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Jul 27 2020 
Publicity Value, Why It’s Better Than Advertising
Though different, both advertising and publicity (public relations) are essential tools in the marketing toolkit, and can work together with other marketing initiatives to meet brand objectives. We’ll take a look at what makes them different, and why Let’s start with examining how these two marketing functions are different.
How are Advertising and Public Relations Different?
Though often conflated, advertising and public relations differ on the following:
- Advertising is paid placement, while publicity generated from public relations’ activities results in editorial placement.
- Advertising is your organization telling the world that your brand, product or service is the best – the message is expressly coming from your organization and distributed through ads or commercials. Publicity (often referred to as earned media), is third parties like those in the media or digital influencers sharing some form of the message by telling the world that your brand, product or service is the best.
Messaging Control: Advertising Versus PR
They both offer benefits with regards to communicating brand or product messages to the public. They differ on extent of control with regards to what the message is, and when and where it will appear.
Advertising and Messaging
With paid placement, your organization pays to advertise on select outlets and maintains complete control of:
- The message.
- Where the message appears.
- When the message appears, and the campaigns duration.
Publicity and Messaging
With earned media, journalists, editors, news producers, bloggers, influencers and others who’ve attained trusted status with the public control:
- The message – they can interpret or change the message as they see fit.
- Where the message appears.
- When and if the message appears.
In the editorial space, there are myriad of individuals with myriad of opinions regarding your product or service therefore your business cannot directly control the message.
However, your business can certainly shape the message through strategic public relations activities. And that is where truly excellent public relations’ strategies shine, and a compelling reason to have PR pros on your side.
The Value of Publicity #lookatus
Be where people are looking with something of value to them in a memorable, meaningful way.
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Jul 14 2018 
PR Win – Gigi Hadid and Sea-Doo Stars of V Magazine Cover
With the cover and a multiple-page spread in fashion glossy V Magazine featuring the world’s top supermodel, Gigi Hadid, LOOK Marketing secured a big public relations win for our client Sea-Doo. The culmination of months of LOOK Marketing’s behind the scenes PR and logistics work resulted in over 75 million people across the world being exposed to the Sea-Doo brand from this publicity campaign – just in the first day and a half. The V Magazine cover and article excerpts were shared by Gigi Hadid to her nearly 55 million social media fans, as well as picked up and published by dozens of top media sites including the Daily Mail.
V Magazine July cover with Gigi Hadid riding Sea-Doo RXP-X 300.
Supermodel Gigi Hadid shares the V Magazine cover with her Instagram fans.
Daily Mail highlights V Magazine cover of supermodel Gigi Hadid outfitted in a custom Fendi life jacket racing across the waters of Miami on a matching Fendi wrapped Sea-Doo RXP-X 300.
Entertainment Online Canada headlines with V Magazine Gigi Hadid and Sea-Doo cover.
Making It Easy For Those Involved
LOOK has years of PR experience activating influencer and celebrity projects, some opportunities simply come our way more than others. This opportunity came about through a friend of friend of a friend and we simply took the opportunity and ran with it. We made our client’s involvement in the project very easy for V-Magazine. The easier we can make it for them the easier it is for them to say “yes” to us.
Behind The Scenes
We helped pick the right Sea-Doo model for the look the creative team wanted. We worked with a local Miami vehicle wrap company to deliver the unit and help with the Fendi wrap graphics. For the actual shoot, we made the Sea-Doo portion as turn-key as possible. It also helped that Gigi Hadid was a genuinely nice person, with a great work ethic, and admitted adrenaline junky. She listened intently to our instruction on-set and did indeed ride aggressively for a full four hour shoot.
To date (mid-July) the effort has generated over 456 million impressions from being featured in 38 different outlets. The biggest hits have come from Gigi’s own social media posting. Again we helped Hadid and photographer Mario Sorrenti have a great experience and they shared their appreciation with more posts. #lookatus
The private V-Magazine shoot location on Key Biscayne.
