With all the Internet and related technology products in the marketplace, it's a PR challenge to have yours stand out in a swarm of thousands. But one Upper Montclair, N.J.-based PR company, The Bender-Hammerling Group LTD, found a "top secret" $12,180 way to court journalists for one of its clients.
At a cost of about $60 per press kit, with $3 tagged on to mail each one, the PR company sent InterAct Accessories' new WORLDTALK Internet Phone to 200 reporters and editors. And PR staffers did it in such a way that by early last week - only several days into the launch campaign - about 30 amused recipients had already called the PR company or InterAct.
The phone, which retails for $49.99, allows users with a multimedia PC, a sound card and an Internet connection to have two-way, realtime voice conversations with other Net surfers around the world, according to Stacey Bender, president of the PR agency. "We wanted the media to be able to understand and use the phone, but we wanted to do it in a way that would generate excitement," Bender told PR NEWS several days after the kits began arriving at journalists' offices.
The kit, which came in a box labeled Top Secret, was sent with the phone, in red with the word hotline emblazoned on it; a press release meant to look like a classified document; a corporate backgrounder; two double-A batteries; a WorldTalk T-shirt promoted as not just an "undercover" garment; communications software; and a WorldTalk stress ball.
But the kit's true coup de grace, and perhaps most worthy item other than the phone, was the National Agent Command List. The list provides the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of journalists at top media outlets - such as the San Francisco Examiner, The Seattle Times, Business Week, PC World, the Miami Herald, MSNBC, ABC Network News, Forbes, The New York Times and even Rolling Stone Magazine - so journalists can test out the phone with their business peers.
Unfortunately, even though the phone's free, InterAct or The Bender-Hammerling Group can't pick up the tab if newshounds use the phone. (Stacey Bender, 201/744-0707)