Xplore Your Limits Logo

Xplore Your Limits

Achim Schloeffel World Record in Diving | Task: Project Managment & PR
Achim Schlöffel from Germany was the first person ever to dive through the English Channel

Achim Schloeffel World Record: The idea

Even as a child, Achim Schlöffel dreamed of one day diving through the English Channel. For decades, such an undertaking was out of question – the technical resources were simply not yet available. Achim, however, had been planning this venture for a long time – and wanted to set a his world record.

In 2012, the time had come. For the longest dive in history. After a net dive time of 7 hours and 20 minutes, plus the decompression phase of 160 minutes, the whole endeavor took about 10 hours. 70 kilometers of diving in mostly single-digit temperatures, sometimes only centimeters of visibility, and an infernal noise throughout the whole dive, threatened by ship propellers and their noise in the world’s busiest shipping route.

Achim Schloeffel World Record: The assignment

The tasks included:

  • procurement of certain logistical aspects
  • establishment of an emergency chain
  • Media support for the entire project
  • Sponsoring management: We were actively involved in the search of sponsors, managed them before, during and after the project.
  • Crisis-management: proactive addressing of one of the main questions: what if it goes wrong? Because we were involved from the beginning, we were able to largely dispel the major doubts from potential sponsors about the feasibility, we built a lot of trust in Achim Schlöffel as a person and removed concerns about the reliability of the technology involved.

The PR

A unique project like a world record attempt requires not only a broad outreach to media partners such as magazines, national and local newspapers, radio and television, it also requires a careful prioritisation of interview partners and key media.

Some of the major publications that covered the launch included:

  • SAT1 – National TV channel, Germany
  • Bayern 1 – Regional Radio channel, Germany
  • Süddeutsche Zeitung – National newspaper, Germany
  • Münchener Merkur – Local newspaper, Germany
  • Mallorca Zeitung – Regional newspaper, Spain
  • Divernet – Online Dive News, UK
  • Dive Master – Professional/B2B Dive Magazine, Germany
  • Dykking – Dive Magazine, Scandinavia
  • Tauchen – Dive magazine, Germany
  • Unterwasser, Dive magazine, Germany
  • Wetnotes – Technical dive magazine, Germany
  • X-Ray mag – Dive magazine, International