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Kaidel Coverage

It is always a treat when we get the opportunity to work with a client whose product meshes with our own personal passions.

This spring and summer we had the opportunity to work with Kaidel Sportswear, a Seattle-based sportswear company that designs Pacific Northwest-specific running and biking gear. I am very passionate about running and overall fitness, and growing up in the Pacific Northwest it is great to see the designs that Kaidel has come up with, often including designs from Seattle artists.

Photo courtesy of Kaidel

During a three-month engagement, Communiqué was tasked with helping Kaidel secure product reviews and event sponsorships to maximize exposure in the most efficient way possible. Given the active audience, events and product reviews seemed like ideal venues. This was a challenge for our team, and not our typical bread and butter. But fueled with our team’s passion for fitness and the outdoors, we were able to channel our creativity and exceed our goals essentially by leveraging existing relationships with media and local event producers, as well as reaching out to new contacts.

For the product reviews, we started with research to ensure we were targeting publications that 1) ran apparel-related product reviews and 2) were relevant to Kaidel’s audience. We identified a target list of mainly local publications and websites, and tailored our pitches to each one. Product reviews often require a lot of handholding and, despite initial interest from a particular journalist, we had to follow up frequently to ensure the review would see the light of day.

We also took creative approaches to landing product reviews, including partnering with Northwest Runner on a contest to give away a Kaidel Sportswear running jersey, which drove traffic to the Kaidel website. The contest winner also wrote a review of the jersey for the Northwest Runner website, further helping raise awareness.

We also secured a great review in Rave and Review, a popular family-oriented blog, and worked with the outlet to run a giveaway of a family pack of cycling jerseys. This helped shine the spotlight on Kaidel not only to the blog’s readers, but also to Rave and Review’s nearly 7,000 Twitter followers.

Finally, we took advantage of an opportunity with The Seattle Times’ Marketplace section, a Sunday insert that features new products. We were able to connect with the Kids’ Shop section, which ran a great piece highlighting Kaidel’s kids cycling jerseys.

For events, we reached out to Orswell Events, a local running and triathlon race producer, to explore in-kind sponsorship opportunities and secured a sponsorship at Orswell Events’ Shore Run and Walk, an annual race which draws more than 3,000 participants and volunteers. Kaidel provided shirts for the event’s post-race raffle and, in exchange, Orswell Events included Kaidel in its pre-race participant email, posted the Kaidel Sportswear logo on the event website, promoted Kaidel’s involvement via social media and provided on-site promotions for the company. Involvement in the Shore Run and Walk gave Kaidel exposure to a very targeted and key audience.

Our three-month engagement flew by, but overall we were pleased with the outcome. We secured excellent results (included below) and helped set the groundwork for additional reviews that may come to fruition toward the end of the year.

If you are a runner or biker, we encourage you to check out the Kaidel Sportswear jerseys. And yes, I am practicing what I preach—I bought the Seattle neighborhood running top for myself and my boyfriend and we love them!

Kaidel Sportswear Results