How do you best launch a new investment product with a PR campaign targeting as many relevant media outlets as possible? That was the question online broker Saxo Belgium asked Befirm, the financial communications department of Bepublic Group, in early 2025.
The successful launch of AutoInvest, automatic investing in ETFs for just €2 per month, was Saxo Belgium’s top commercial priority for the second quarter of 2025. This launch could thus not be allowed to go unnoticed in the Belgian media.
No press conference, but interviews under embargo
It would have been the obvious choice to organise a press conference in Brussels. But you can never be sure which journalists will actually turn up. What’s more, it’s mainly journalists from the dailies who attend press conferences. Yet we were convinced that specialist weekly and monthly magazines, such as Trends magazine, would also be interested in this story.
That is why Befirm came up with a Big Bang operation:
- We organised individual, embargoed digital interviews with the CEO of Saxo Belgium and some top Belgian media outlets. Individual interviews allow journalists to ask specific questions and get unique content, on top of the info from the press release.
- The interview times and the embargo date were chosen so that the long-lead media could publish the news online and in print at the same time as the dailies.
- The press release was distributed to the mainstream Belgian media, with the same embargo date as the individual interviews.
- The day after the embargo date, AutoInvest officially went live on the Saxo Belgium website.
- We coordinated the timing of the PR campaign and the advertising campaign: first the media launch so that journalists had the “scoop”, then the start of the marketing campaign.
Extensive coverage in both trade and general media
This formula proved to be a success. In the week of 12 May, we organised no fewer than six interviews with the pre-selected Tier 1 media, including De Tijd, Trends, De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws. The news was published in these media outlets on 15 May. In the following days, other media outlets and journalists also reported on the launch of AutoInvest. Mission accomplished for Saxo.
Are you also looking for the best strategy to get your financial brand noticed in the media? Then contact the experts at Befirm via info@befirm.be.