Case Study
B2B / CORPORATE / LOGISTICS PR

Shooting Liefergrün into the media cosmos

Client

Liefergrün
www.liefergruen.de

Project date

February 2022 - May 2023

Services

B2B / CORPORATE / LOGISTICS PR

The results

15

MONTHS

105

ARTICLES SECURED

+271 million

REACH

The brief

Green, greener, Liefergrün—that was the promise of this last-mile start-up, founded in Münster, Germany, when founder Niklas Tauch came across Laika in February 2022. When Niklas unexpectedly knocked on our spaceship door, Liefergrün was about to close its first major financing round, had already amassed a young team, and was already whizzing along Germany's roads and bike paths. Despite the youthful age of the start-up and founder, Liefergrün was anything but "green behind the ears" and approached Laika with clear goals:

The company wanted and still intends to grow rapidly. They therefore needed a strategic, nimble, and agile communications partner who could accelerate from 0 to 100 and also prep the start-up for international expansion. In addition to attracting the attention of investors and potential employees, Liefergrün wanted to inspire confidence in their green last-mile delivery concept within relevant markets—among potential retail customers, as well as end consumers. Particularly among the latter, the desire for more sustainable and fairer delivery was already present at the time—but a lack of alternative delivery methods in the market meant that a guilty conscience was always part of (online) shopping. With Laika’s support, Liefergrün wanted to change that for good.

The campaign

Our plan was based on a few fundamental pillars: First, it was important for Laika, to let the media and people look behind the curtains to see what modern, environmentally friendly and fair logistics look like. To do this, we initially had to educate people about the problems that traditional last-mile logistics creates: air pollution and CO2 emissions, traffic jams, noise pollution, and the lack of space in cities. Wherever possible, we also backed this up with data. Media such as Terra X had the opportunity to stop by Liefergrün and check out the new logistics player on the market.

At the same time, we accompanied Liefergrün's rapid growth with a variety of news topics that we successfully placed with the media through targeted exclusive and news embargo strategies—which were then sent out widely. From investment news in Handelsblatt, to an Austria expansion successfully placed in local media, to announcing the Schenker investment and partnership in the logistics trade press—with an extremely high number of relevant news and updates, we successfully transported the rapid evolution of the start-up to be seen as a relevant challenger of established parcel service providers such as DHL, and Hermes & Co. Wherever possible, and relevant to international media, we collaborated with our partner Oldstreet Communications to draw the attention of English-speaking media to this rising star in the logistics market—including placement in UK's Business Insider.

Another pillar of our successful concept is thought leadership. Through interviews, podcasts and placing guest articles, we communicated how to achieve a truly green last mile to decision-makers and consumers, we positioned Niklas as a pioneer and challenger in the industry, and brought the Liefergrün brand into the minds of people and the media. After a news-rich period, it’s this second pillar in particular that we want to expand even more in the future—especially now that Niklas has been nominated for Forbes 30 Under 30. We can certainly reach for the stars here, and we will continue to hear a lot about Liefergrün in the future. After all, the future is green!

The results

With all of this combined, we were able to go full throttle for Liefergrün right away and achieve quick success in the form of over 100 clippings in less than a year. Highlights include BILD, Handelsblatt, Business Insider and many more. At the same time, we are looking ahead and thinking about communication and coverage that has a lasting impact—in addition to continuing reporting in trade and business media, it’s important for us to shift into the next gear and achieve targeted highlight reporting in leading media. At the same time, of course, we are also aware that growth can always bring with it some growing pains. That's why we prepare Liefergrün holistically—be it through crisis communication training or more intensive media training.