Scottish-based audiophile heritage taken from start-up to top tier brand
The Client
In 2017 a group of loudspeaker industry professionals, with over 80 years of experience between them, came together to create a new British Hi-Fi brand, Fyne Audio. The group were on a mission to produce ground-breaking loudspeakers that deliver the heart, soul and passion of music from every genre. With this desire and significant investment from the Scottish government, Fyne Audio was born in Scotland, with its premium ranges manufactured in-house at its Glasgow factory. Having secured substantial government and independent investment, the company began designing loudspeakers from the ground up.
With a blank sheet to start from, they deployed the latest tools, mathematical modelling and prototyping technologies to build loudspeakers that were both aesthetically pleasing and capable of delivering the emotion and excitement of live music – in the home. With plans to launch its first consumer products internationally in 2018, Fyne Audio came to Quick Brown Fox with a big ask: “How do we launch a completely unknown loudspeaker brand into an exceptionally crowded market and grow the brand to become a Tier One UK speaker manufacturer, alongside the likes of KEF, Tannoy and B&W, within two-four years?”
The Strategy
Drawing on over 15 years’ experience promoting audio brands in the UK and internationally, we knew that this accelerated growth curve required a three-pronged approach.
First, we needed to reach out to distribution channels and retailers, engage them with the brand story and excite them with the potential of this disruptive new player in the market. Targeting these verticals through traditional trade-press, B2B media channels, direct mailing packs and events, QBF began building the Fyne story long before the first consumer products had rolled off of the production line. Opinion articles, thought-leadership positioning pieces, interviews with senior Fyne Audio management and stories on the cutting edge technology and design behind the products grabbed attention internationally.
With products flowing from production into distribution and out to retailers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, it was time for phase two of the PR plan.
This required creating brand-awareness among potential consumers and supporting the retail channel through consumer reviews, group-tests and relevant magazine features. We targeted the specialist audio press in the UK, Germany, Asia and latterly the US with demographically bespoke messaging and PR, building media relationships with the brand and paving the way for objective press reviews of Fyne Audio loudspeakers around the world.
Using our partner brand, Quick Brown Fox Logistics, for storage and management of all Fyne Audio review samples, relieved the Fyne team of the pressure of testing, maintaining and moving press samples around the UK and Europe. We crafted a strategic reviews ‘roll-out’ plan, matching products to magazines to ensure the best coverage in titles that hit each product’s prime customer demographic. Timing is everything, so we set-up exclusive first reviews with relevant journals to elicit maximum exposure for the brand across front covers, hero articles and multi-page reviews.
With Fyne Audio’s initial two product ranges already under magazine review, another series at prototyping stage and the company signing significant contracts with distributors around the world, we moved into the third phase; ongoing consumer PR and retailer/distributor support. By building long-term relationships with our clients, ongoing PR and retail support is at the very core of the Quick Brown Fox operation.
This involves a constant two-way dialogue, adapting messaging and PR with the markets and proposition of the brand dynamically. We reach out into new territories and new consumer sectors while continuing to support the core specialist audio press and retailers through which the brand launched. Ongoing product and company press releases created specifically for targeted sectors, product review cycles across specialist, national and lifestyle press, press events and exhibitions, consumer-facing web and brochure copy, trade support materials and brochures, social media management and blog creation…. and much more.
The Results
From humble beginnings in 2017, nearly three years of media outreach, B2B messaging, trade shows, exhibitions, press events and products reviews had already seen Fyne Audio become a significant brand in the global audio industry before the 2020 pandemic hit. With many audio brands withdrawing their marketing and PR outreach as the world locked-down, Fyne Audio worked with Quick Brown Fox to drive the business at a time when many people around the world were stuck at home enjoying music in their domestic environment. The ‘stay at home’ message would create a surge in demand for consumer products across the AV industry that only the boldest brands could meet head-on.
By early 2021, Fyne has easily achieved its goal of becoming one the UK’s respected loudspeaker brands on the global stage. With a comprehensive portfolio of five-star reviews, Best Buy and Awards accolades for its products, the brand now boasts distribution in over 50 countries and more than 1000 retailers demonstrating Fyne Audio loudspeakers worldwide.
With a burgeoning order book and two new series of loudspeakers in the pipeline, Fyne Audio is expanding its UK HQ and high-end manufacturing facility whilst simultaneously bolstering its Far East production operation for budget ranges. Quick Brown Fox PR will be an integral part of the brand’s growth over the next few years, continuing its remit as Fyne Audio’s ‘in-house yet outsourced’ marketing and PR machine.
Fyne Audio and Quick Brown Fox have developed an extensive working relationship that has underpinned the brand’s success on the global stage.
“The [Quick Brown Fox] team always deliver outstanding results through the many years we have worked with them. With an in-depth understanding of the industry and masses of experience, the team do a brilliant job growing our brand identity.”
– Max Maud. Director, Fyne Audio