PR for an agritech start-up

3Bee is an agritech start-up founded in 2017 by Niccolò Calandri and Riccardo Balzaretti. The company produces monitoring systems for beehives with the non-profit aim of protecting bee biodiversity and reducing bee mortality. By applying innovative technologies such as its in-house developed HiveTech, the health of the bees can be monitored and data measured. The beehive, equipped with IoT sensors, allows beekeepers to reduce treatments and visits to the hive and thus cut CO2 emissions.

3Bee is an Italian company that aims to protect bees and biodiversity by means of artificial intelligence. The challenge was to bring the meaning and technology behind the products closer to end users. Agritech is a fairly young discipline within agricultural science, which had to be explained in the German market. Communication for the company had to work in three directions: end consumers were addressed through, for example, bee sponsorships, beekeepers had to be made aware of 3Bee’s technology, and companies informed about CSR projects.

For the market launch in Germany, a communications concept including topic planning was drawn up after an in-depth strategy workshop. We worked with a communications mix of print and online media, which we reached through press releases, interviews, editorial tours and press briefings. For each target group, different topics were prepared in an interesting way, timed to coincide with strategic awareness days and presented eye-catchingly in preferred media. Weekly strategy meetings ensured success and kept the client up to date on developments.

With our communications strategy, we achieved coverage in the most important start-up and business media as well as trade and agricultural press within a very short time. More than 1.6 million people read about the new agritech start-up from Italy at least once.