FIRST Robotics Competition

FIRST partnered with Cone to help garner support for the growth of science and technology by promoting its signature Robotics Competition, an annual event that challenges high school students, working with professional engineering and business mentors, to design and build a robot and compete in high-intensity events. Cone’s media strategy highlighted FIRST as helping to solve Americans’ science and technology crisis and inspiring youth to be more productive.

Going beyond science and technology media outlets, Cone reached out to national consumer, sports and education reporters and managed all national media coverage. The campaign garnered media attention through cost-effective teaser mailers and also included a satellite media tour for TV and radio featuring Dean Kamen, FIRST's founder and inventor of the Segway, as the spokesperson.

Placements were extensive across all media and included:

• ESPN: The Magazine, USA Weekend, The New York Times, Reuters wire photo and CNN
• On CNN alone, there were nine segments on Headline news and three hits on CNN Saturday of three-to-four minutes each.