CEO Thought Leadership: Scott Wine

 

 

 

 

BACKGROUND:

Skyya has been the Agency of Record (AOR) for Polaris (NYSE: PII) for 7 years working directly with CEO and Chairman Scott Wine on his strategic communications – business and financial press, M&A, Crisis Communications, Corporate Milestones, press junkets, etc. We were also called to launch and represent Indian Motorcycle and Polaris Slingshot, and lead the Victory Motorcycles ‘wind down’ project, plus support other Polaris-owned brands where needed.

 

BREAKING NEWS/SITUATION:

On May 7, 2019 Scott wanted to publicly respond to President Trump’s newest tariffs threat, a near-term mandate to 25% and the realities potentially forcing him to move Polaris’ U.S. manufacturing to Mexico. This was not in line with Polaris’ U.S. strategy given the company's $142M investment in a new state-of-the-art facility in Huntsville, Alabama and its 9,000 employees across the U.S. including 5,800 manufacturing jobs across 9 states.

 

RAPID RESPONSE:

• We had two challenges going into this campaign – time and time. The news day was coming to a close and Scott only had a short window of availability to speak with press on-the-record. Plus it was a competitive news day.
• To maximize our message of getting “out” we selected top-trade, auto and financial reporters at CNBC, Bloomberg and The Washington Post.
• CNBC’s Anchor Morgan Brennan broke the story with a fast-follow up publication from Bloomberg’s Chester Dawson and Craig Trudell and The Washington Post’s Global economics correspondent David Lynch.

 

KEY RESULTS:

• The campaign was executed flawlessly – and Scott’s remarks went viral. Coverage was syndicated locally in MN on KARE 11, Star Tribune, and its other business journals and blogs where the company is headquartered and picked-up nationally.
• Polaris CEO calls potential tariff increase 'downright catastrophic' for business (CNBC).
• Polaris CEO: 25% tariff downright catastrophic (CNBC).
• ‘We Just Can’t Stand for It,’ Polaris CEO Says of Trump Tariffs (Bloomberg).
• Trump doubles tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, escalating U.S.-China trade war (Washington Post).

 

For more information please visit www.polaris.com.