Avealto

In 2023, Avealto was forced to take legal action after Airbus changed the name of their competing high-altitude platform, 'Zephyr', to 'Aalto' while simultaneously changing the main commercial focus for their platform from one pitched to a military/defence market to a civilian one. In doing so, they brought themselves into direct commercial competition with Avealto.

Bridgehead was retained on a project basis by Avealto to draw public attention to its trademark dispute with Airbus and pressure them to step back from their trademark infringement. We were retained based on a referral by a previous client.

Following our discovery meeting with the senior leadership team at Avealto, we drafted a press release highlighting the trademark infringement by Airbus while signalling Avealto's attempt to challenge the trademark infringement. To strengthen the news angle, we pitched the news story as a post-Brexit attempt at intimidation by a European behemoth against an innovative British tech start-up. We were also careful to highlight the potential job and economic contribution of Avealto to the British economy once the company was fully established.

To attempt to apply political pressure while further strengthening the story, we also recommended that Avealto write to the business secretary and ask her to take action.

Lastly, we researched business writers in the national media who write about Airbus most frequently.

We pitched the press release as an exclusive to the business desk at The Times and secured favourable coverage with them. We then issued the press release more widely, including among the relevant trade media.

On wider distribution, the press release was also picked up by the Daily Mail. Overall, we secured 10 pieces of coverage, including several interviews with the CEO of Avealto. Our coverage was read by an estimated combined readership of 426,000 readers.