To the tune of about $10 per compact disk, Los Angeles PR agency Golin Harris is banking on getting some press leverage for the atypical way it released 1996 earnings for client City National Bank of Beverly Hills.
Golin Harris mailed "A Record Year" CDs to about 150 journalists at the end of last month with this spin: Along with touting the bank's socalled record earnings and a 36 percent increase in net income, the CD comes complete with 10 California classic songs, including "California Dreaming" and "Hotel California" and several moneythemed songs, including "Pennies from Heaven."
"We wanted to find a quirky way to reach the media," said Gary Brotman, an account executive at Golin Harris who oversaw the $10,000 project. That price tag includes the entire cost of the promotion, including developing the CD; creating the accompanying press release and CD content; and packaging and mailing the information.
So what are the preliminary results?
"We've gotten several calls, including one from a journalist at Bloomberg who loved it and thought it was a clever idea," said Brotman, who also faxed two articles to PR NEWS showing some recent coverage the campaign has received.
In the April 21 New Media column in The Business Press, Ontario, Calif. (a KnightRidder publication), the CD was called one of the "cleverest press releases... in recent memory" and an April 14 mention in the Los Angeles Business Journal poked some goodnatured fun at the campaign.
The first phase of the PR campaign involved sending out the press releases to media outlets. The remainder of the CDs will be sent to analysts, prospective clients and existing bank customers, according to Brotman.
We, at PR NEWS, aren't sure if it's the "cleverest" idea we've seen of late, but it certainly got our attention - and that's part of what PR's all about.
But the selection of the songs - which include "Surfing Safari" and "California Here I Come" - didn't do much to whet our appetites for the West Coast. Suffice it to say, we would have been happier hearing Joel Grey from Cabaret fame belt out "Money Makes the World Go Around."
(Golin Harris, Gary Brotman, 213/6234200)