Soul - Greenroom Agency

ABOUT SOUL ELECTRONICS

SOUL Electronics is a global leader in innovative technology including high quality audio, noise cancelling, and wireless consumer electronics products. Founded by a team of renowned sound engineers and industry experts, including Grammy award-winning artist Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, SOUL is accustomed to pushing the envelope in making audio products for every lifestyle at affordable prices, pairing feature-driven designs with state-of-the-art acoustics to deliver power, clarity and comfort.

MISSION

While SOUL Electronics has been an established player in the lifestyle consumer audio market for several years, the brand sought to differentiate itself from Ludacris in 2017, feeling that consumer sentiment and awareness of SOUL was too entangled in his celebrity status and name recognition, without proper merit being given to its products. This led to SOUL tasking GreenRoom with finding a new route to success for the brand based on the caIiber of its product range and reshaping the brands’ reputation across a variety of vertical markets.

GreenRoom’s mission upon commencing our partnership with SOUL was to take a 360-degree assessment of the brand’s current and upcoming product releases and develop expertly-tailored and curated media strategies for each, allowing the products to penetrate the vertical where they were the most appropriate fit for the publications’ audience and setting SOUL up for future success, positive industry reception and sales traffic generation.

APPROACH

While the consumer audio space might seem niche, the truth of the matter is that it is an extremely heavily-saturated market with a vast amount of specialization – meaning it’s tough to stand out. With a well-documented history of success in driving superb media results in the consumer audio space, GreenRoom sought to answer the challenging question: what can we do to create SOUL’s path to differentiation?

The agency’s approach was three-fold:

1. Support SOUL’s already-existing product line through its natural lifespan, building an introductory layer of awareness with media and priming the brand for future success.

2. Build on that momentum by developing an extended roadmap for the launch SOUL’s upcoming product launches in 2018, kicking off at CES 2018 with the introduction of two new SKUs, RUN FREE PRO BIO and BLADE (the world’s first AI voice-coaching earphones for runners) and followed up by the launch of innovative new products including the X-SHOCK, X-TRA Wireless and EMOTION.

3. Utilize this roadmap to launch a vigorous full-year media outreach strategy centered around reaching the most logical target media for each product, positioning them through strategic messaging relevant to the vertical markets’ readership and content focus.

EXECUTION

GreenRoom hit the ground running for SOUL in 2018, commencing with a media blitz leading up to CES 2018 around the announcement of RUN FREE PRO BIO and BLADE. The agency then continued to support the brand’s portfolio over the course of the year with robust media strategies that would generate concurrent coverage for each SKU, centered around the unique user benefits to each product.

X-TRA Wireless and X-SHOCK were ideal crossover products for consumers who live active, healthy lifestyles and were seeking a high-quality audio product that would be equally welcome on a jog and their morning commute.

For RUN FREE PRO BIO, a new flagship product for the brand, GreenRoom sought to put the product in the hands of the most influential media contacts in the in the fitness, health and running-specific verticals, encouraging them to take the earphones for a run and report back with their metrics and what they learned from SOUL’s AI voice coach – a “personal trainer for your ears.”

In contrast to the approach for RUN FREE PRO BIO, GreenRoom went to task for the EMOTION by targeting a carefully-selected assortment of consumer technology and audio writers who would be most likely to appreciate the product’s economically-friendly price tag and on-the-go nature.

Through diligent outreach efforts and well-devised messaging, the agency was able to quickly secure marquee media features, product reviews and gift guide coverage for all products in the men’s interest, women’s interest, consumer technology, audio, health & wellness, sports & fitness and news verticals, leading up to a Q4 holiday shopping season with the brand’s strongest portfolio of media coverage to-date.

RESULTS

The tactful, strategic launches by GreenRoom were instrumental in securing resounding PR success for SOUL, with coverage in notable outlets including ESPN, Mashable, The Verge, Runner’s World, Digital Trends, Women’s Health, Golf Digest, MSN, Tech Radar, ESSENCE, Men’s Health, SELF, PC Mag, USA Today, Yahoo! and more. This pipeline of success continued over the entire span of 2018, resulting in a rolling wave of top-tier media opportunities and earned placements from the time of program launch through the critical Q4 holiday gifting season.

Notable Successful Metrics Include:

1,386,915,450 online impressions

4,838,620 total print circulation

MOVING FORWARD

The tremendous, market-saturating results for SOUL in 2018 culminated in both short-term and long-term success for the brand, reshaping the brand’s product portfolio and establishing SOUL’s reputation as a leader of innovation in the sports technology market.

With a proven track record of familiarizing key media with SOUL in 2018, GreenRoom paved the way for future brand success with upcoming product releases as the brand seeks to continue developing products at the intersection of fitness and technology through industry-bending integration of tracking and analytic capabilities.

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