BRIEF
In the summer of 2025, automotive PR agency Influence Associates asked us to set up TV coverage for Zeekr, and specifically interviews for their European CEO, Lothar Schupet. The premium Chinese EV brand were already operating in some European countries, but were keen for increased brand recognition ahead of further expansion.
STRATEGY
With no car launch or investment announcement imminent, instead we partnered with our Opinion Matters research team to survey drivers in nine European countries to create the news story. We ran the story on the day that car sales for the first six months of 2025 were revealed.
This research into changing attitudes towards Chinese car brands provided multiple talking points, while Lothar’s willingness to take any question including on two difficult topics in the news agenda – US tariffs and the EU/China trade discussions – appealed to TV producers.
The afternoon before the interviews, we comprehensively media trained Lothar in our state-of-the-art TV studio.
RESULTS
Our Newsroom team set up seven TV interviews with the BBC News’ Business Today, CNBC Europe’s Squawk Box, Yahoo Finance, France 24 International business, Euronews and China’s CGTN and Phoenix TV.
These took place in our TV studio – either down the line or face to face with crews – or in broadcasters’ studios.
With repeats, not least with the BBC repeating their live several times, these interviews aired 16 times on nine TV channels with an audience reach of 1.7 billion people.
