PONSSE SCORPION
VIRTUAL LAUNCH EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS
T
he new PONSSE Scorpion was launched in February 2021, when meeting customers and partners face-to-face was difficult due to the coronavirus pandemic. At Ponsse, no time was wasted wondering what to do – plans were made to launch the new Scorpion in a live stream online. The stream would be in Finnish in the morning and in English later in the day for the international audience. The carefully planned and organised virtual event progressed smoothly in the hands of a skilled host, and both Ponsse management and key people from development were given their turn in the spotlight. An impressive studio was built and decorated for the stream. “The virtual launch event garnered a lot of interest and when we came in the next day after announcing it, all our channels were filled with requests for more information,” says Ponsse’s marketing manager Juha-Matti Raatikainen.
The quality, design and performance of the PONSSE Scorpion were demonstrated with videos. The important development partners – forest machine entrepreneurs and operators – were also given an opportunity to speak. “For example, we’ve received feedback from Sweden that it’s important to include the customer’s perspective and the operators’ working environment in our launch events, both of which are, of course, premium quality in the new Scorpion.” MORE ONLINE PRODUCT LAUNCHES
Before the Scorpion launch, Ponsse had launched four products online. According to Raatikainen, the first launch was a basic webinar, but lessons were learned with each iteration, and the productions have become higher in quality, and they are targeted at a larger audience. “Scorpion’s visibility received a significant boost, and this event set the bar high for all our future online launch events. The recording of the
event is also a significant factor in the event’s overall reach. It can be found on Facebook and YouTube in different language versions that keep the launch event current.” Of previous launch events, Raatikainen mentions the Bison launch of 2018 at Finnmetko as particularly successful. Even if a launch at a trade fair is successful, it is usually only witnessed by a local audience, Raatikainen reflects. “With Scorpion’s launch, we instantly achieved global visibility and were able to provide the same information to all markets simultaneously. I believe this will be how we will do it in the future as well.” And so it has been. In May, the H7 HD Euca harvester head was launched online, the Active Care seminar was organised as a webinar, and the new K101 and K111 loaders for forwarders were first introduced virtually. In June, the Shaping the Future event focusing on digital services will be organised as a webinar.
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