A busy day on Biscayne Bay was the location for the V-Magazine shoot with client BRP Sea-Doo.
The custom Fendi wrap on the Sea-Doo RXP-X 300 watercraft connected the fully branded cover shot.
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May 30 2018 
2019 Club Ski-Doo: Trade Show Design
Club Ski-Doo Trade Show Design Project Background
LOOK Marketing’s creative visual merchandising and trade show design specialists conceptualized and executed a showroom display and merchandise design project to highlight industry leading, client BRP Ski-Doo‘s 2019 collection of riding gear, clothes and accessories for its annual global dealer meeting.
This was a business-to-business project aimed at inspiring the dealers to place wholesale orders on vehicles, accessories, clothing, riding gear and parts.
The Space
The trade show space occupied 23,000 SQFT in New Orlean’s famed Mercedes Benz Super Dome. The space was designed in a circular pattern with the intention of creating a very dynamic and unique traffic flow experience for the trade show attendees.
Aerial view of circular trade show space in Super Dome illustrating hub and spoke exhibition floor layout.
The Team
Displays and Visual Merchandising Strategy and Design
LOOK Marketing: Michele Chenard and Paulo Kaladeen
Event Planning and Production
Lighting and Set Design
The Design: Displays & Visual Merchandising
Ski-Doo Riding Gear Floor Display & Interactive Layering Concept Wall
Michele explains that the driving force for the show floor vignette highlighting the three-part layering philosophy for Ski-Doo’s riding gear was the client’s requirement that the show display be educational and effectively communicate the science of layering the riding gear from the base layer to the mid layer and finishing off with the outer layer.
Her design team developed a concept based on BRP Ski-Doo’s “Build Your Own” system which graphically demonstrated in what order the clothing layers should be worn. The LOOK Marketing visual merchandising and store design team took that idea and interpreted it for the trade show floor by creating a display wall showing a chart with layering using numbers (1,2, and 3 – each associated with a layering stage) and integrated with three spinners (see concept renderings below). According to Michele, “Each spinner had technical information about the layer on one side and on the other side all the merchandise’s photos that went under that layer.”
Completing the Ski-Doo riding gear and interactive layering floor section was a set of geometrically inspired podiums opposite each other. On each podium, three mannequins designated for women’s and men’s gear, respectively. The mannequins were dressed in various stages of the layer dressing. This was used to convey the three-part philosophy, and to further tie the visuals to the layering process expressed in the layering chart on the display wall.
Rendering depicting Ski-Doo clothing and recommended layering methods.
Detail of interactive layering panel wall display section at Club Ski-Doo.
Ski-Doo Helmet Display
Michele Chenard, Director of Visual Merchandising at LOOK Marketing shares insight into her team’s approach to the Ski-Doo helmet display:
We used two auto-self white walls with matte finish. One of the displays showcased Ski-Doo’s Cross family helmets and the other highlighted Ski-Doo’s full face helmets. The design concept (see display rendering below) for the honeycombed niches that housed the Ski-Doo helmets were inspired by Ski-Doo’s use of the honeycomb shape in their marketing campaign. Each of the honeycombed niches were lighted and had a mirror finish on the back to ensure a better view of the graphics and details of each helmet.
Rendering of of proposed space design for helmet section in trade show space for model year 2019 Club Sea-Doo.
Innovation Wall Display
Elevating engineering feats to an art form with the Innovation wall display which exhibits Ski-Doos seven best innovative accessories.
For the Innovation wall display, Michele explains that the “ultimate goal was to showcase Ski-Doo best innovative accessories.” In order to bring their show design concept (see rendering below) to life, the design team had a 24’ long wall built and covered with with slightly faded imagery of moments exemplifying the lifestyle associated with the tagline “That Ski-Doo Feeling”. Seven display niches were sculpted out of the wall – each niche with varying degrees of depth to best highlight the item contained within. The geometrically defined niches – either a square or rectangle – contained light fixtures to fully illuminate the innovative Ski-Doo accessories. This show design evokes a feeling of an art gallery wall dedicated to important engineering accomplishments that contribute to the Ski-Doo product and enhance the Ski-Doo lifestyle of the ski rider.
