Here are Just a few of my marketing communications accomplishments
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| While at Olympus, I was charged with the responsibility of planning a press conference to announce a new product that the company was billing as a professional camera that amateurs could easily use and an amateur camera that professional would love to have on the side. I found a telephone number for George Plimpton, the famous Walter Mitty-like ‘professional amateur,’ and put in a call. Although Plimpton was not known for his commercial pitching at the time, I asked him if he'd like to host a press conference in Manhattan for this new camera, during which he'd also get a chance to do a slide show of some of his professional amateur exploits in baseball, football, boxing, the circus, a symphony orchestra and more. He agreed. Enthusiastically. And he was great. It was a wonderfully entertaining and successful press conference. |
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| Another product I was required to promote was tagged as being weatherproof, shockproof and water resistant. Upper management wanted to get the word out in ways other than merely writing a boastful press release. So I developed a project to accomplish that goal. Using a series of pre-addressed, pre-stamped, bubble-packed envelopes, I sent the camera on a cross-country tour to several newspaper and magazine reporters and editors. They were allowed to snap a few shots, in any kind of weather condition or outdoor terrain, after which they would be required to put the camera in the envelope that was provided and send it to the next stop on its tour, where another reporter or editor would do the same. The camera was shaken, bumped, dropped, rained on, snowed on, dragged across the desert and tossed around at the beach. When it got back to me I had the pictures developed. They all came out perfectly. I sent the pictures, and a press release, to all the reporters and editors. The story appeared in many publication and provided great publicity for the new camera. |
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| Independent musicians Jackie Henrion and Gary Alt have very little expendable funds for promotion, but both were very anxious to spread the word about their latest CDs. I assured them that with a well-crafted and impactful press release, and a well-developed and effective distribution list to send it to, valuable publicity could be achieved for a very small investment. Jackie and Gary asked me to give it a shot. I interviewed them, found angles and hooks I thought would interest editors, researched the lists, and sent out the releases. As a result, several stories were generated in various local publications and on several industry websites, and both artists reported an exponential increase in visitors to their websites just after the press releases were distributed. |
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| Michael Becker, founder of a small custom mat company called Logo Mat Central, wanted to get his name in the press so that he could use it as a calling card to drum up interest in his new venture and build alliances with other companies and organizations. But he had no money for advertising, no prior press or publicity on which to build, and was convinced that the mat industry was a fairly boring one, as far as editors and publishers were concerned. He asked me if there was anything to be done. I said yes and told him to merely answer all my questions. I grilled him for over an hour on a number of topics--and realized that he had an interesting story to tell. He left a successful career in women's garments just a few years before, when he was well past fifty, to start the mat business. I pitched an article on mid-life career changes to New Jersey Savvy Living Magazine. They loved it. Michael was one of several people profiled (including an oil worker turned radiologist, a teacher turned camp owner and a graphic artist turned HR manager)--and Michael was the only one with a full-page photograph. |
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| John Hamby, who ran community banks for many years, recently started his own company to produce software that can enable banks to better serve their commercial customers. John wanted to build awareness of his new company, even though it was only in its earliest stages and had yet to sign a single client. I was skeptical as to how much publicity we'd be able to get for the start-up, so I suggested that we build him up first as an exuberant, passionate community and commercial banking expert with ideas and opinions worth noting. Then we would be able to build on that in the months to come, concentrating more and more on the company itself. As a result of my pitching efforts and ghostwriting, within the first two months of this effort John had articles published in Financial Executive Magazine, American Banker and the Hartford Business Journal. |
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