As we enter 1999, we reflect on some of the strategies and campaigns that made 1998 a banner year. Below, in the first of this two-part series, are first-person accounts from agencies nationwide about their most successful and creative campaigns.
Agency: Cone Communications, Boston
Contact: Peggy Barresi, Mark Josephson, Susan McLean, 617/227-2111
Campaign: iVillage.com
Web Wise: For iVillage.com, the goal was to let America know that this Web site for women has lots of practical and useful information. On the consumer side, at the end of 1997/beginning of 1998, we created a system to search iVillage sites which include areas on parenting, health, working from home, money, fitness and beauty and relationships for "news you can use." We would create media advisories which offered practical hints and tips or highlighted the different ways women looked at these issues. What we wanted was to position iVillage.com as a resource. We generated about 500 million impressions, with reporters also viewing this as a useful resource.
On the trade side, we made a dedicated effort to reach out to reporters who could have a significant influence on the business aspects of iVillage and scored a New York Times business section feature with a photo of one of the company's leaders. A similar story ran in Business Week as well.
Agency: Edelman, Washington, D.C.
Contacts: Jennifer Haas & Mitchell Derman, 202/371-0200
Campaign: Intelsat
A Shower of News: This campaign centered around the Leonid Meteor Shower, which comes around every 30 years. In July, we received a call from a reporter wondering if Intelsat had any statement prepared about what impact the meteor shower would have on satellite communications. Remember, there had been all this Hollywood hype driven by movies like "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon," coupled with the failure of Galaxy IV. Based on that call, we discussed an idea to talk to Intelsat to find out what they were doing to protect its satellite fleet, which could demonstrate its market leadership. And we found out that it did have preparations in place to maneuver its satellites to lessen the impact of this event.
We decided to promote Intelsat as a media resource on the effect of meteor showers on satellites and as a resource on satellite communications in general through B-roll and a media advisory.
When fall came and the shower was one month away, we distributed information to let the print media know we had a technical person who could talk about this phenomenon and to inform national networks about our B-roll. Within two weeks, we followed up, although within a week of putting the advisory out, we had media attention which had snowballed.
We got a ton of media interest in it and went beyond our expectations. In the end, we tallied more than 150 stories, with 100 broadcast hits and 50 print hits.
Agency: Ogilvy, New York
Contact: Paul Jacoby and Megan Svensen, 212/601-8000
Campaign: Abbott
What a Pill: Our objective in contacting The Wall Street Journal was to garner positive and responsible coverage of the FDA approval of our client's new breakthrough cancer pain medication in a top-tier media outlet. Specifically, we were looking for coverage that described the product without using the term "lollipop."
While a catchy descriptor, "lollipop" may unnecessarily alarm people about a vital new treatment for cancer pain. We approached the The Wall Street Journal and held extensive conversations with reporter Rochelle Sharpe on the uniqueness of the Actiq. Although Rochelle was interested in doing a larger story on products for chronic cancer pain, interviews we arranged convinced her that Actiq was indeed a new type of product.
The result was a positive Nov. 6, 1998, article that highlighted the purpose, method of action and effectiveness of Actiq in treating cancer pain.
She described some of the measures that our client had taken to ensure the safe use of Actiq and, per our request, refrained from sensationalizing the product.
Agency: Porter Novelli, New York
Contact: Danielle Tracy, 212/601-8000
Campaign: Gillette MACH3
Cloaked By Secrecy: The cornerstone of the approach was absolute control over the advance release of information about the new Gillette razor. While tight controls kept the product information a secret, careful timing of the information's release generated interest among the media and delivered the explosion of coverage desired.
Press conference invitations, which were designed to look like airline tickets, hinted at the flight imagery apparent in the product's name, image and advertising. Invitations alone generated media coverage and a barrage of calls inquiring about the product's name, benefits and details.
On April 14, 1998, Gillette introduced MACH3 at New York's Hudson Theatre in the Millennium Broadway Hotel. More than 100 international journalists covered the launch event, with Porter Novelli distributing a total of 3,250 press kits to journalists across the country.
In the first six months following the media launch, MACH3 PR efforts generated more than 2,000 separate placements for total gross impressions of more than 1 billion. Razors were mailed to several hundred television news anchors and morning drive time radio personalities encouraged to use them on-air.
An additional element of the media relations strategy was to re-ignite editorial interest in MACH3 two months after the launch, when the razor began to appear on store shelves throughout the U.S.
On June 26, Gillette Chairman and CEO Alfred M. Zeien rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange as NYSE President William Johnston shaved his beard of 17 years with MACH3. After only one week on the market - and without any advertising - Gillette's MACH3 shaving system was the best-selling razor in the U.S., with an unprecedented 35 percent share.