Club BRP -Ski-Doo Accessories Innovation design rendering.
Clothing Lifestyle Exhibit | Mountain Section
Ski-Doo has several lifestyle segmentations for which it produces specific clothing and riding gear. Shown here is the mountain segment.
Expanded view of trade show floor space with focus on Ski-Doo’s Mountain clothing and riding gear.
For the clothing and riding gear sections, the objective was to create an unforgettable and impactful 3-dimensional visual look book. The design team called this a “look-alike” window. Its purpose was to bring attention to Ski-Doo’s most important soft goods segmentation line up. The driving factors shaping the aesthetic show design was the need to deliver a clean and minimalistic approach while ensuring that the star of the vignette – the clothes and riding gear wowed the trade show attendees. The team executed their design vision (see design rendering below and see above for delivered design) using a white, glossy material for the display. At the top of the display, faded imagery of Ski-Doo lifestyle shots and below that image section the tagline, “That Ski-Doo Feeling.” An acrylic window sporting signage identifying the specific Ski-Doo segment offered a feeling of a window display in a retail environment inviting shoppers to come take a closer look at the mannequins outfitted in Ski-Doo riding attire and accessories.
Mountain lifestyle section design rendering for the Club Ski-Doo trade show.
Ski-Doo XPS Oil & Maintenance Products
Merchandising Ski-Doo XPS products in a dramatic, contemporary fashion that aligns the product with the Ski-Doo brand and lifestyle.
Positioning the Ski-Doo XPS oil and maintenance products to express the premium characteristics and quality of the product range was the show design team’s goal for the display concept (see rendering below). According to Michele, the team’s creative director, the merchandising team took inspiration from the product packaging graphics, logo and color scheme (which is silver and black). Within the matte black display wall, lighted recess shelving showcased groupings of the XPS oil and maintenance products as shown in the photo above.
Display panel for Ski-Doo XPS products.
The Design:Vehicle Floor Set
Color Harmony: Visual Merchandising and floor set with Ski-Doo snowmobiles to visually tie the riding gear and clothing with the Ski-Doo vehicle.
Powerful Possibilities: Display to highlight various accessories that complement the Ski-Doo snowmobile. This configuration allows dealers to visualize what is possible and to offer inspiration for design within their retail space.
Hero Stand: Highlighting importance of Ski-Doo unit in trade show space.
Ski-Doo vehicles displayed with walk around space and key information readily available for dealers to access.
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Nov 30 2017 
Visual Merchandising for Sales Success: Route 1 Motorsports
Visual Merchandising and Store Styling
With plans to build a new mega-showroom underway, Route 1 Motorsports knew they wanted LOOK Marketing’s Director of Visual Merchandising, Michele Chenard and her team to design the showroom and store displays for BRP powersports’ brands Can-Am Off Road and Can-Am Spyder as well as Sea-Doo watercraft.
Grand Opening Showroom Tour
When Route 1 Motorsports officially opened the doors for business at to their new powersports dealership in Florida’s Brevard county – home to the iconic, history-making Space Coast, we were honored to have been there to celebrate this momentous event with them. Over the course of the evening, we captured a few photos of the showroom vignettes and product displays designed and styled by LOOK Marketing’s award-winning Visual Merchandising team.
Organized and inviting display shelf filled with accessories and gear with vehicle vignette in foreground – offer consumers an enticing shopping environment that translates to an elevated consumer experience.
Styled to sell. The science of merchandising design for powersports retailers.
Artfully conveying the Can-Am Spyder lifestyle in this vignette with mannequins dressed in Can-Am riding gear set against backdrop of vehicles and one on display. All components from color, spacing, pattern and texture work harmoniously together to create a display that is an attention-getter and money maker.
