Situation

Communications Consultants Corp (CCC) was the largest Harris mobile phone dealer in Southern California. It catered to the Universal Studios Hollywood film production community as well as to trucking and medical service communities whose daily communications needs are frequently time critical. For over thirty years, the company had been the primary authority on IMTS, two-way trunking systems and, now, the new cellular technologies. Pac Bell Mobile Access was about to launch the first cellular system in California. Its system was not on line yet, but a press conference to introduce the new service had just been announced.

Problem

The Shift Into Cellular Campaign.  Communications Consultants immediately called another press press conference. Staged at Universal Studios two days prior to Pac Bell’s announced press conference, the conference promised media that many of Hollywood's elite (CCC's customers) would be attending. The strategy was to preempt Pac Bell's thunder.
   The agency immediately struck a deal with Audi America which provided seven Audi Quatros for the press conference in exchange for conference exposure. CC installed hands-free Oki cellphones in each of the Audis. And mail gram invitations were sent out to CC's customer list and other celebrities inviting everyone to CC's Press Conference just three days away.
   What nobody knew was when would Pac Bell's new cellular system be turned on. It was quite possible none of the Audi's phones would actually be working.

Results

Pac Bell's system was turned on the night before CC’s 9:30am press conference. All live local and national media were there. The most impressive coverage was from radio and tv news reporters who were shown filing their reports live from cellular equipped cars for the first time in Southern California news history.
   CC was besieged by requests for interviews and feature articles from LA media. The late Howard Koch, a Hollywood producer (Airport, Airplane, et al) who attended the conference, became a key spokesman for the company. Much of Pac Bell’s thunder, kicked off in its press conference a week later, was effectively transferred to Communications Consultants, which continues to dominate wireless technologies in Southern California today.