Consumer technology press have long focused their smart home coverage on the DIY solutions their readers can actually purchase in person, overlooking the vastly superior experience offered by professionally installed whole home ecosystems like Crestron Home. Caster set out to address this issue, repositioning Crestron Home as an accessible, uniquely capable smart home ecosystem built to evolve alongside homeowners’ needs.
Caster Converts Consumer Tech Press into Crestron Home Believers
405
Crestron Home Mentions
444k
Journalist Reach
6.6k
Total Engagement
“For all the talk of ecosystems and cross-platform standards, all too often home automation simply turns our phones into fancy remotes, sending us flipping through apps to adjust lights, music, and security. Crestron Home, a relatively new smart home option from a long-standing name in the industry, has an app too, but arguably what’s most impressive is how rarely you actually need it”
– Chris Davies, SlashGear | Crestron Home Review: When the pros install your smart home
“The main purpose of technology has always been to simplify everyday tasks, cutting time and unnecessary effort. So goes the smart home: its main functionality is to automate the surrounding environment and minimize the effort to manage it. “Smart home” has grown to be a popular phrase in luxury listing descriptions. Alongside it, the name “Crestron” is frequently mentioned, as the brand is synonymous with top-of-the-line home automation solutions.”
– Linsey Stonchus, Luxury Portfolio International | Wellness, designer finishes and peace of mind at forefront of smart home design
CHALLENGE
Recent data from Parks Associates indicates that nearly 50% of internet-enabled households plan to purchase home automation technology in the next year, a surge in demand that presents Crestron with a ripe opportunity if they can get in front of those audiences. Until the last decade or so, home automation has been a luxury topic but as it moves into the mainstream, consumer technology media has taken over its news and reviews beat. The challenge for Crestron with this dynamic is that when covering smart home solutions, most consumer technology press has historically paid greater attention to standalone DIY products rather than professionally installed ecosystems like Crestron Home, which many still perceive as beyond reach for individual homeowners. In order to help Crestron capitalize on the coming smart home surge into millions of previously unequipped homes, Caster had to reposition Crestron Home for this consumer tech audience as an accessible and adaptable value-adding asset rather than a luxurious liability.
STRATEGY
To convert consumer technology press from DIY devotees into willing pro install promoters, and thereby capture new swaths of smart home customers for Crestron, Caster designed a PR program built around thought leadership emphasizing the deep value of the pro-install Crestron Home ecosystem, with an added emphasis on the superior user experience, scalability, and an more accessible price point. Nearly 60% of consumers expect high levels of interoperability from their smart home devices, so Caster emphasized how seamlessly Crestron Home unifies networks of devices. Control and connectivity solutions are far and away the most popular smart home segment, so Caster communicated just how easily homeowners can adjust device settings, create schedules, and build synchronized scenes via the Crestron Home app. These efforts were supplemented by a steady stream of new solution launches and upgrades, alongside carefully crafted case studies and approachable product reviews designed to make Crestron Home feel real – and reachable.
RESULTS
Consumer tech press is savvy about the shape of their industry’s progression: They understand that the pro install route provides a peek at the smart home solutions that will one day become mainstream, but recognize that many consumers worry companies at the bleeding edge will fizzle out, lose funding, or quickly sunset solutions. Thanks to Caster however, they now know that one pro-install provider stands apart, buttressed by a 50-year family-owned legacy of innovation and a continued drumbeat of new products like the DM NAX, LED Light Fixtures, and Battery-Powered Shading, all of which are seamlessly controlled and configured by the Crestron Home ecosystem. Articles, reviews, press releases, briefings, and insights were curated for mainstream consumer-facing media outlets like SlashGear, The Verge, and Forbes, luxury home outlets like Worth and Luxury Portfolio, and allied trade publications like Fine Homebuilding, Kitchen & Bath Business, and Realtor.com. Each of these publications serves a distinct flavor of the consumer and partner audiences Crestron hoped to intrigue and convert with messaging that showcased the company’s commitment to innovation and providing an adaptable, attainable, ahead-of-the-curve home experience.
- Crestron Home Mentions: 405
- Journalist Reach: 444K
- Total Engagement: 6,629
- Top Consumer Tech Coverage: The Verge, Forbes, BuzzFeed, SlashGear, Gearbrain
Learn more about other Caster projects here.