Smart store design optimizes every inch of available display space which in turn increases the amount for revenue making space. LOOK’s visual merchandising team combined the science of retail design with their artful eye for creating beautiful environments, and designed this revenue generating series of display and merchandise vignettes that are guaranteed sales makers.
Harnessing the science of color theory and placement to create an attractive retail display wall.
Eye-pleasing merchandise wall display presented in a visually rhythmic fashion makes it easy for shoppers to quickly find exactly what they need.
It’s been a privilege to work with our friends at Route 1 Motorsports and contribute to their business success. We’ve enjoyed seeing their journey marking major milestones including the press event at the ground breaking, sharing the construction progress via social video and finally seeing it all come together at the grand opening festivities.
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Nov 22 2017 
On Location: Taking Social Media on the Road
Leveraging Events: Social Media Content Strategy
The Event
It’s one of the most prestigious professional bass fishing tournaments in the world, the Fishing League Worldwide’s Forrest Wood Cup. Our client Evinrude had a few of their pro-anglers vying for top spots in this world championship fishing tournament that took place in August 2017. Evinrude also planned on offering test rides during this heavily attended multi-day event in Lake Murray, South Carolina.
The Social Strategy
Capturing and publishing visual content from Evinrude attended fishing tournaments was one of several tactics based on our social media strategy to deliver informative and entertaining magazine-like experiences across Evinrude’s various social channels.
Social Media Event Coverage
So we packed our cameras, smart phones and laptops, and made our way to Lake Murray to bring the tournament experience to Evinrude’s 145,000 social fans on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Hundreds of photos were taken – including some cool 360-degree shots, along with several hours of video footage recorded. Many of the tournament photos were published to albums and collections on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The event-based visual content was well received by fans.
Some of the fan favorites (and ours, too!) from the event are shown below. It’s easy to see why the fans enjoyed these images – they express authentic, memorable moments and exude a friendly warmth that leaves you with a smile. Kind of like the pictures you’d take yourself and share with your friends.
Cody Meyer looking excited to kick things off on day one of the FLW Forrest Cup bass fishing tournament
We’re loving Cody’s truck and Evinrude powered Ranger boat.
Evinrude angler Carl Wendlandt is all smiles and ready to go on day one of the FLW Forrest Cup world bass fishing championship.
Carl Wendlandt hanging out with other anglers during the Forrest Wood Cup fishing tournament.
Evinrude angler Wesley Strader getting ready for fishing tournament and talking with fans.
Wesley Strader at day two weigh-in at FLW Forrest Cup championship.
A new ‘up and coming’ Team Evinrude angler after his test ride on Lake Murray.
Happy smiles all around after taking the Evinrude-powered boat out for a spin!
Fans young and old came by to meet Evinrude Pro Staff angler Davy Hite during the Forrest Wood Cup Expo 2017.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out to enjoy the #EvinrudeLife at the Forrest Wood Cup Expo 2017. And check out that custom designed Evinrude engine. Cool, right?
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Nov 14 2017 
Behind The Scenes: Motorcycle Photography for Arnott
Making the marketing magic happen!
A glimpse behind the camera with a few out-takes from photo shoots we produced for Florida-based client Arnott Motorcycle Air Suspension.
LOOK Marketing’s founder Tim McKercher (learn more about Tim here) is an avid motorcyclist – he owns a Ducati Monster G20 and a few other motorcycles. He brings his enthusiasm and knowledge of motorcycling to the agency’s commercial motorcycle photography and videography projects. Like some of the photos and videos we’ve shot for Arnott’s print marketing materials and and digital platforms. Some of those can be seen in our portfolio and on Arnott Motorcycle Air Suspension’s:
- Website
- Social Media Channels
- Promotional Materials
- Product Catalog
- Brochures and Posters
Model on Harley Davidson motorcycle at Arnott Motorcycle Air Suspension facilities near Barge Canal in Merritt Island, Florida.
Parking the motorcycles and taking a lunch break at a local diner.
Capturing the details visually tells the whole story.
