In the modern day, no moment is off bounds if it presents a chance to market your services.
The German company that made the vehicle that was used in the Louvre robbery is using the incident to market its range of lifting vehicles. Böcker Maschinenwerke GmBH, which makes truck cranes, trailer cranes, inclined lifts, furniture lifts among other specialized vehicles, posted a message on its Instagram page showing one of its lifts placed against the Louvre with the ladder reaching the first floor.
“When things need to be done quickly,” the post said. “The Backer Agilo transports your treasures weighing up to 400 kg at 42 m/min — whisper-quiet thanks to the 230 V electric motor,” it adds.
The picture had gone viral earlier in the week had become the defining image of the daring Louvre robbery. The 4 robbers, who are yet to be apprehended, had reached the Louvre in one of Böcker’s vehicles. They had parked it near a museum wall, and had pulled the ladder up to the first floor. They had then gone up the ladder, drilled a hole in the window, entered the museum, broken the glass case housing jewels from the Napoleon era, and climbed back down the ladder and fled on scooters. The entire process had taken less than four minutes, and Böcker’s lift had been pivotal to the whole operation.
And using this incident for an Instagram post is a pretty clever tactic. It’s hard to usually market industrial goods like truck cranes, but Böcker saw an opportunity, and decided to — much like the robbers — run with it. The gamble seems to have paid off — the Instagram post now has over 44,000 likes, and has gone viral all over the internet. And this shows that no incident, no matter how unexpected, and be used to get some good PR buzz for your brand.