Planning and deploying a national PR campaign for a new client
In April 2007, I assumed media relations responsibilities for Legacy.com, a profitable and growing dot-com backed by Tribune Ventures.
The Website features a special section called "In Remembrance" that memorializes soldiers killed in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because traffic to "In Remembrance" grows significantly during holidays, particularly those during which the country remembers its fallen soldiers, I created a media relations campaign connected to the 2007 Memorial Day weekend:
Legacy.com and I worked with a select group of families who had created memorials on the site and obtained their permission to share their stories with the news media.
I created a variety of materials (press release, backgrounder, del.cio.us site of previous media coverage about Legacy.com, etc.) that I knew from my extensive media relations experience would resonate with reporters and producers.
I developed a list of national and regional media outlets my professional experience indicated would be receptive to the story. My strategy was to interest media organizations that owned multiple TV stations or newspapers, so that a single interview could generate more than one story, possibly in multiple markets.
I then contacted these reporters and producers, doing my best to persuade them to tell the Legacy story.
I coordinated all interviews involving Legacy.com representatives and family members.
THE RESULTS?
The FOX News Channel aired the report twice nationally. Twenty-four affiliates – including in the country's #1, #3, #8, #12 and #15 TV markets – also aired the report a total of 38 times.
Three NBC affiliates picked up the footage and repackaged it for their own stories.
More than 3.3 million television viewers saw a report about Legacy.com over the holiday weekend. All of the reports included the company's key messages and vivid screenshots of the company's Website.
(Click on the icon below to view a video overview of the media placements achieved in this campaign, which I personally created for Legacy.com's Board of Directors.)
Print articles about Legacy.com appeared in the Orlando Sentinel, Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Winston Salem Journal. and the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. Total circulation of those publications is 1.1 million.