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Oct 29 2017 
Social Video: Construction of New Route 1 Motorsports
Video Production: Route 1 Motorsports’ Dealership
In this four-part series of social videos, we crafted an engaging story that visually narrated the exciting moments experienced as client Route 1 Motorsports saw their dream – of expanding their business with the construction of a new powersports showroom and dealership – become reality.
The primary focus of the overarching video story centered on events that unfolded during two key points in the realization of their dream. The first, was the press event we produced to bring media attention to Route 1 Motorsports as they broke ground on the site of their new mega-dealership location. The second – which resulted in the final three videos of the series, documented the exhilarating moments from beginning to end as their vision for the new Southern Brevard County dealership took shape.
Social Video Engagement Makes Impact
Below are the videos that LOOK Marketing produced and were subsequently published to Route 1 Motorsports Facebook page and shared with over two thousand of their fans on that social channel. Combined all four videos, generated over 25,000 views and substantial buzz in the local community.
Ground Breaking Press Event
The first video in the series captured the thrilling, emotion-filled ground breaking press event day as the owners, Willy Carmine and Kellie Wright, broke ground at the site of their new facility near Malabar, Florida.Leveraging Video Production Technology
In addition to our standard video production equipment, we also utilized our video drones to record sweeping aerial views of the massive lot and obtain footage of the lively show that kicked off the official groundbreaking ceremony.Facebook Video Results
On social, this video garnered 14,536 views.Facility Construction Progress Reports
The last three videos in the series, followed the building process from start to finish marking significant construction project milestones along the way. The visual progression was shared with Facebook fans to keep them:- Informed of the facility build.
- Engaged with the brand during the nearly year-long construction.
Leveraging Video Production Technology
For these construction progress report videos, we once again used a combination of traditional video production and drone videography to capture the full visual story.Facebook Video Results
Combined these three videos had nearly 11,000 views. -
Aug 16 2017 
Houston Texas Sea-Doo Demo Ride Marketing Event
This summer LOOK Marketing’s event team produced four experiential marketing events in Texas for client Sea-Doo which resulted in highly successful demo rides and a very happy client. We’ve shared a few of our behind the scenes photos from one of the events held in Houston, Texas.
Jeremy, lead event specialist at LOOK Marketing, is prepping a customer for a demo ride on Sea-Doo‘s luxury watercraft, the GTX 300 at Team Mancuso Powersports.
Tim McKercher is seen here lending a helping hand in the very busy registration tent. McKercher, LOOK Marketing’s founder and events’ expert, spearheaded this event marketing and production project for Sea-Doo’s Texas demo rides.
Marc-Olivier, the Global Digital Marketing Coordinator for Sea-Doo, offering some pre-ride tips to this father and son duo onboard a 2017 WAKE 155 watercraft.
This group of riders had a blast trying out some of Sea-Doo’s most popular watercraft during the demo ride. They had a fun and memorable time on the water, and experienced what it would feel like to own a personal watercraft – and more importantly, a Sea-Doo watercraft! When ready to buy, these shoppers will certainly recall the awesome day on the water they spent riding Sea-Doo watercraft.
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Jun 18 2017 
LOOK Scores Coverage on Fox and Friends for Sea-Doo!
Kicking off the summer season with some awesome public relations coverage for our client Sea-Doo on America’s number one rated morning cable show with an audience of nearly 2 million – Fox and Friends! And to make this an even sweeter media relations win, Fox and Friends provided over one minute of on-camera coverage discussing Sea-Doo‘s popular 2017 SPARK TRIXX.
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Feb 15 2017 
PR Scoop! ABC News Reports on Client Sea-Doo’s 2017 Lineup
We’re thrilled to have secured a huge public relations win for our client BRP Sea-Doo at the New York Boat Show! ABC News‘ Charli James interviewed LOOK Marketing’s founder and Sea-Doo watercraft expert Tim McKercher about the 2017 SPARK TRIXX. With this publicity driven coverage, Sea-Doo’s 2017 product lineup was shared with an online audience of nearly 20 million people. (Interview starts at 20:02.)
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