Sonos Roam launch

When the world-renowned speaker company Sonos was expanding their speaker portfolio with a new portable speaker, we were given the task to launch the product in Norway. The launch exceeded all expectations with the help from a strategic and carefully planned PR approach. 

For a long time Sonos has been recognized and acknowledged for their Wi-Fi based multi-room speaker systems. In 2019 Sonos released Move – their first speaker with Bluetooth connectivity, as well as their first portable speaker.  

In the spring of 2021, Sonos wanted to take it a step further by making their speakers more accessible by presenting Sonos Roam. This is a speaker the size of a soda can, weighing just under one kilogram, making it easier to carry around compared to its bigger brother, Sonos Move.    

Our main goal was to attract attention to Sonos’ new family member through as much press coverage as possible. Furthermore, a key focus was to collaborate with influencers to raise awareness of Roam in social media. The goal was to reach a cultural-drawn audience, in addition to new households. We also approached lifestyle media, instead of only going for tech and consumer media as you typically would with this type of product. 

We started out by researching which media outlets that could be interested in Sonos. Considering that Sonos is a tech company, it was natural to aim towards tech media, along with consumer media news outlets and websites. Additionally, we aimed to reach lifestyle media in a fitting manner, to drive interest in the new Roam-speaker, and Sonos is not only a tech company, but a lifestyle one as well. Several lifestyle media outlets were interested in writing about Roam. Their focus was to write about Roam in a context of summer, describing Roam as a light portable speaker perfect for trips to the beach, the park or the Norwegian mountains and fjords.   

In addition, to this we wanted to collaborate with Norwegian influencers. Through this process it became important to select the most fitting profiles to be associated with the Sonos universe. Variation was also something we aimed for, resulting in cooperation with fitness, beauty and fashion profiles, as well as outdoor influencers. Sonos Roam is a versatile speaker that is easy to transport. Therefore, our goal was to select profiles that had shown interest in quality audio outside the home and on the move. We sent out personalized VIP seeding kits along with a Sonos Roam to selected profiles.  

The release resulted in massive engagement in the media, with a total of 67 articles in tech media, consumer media, lifestyle media and local press. The total reach was over 22 million, which compared to the country’s population of 5,3 million, is quite the achievement. This illustrates how we succeeded in driving interest through appropriate media outlets, together with an efficient strategy for following up journalists.  

The use of influencers resulted in several high-quality posts on Instagram. The profiles who received the Sonos Roam, created creative and diverse content promoting the speaker in social media. Several of the influencers received feedback from their followers with questions about the product, as well as people who wanted to buy their own Sonos Roam.