SHORT LEAD PRODUCT LAUNCH

Turning Tight Timelines into Standout Moments

September 25, 2023

The Event

Nissan had an experienced internal and agency team, a strong product story and clear objectives. What they were up against was timing and visibility. The market was noisy, the launch window was tight, and the event needed to stand out for the right reasons, without adding pressure to an already stretched team.

They needed a partner who could move quickly, think creatively and take full ownership of delivery, allowing everyone else to stay focused on messaging, media and senior stakeholders.

Nissan asked us to help launch their 2022–23 Concept Car in a way that genuinely cut through a crowded news cycle. The launch also needed to mark two important milestones: 20 years of Nissan Design Europe in Paddington and 35 years of Nissan Technical Centre Europe in Buckinghamshire.

The brief was to create a two-day experience across two highly secure, non-event sites, giving over 100 journalists and content creators rare behind-the-scenes access to Nissan’s people, processes and future thinking.

This was never about scale for scale’s sake. It was about designing an experience that felt original, credible and news-worthy, and delivering it at speed, with absolute precision.

Client Testimonials

I still can’t quite believe what we collectively pulled off there. With so many moving parts and constant changes, this simply wouldn’t have happened without Brightspace

Sam Mercer
Account Director, Performance Comms

From what we started with to what we finished with, the support, attitude and delivery were exceptional. You made it all possible

Andy Francis
Owner, Performance Comms

The Challenges

A final event date confirmed just eight weeks before launch, during the European summer shutdown
Global CEO involvement, with diaries and priorities changing throughout planning
Two working facilities not designed or licensed to host large-scale media events
A requirement to reveal a concept car in a way that felt genuinely different, without relying on standard launch formats
A central London location with multiple stakeholders, permissions and public variables
A physical model signed off days before the event and delivered to site just hours before reveal
No rehearsal window and no margin for error

The Solutions

Our role was to create momentum and remove uncertainty.

We acted as a single, trusted delivery partner, keeping decisions moving, anticipating issues early and taking responsibility for the full operational picture.

Clear, direct communication was key. We worked at pace, using calls and focused updates to keep information flowing without overwhelming the wider team. That allowed decisions to be made quickly and confidently as plans evolved.

We joined up every part of the supply chain, stress-testing changes before they became problems and ensuring AV, production, logistics, catering, licensing and security all moved in step.

As the scope grew, we scaled our team and took on more responsibility, freeing Nissan and their PR agency to concentrate on media, messaging and senior stakeholders, knowing delivery was fully under control.

Contingency planning was built into every stage, allowing the event to remain calm, controlled and flexible right through to the final reveal.

Results

The launch achieved strong cut-through in a highly competitive media environment:

National and international news coverage
Top-tier automotive and business media features
Breaking online news at the moment of reveal
High-quality long-form articles and significant social amplification

While NDAs prevent us from sharing full data, the event exceeded the client’s original objectives for quality of coverage, reach and overall impact, proving that with the right delivery partner, even tight-timeline launches can achieve meaningful visibility.