Trelleborg Marine positions itself as industry expert, fends off lowballing competitors

Trelleborg Marine Systems in Australia, which makes huge protective rubber-and-steel fenders for mammoth supertankers, and its PR agency, Stein IAS of New York City, have won the Best Trade Media Relations category of PR Daily’s 2014 Media Relations Awards.

The crux of the story is the superb 18-minute video on rubber-fender manufacturing that was suggested, scripted, and produced by Stein IAS, titled “The Rubber Quality Webinar.”

This webinar video took guts, talent, and intellect to make. And it required unusual corporate courage by Trelleborg to approve it as a B2B marketing instrument.

Lower-cost competitors were making inroads into the rubber-fender market. Trelleborg’s response had to take into account the fact that there are no industry standards for fenders, and, in fact, there’s not even a test or a tool that can measure fender quality.

Stein IAS suggested three emails: one publicizing the industry’s vulnerability to cheaper fenders, one publicizing the webinar, and one providing a pioneering spec guide to fender quality.

The resulting webinar video propels the viewer expertly into rubber manufacturing, fender-making, and chemistry 101 within two minutes. This video is remarkable and deserves study in every detail by corporate communicators:
• The video script completely avoids engineering jargon and esoteric technical terms. The narration is in plain English; every word is familiar to laymen.
• And yet, this webinar is addressed mainly to other engineers and technicians. It’s remarkable for that fact alone. Trelleborg and Stein IAS recognized that techs prefer to be addressed as human beings. They want simple English like the rest of         us.
• The onscreen text, illustrations, and bullet points are masterly. The accented English of the Trelleborg engineer-narrator adds authenticity to the video.
• The script is elegantly written. It builds up tension and drama like Perry Mason defending a client. The relentless logic, the careful building up of evidence, every fact and equation placed for maximum effect, make the case against low-cost               fenders irrefutable.

The webinar had a tremendous effect on Trelleborg’s B2B PR and marketing:
• Trelleborg reps expected 200 webinar views. They got 600.
• They expected a 3 percent to 5 percent click-through rate for their emails. They got 23 percent.
• They expected a 10 percent conversion on their click-through rates. They got 66 percent.
• They expected 10 percent of their database to rate as “B-lead.” They got 55 percent.

Congratulations to Trelleborg Marine Systems and the staff at Stein IAS –  Heather Swales, senior digital planner; Hannah Leyland, account manager of PR, social media, and content; and Paul Myerscough, director of PR, social media, and content.