Companies: The Patriot-News; EDGE Boston
Agencies: Pavone (Patriot-News); In-House (EDGE Boston)
Budgets: $7,500 (Patriot-News); N/A (EDGE Boston)
Local media outlets field inquiries from PR professionals constantly. But what happens when the local media outlets need some PR for themselves? Clearly they can't rely on
their competition around town to give them a boost.
A pair of metropolitan media entities seeking a PR advantage followed an intriguing set of strategies. For the Patriot-News, the daily newspaper in Harrisburg, PA, the
tactic involved an inventive use of guerrilla marketing which caught many in the city off-guard - including other media outlets that reported on the campaign. For the online
magazine EDGE Boston, the PR focus reached for the stars - or to be more accurate, reached for the stars of the movie "The Producers."
Best Foot Forward
The Patriot-News is the largest circulation daily newspaper for Central Pennsylvania. But despite its dominant position for the region, the newspaper found itself
lacking in a core audience: 18- to 34-year-olds, who prefer to surf the Net than thumb a newspaper. This was particularly troubling for the newspaper's plans last year to launch
a weekly entertainment guide called Go! and the key potential readers included the demographic who were turning away from newspaper reading.
Enter the Harrisburg agency Pavone, which opted to coordinate a PR strategy for Go! to establish a personality for the new guide. "We wanted to clearly
demonstrate the benefits of the product," says Kevin Quartz, public relations director at Pavone. "Namely, that Go!'s entertainment listings could lead our target to local
clubs and restaurants and hotspots. We chose to bring that benefit to life in an extremely literal and playful way. Our surveys told us that the target audience was younger, on
the move, and looking for a newspaper that was more spontaneous and youthful. We also knew that they were inquisitive and liked mystery."
Taking a guerrilla-style approach, the agency pursued a campaign that would leave its footprint on the streets of Harrisburg. Literally. In the early hours before the first
edition of Go! debuted on July 1, Pavone sent out ten teams armed with gallons of highly extroverted and water-soluble green paint, and with footprint stencils. Their
mission: To create a seemingly endless path of green footprints covering three miles of downtown Harrisburg sidewalks.
"We chose the footprint concept because it was irreverent in tone," says Quartz. "And we knew it would pique interest by breaking up our target's normal routine."
After securing municipal permission and police cooperation, the Pavone painters went to work from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. As the paint dried, Quartz's team then hit the phones
and called the local radio talk shows to report the mysterious green footprints that abruptly appeared overnight (and which curiously made pitstops at the Patriot-News
newspaper dispensers). "We also took to the streets with the client to hear what people were saying," adds Quartz. "The client was overwhelmed with the amount of word-of-mouth
buzz that the campaign had created. Measuring word-of-mouth is difficult so we took a risk. We sent out Pavone teams with Patriot-News employees to walk through the city
and listen to what people were saying. Involving the client in that part of the measurement process only solidified our partnership with the paper and their connection to the
campaign."
Starting with the footprint campaign and stretching for the next four weeks, the Patriot-News' Go! campaign contributed to a year-over-gain of an average of 4.5% in
single copy sales, exceeding the initial projected 1% goal. Quartz also notes Pavone's success helped the agency gain interest in similar graffiti-style campaigns in other
cities, including a Philadelphia promotion for Friendship Cottage Cheese.
Win A Night With...Nathan Lane?
Unlike the Patriot-News, the online EDGE Boston has considerable and deeply entrenched competition. Launched in early 2004 and focusing on the gay-lesbian-
bisexual-transgendered (GLBT) demographic, EDGE Boston goes up against two Boston-based gay-oriented newspapers as well as the celebrated alternative weekly The Boston
Phoenix. But the online publication is more than holding its own, with 300,000 unique readers per month. To reinforce its position, EDGE Boston aims its PR efforts at high-
profile entertainment events.
Last November, EDGE Boston found itself with a potential PR goldmine. "I was aware that the film version of the Broadway musical 'The Producers' was going to be
released in December," says Kevin Mark Kline, director of promotions. "I also knew that this film was highly anticipated by members of the GLBT community. I knew immediately
that a nightclub promotion would be a great fit for everyone involved. The studio would get terrific on-the-ground exposure to the gay community, and our readers would have a
chance to win terrific prizes. I contacted studio representatives and we began planning immediately."
Kline had previously coordinated promotions with Universal Pictures, the studio behind "The Producers," and his results were consistently successful. A key aspect to
Kline's work was having EDGE Boston branded to a popular nightspot. "Club Café is a popular Boston nightclub/restaurant, and every Friday evening we present
EDGE Fridays at Club Café," continues Kline. "The night is completely promoted and organized by EDGE. In the venue we host release events for new movies, DVDs and
CDs. Our readers learn about entertainment options, win prizes, and enjoy meeting our staff and other readers. Our promotional partners love these parties - as a third party
(ie, we don't own the club) we are able to broker unique events, and stimulate traffic to the club. It's been very successful for us; we have the most consistently popular GLBT
Friday night in Boston."
Universal Pictures recognized this and took their promotion for "The Producers" one step further than previous PR campaigns: A contest with a grand prize of a trip-for-two to
the New York premiere of "The Producers," including travel accommodations and the ability to join the stars of "The Producers" at the post-premiere party. Since "The Producers"
was opening in Boston approximately two weeks after the New York premiere, this offered a double shot of exclusivity for the lucky winners. Universal's promotion for "The
Producers" was an EDGE Boston exclusive for that city, another PR coup.
EDGE Boston's event took place on December 2 at Club Café and, according to Kline, it "packed the house." Kline also points out the benefits of this type of PR push
wildly outweighs the costs: "Budget? Welcome to the world of marketing your business online. EDGE has state-of-the-art technology at work; this enables us to run promotions and
reach audiences at a fraction of the cost possible for comparable PR and marketing vehicles. Our company has overhead, naturally, but we operate lean and mean."
Contacts:Kevin Quartz, [email protected]; Kevin Mark Kline, [email protected].