays over 1,000 colours and details their composition and a reference number) need to be replaced regularly. Being prone to discolouration, ageing guides would over time lead to inaccurate colour referencing. Customers were also unaware of the wide range of new Pantone services. In recent years, these have included the addition of technology-based solutions for the retail sector and consumer lifestyle products.
Following a successful trial project at the world’s biggest printing show, Drupa, in 2004, Hotwire was drafted in to devise a PR campaign with several objectives that would address these concerns. Hotwire developed a programme to communicate Pantone’s strategy to top influencers and then to showcase solutions for the print production process in order to tell the colour management story. This would be the fastest and most effective way of educating the market on Pantone’s key messages.
An important tactic to achieve this was a new issues-based strategy for maximising coverage. One example of this new approach to issues came in November 2004. A dispute had broken out between Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s new venture into the mobile phone market, easyMobile, and established mobile phone brand Orange. The dispute centered around the use of the colour orange in easyMobile’s logo and livery.
Hotwire gained coverage for Pantone in national and international newspapers and trade magazines, explaining how Pantone had been involved in resolving similar disputes. This positioned Pantone as an authority on colour and helped highlight the importance of colour as a major issue in business.
Hotwire has exceeded many of the deliverables set for the campaign. For example, a primary objective was to establish this “all-American” company as a serious player committed to Europe. Continuous, high-impact coverage in business titles such as Frankfurter Allgemeine, Financial Times in the UK and Germany, BBC World, Die Welt and The Daily Telegraph - to name a few - has helped elevate the visibility of the brand.
Pantone Director of Public Relations Ellen Pinto said: “Hotwire has made great strides in repositioning Pantone throughout Europe in a relatively short period of time. The agency has leveraged relationships with influential business and trade press, and the results have surpassed our expectations. The Hotwire team is professional, enthusiastic, creative and diligent.”
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