Challenge
Maxthon Ltd. is a global software company that develops state-of-the-art web browsers used by more than 100 million people worldwide. As impressive as this is, Beijing-based Maxthon wanted to extend its reach in the American market. Maxthon hired Landis Communications Inc. to initiate its first-ever public relations effort aimed at securing earned media. In China, media coverage is a pay-to-play proposition.
Tactics
The browser market in the U.S. is dominated by “the big five:” Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera. With the goal of getting into media conversations around these big five and browsers in general, we needed first to build Maxthon’s credibility as a viable, and, in fact, excellent alternative to these browsers, three of which have the advantage of coming pre-loaded on devices and computers. To begin building credibility, we undertook a campaign to secure reviews for the Maxthon suite of browsers, starting with the newest browsers for Mac OS and iOS. We focused on the fact that unlike “the big five” browsers, Maxthon is the only one that works across all platforms and therefore gives users the ability to move effortlessly between their devices without any interruption to their browsing experience, something that is important in this era of mobile devices.
Results
LCI secured several key reviews in top technology outlets including CNET, PCMag.com and MacWorld. In a period of three months, Landis secured 48 placements in outlets whose combined total monthly unique visitors was 28,724 with a total print-circulation figure of 305,651. In acknowledgment, Maxthon’s chief engineer wrote: “I just want to thank Landis for all the great work. We have never had this much written about us before. Thank you. Great job.”
Publicity around Maxthon’s iPhone browser resulted in a 4,500% increase in its daily usage, and along with that, the daily usage for the Mac browser went up by 50%. Downloads in the United States for all of the Maxthon browsers during the three-month period increased by 30%, which was the biggest-ever percentage growth in Maxthon usage posted to date for any geographic region.