Case Study: PR in the Jungle

Client: Magnavox Electronic Systems Company

Market Sector: Mobile satellite communications

Date: 1994

Challenge: Achieve broad-based exposure for new-technology portable satellite communications system

Strategy: Rhodes Communications arranged for a marketing partnership with a well-known brand name - Land Rover of North America - to sponsor a major PR event. Land Rover has a long tradition of staging PR events in exotic locations to showcase the rugged capabilities of their off-road vehicles. For the introduction of the Discovery SUV to the U.S. market in 1994, Land Rover organized La Ruta Maya - A Voyage of Discovery, which involved taking 15 U.S. and Canadian journalists to Belize and Guatemala to test-drive the new vehicles in some of the toughest imaginable off-road conditions. Since much of their time would be spent in the jungle far from telephone lines, Magnavox volunteered to co-sponsor the trip, providing one of the first prototype satellite units. During the week-long expedition, the Magnavox satphone provided the only vital communications link with the outside world for the Land Rover staff and the journalists. The Rhodes Communications' PR representative on the expedition had unprecedented access to this "captive audience" of journalists for nearly a week. Each of the journalists had numerous opportunities to try out the satellite telephone in the field. In one case, the satphone played an important role in obtaining medical assistance for an injured Belize citizen in a jungle village.

Results: The Magnavox product received positive reviews in major large-circulation magazines, including Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. The Magnavox product was featured in a video produced by Land Rover for its dealers and customers, as well as a television special on the expedition, which aired nationally on ESPN-2. Press releases and articles were also placed in major telecommunications industry and international development publications. As a direct result of La Ruta Maya, the product was recognized by Popular Mechanics as one of the most innovative products of 1994 at a major award banquet in New York.