Imagine your worst media relations nightmare - and then subtract the budget. That's what David Pitlik, founder of ThePerfectToast.com, and Aurora Johnson, an independent PR
consultant, were facing in April of this year.
ThePerfectToast.com is an online wedding toast writing service, and was scheduled to launch in April - not exactly the ideal time to launch a dotcom. Media were not only
disenchanted with the dotcom world but highly skeptical about any new launches in the down economy. Plus, with the start-up's limited resources, there was no budget for
advertising or marketing. All promotional activities would be conducted through PR - with no budget for those efforts, either.
Johnson, a personal friend of Pitlik's, agreed to help him draw media attention to the site in time for the critical June wedding season. She wanted to attract a wide variety
of media, including broadcast, national columnists and freelance writers.
One key tactic was careful attention to the media list. Since ThePerfectToast wouldn't be able to do distribution via a wire service, the entire campaign would have to be
conducted via well-targeted email and phone pitches.
In the pitch itself, Johnson used a survey from Bride's magazine showing 20 percent of brides surveyed hated the toast the best man gave at the wedding to underscore the fact
that best men and maids of honor have a pretty rough job at weddings. "Most people don't think about what to say until right before a microphone is put in front of them," Johnson
says. "Not the best time to consider what words of love and encouragement you want to share with 300 guests." Johnson accordingly positioned the Web site as "the best man's best
friend."
The results: Within two months, ThePerfectToast.com received coverage in a front-page Wall Street Journal piece, a front-page Christian Science Monitor story, on CNN's
"American Morning" and Headline News, on NPR's "All Things Considered, on TechTV and in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Fresno Bee, The Sacramento Bee, the Star Tribune and on a
variety of local TV broadcasts. The new site also got exposure online on sites like ABCNews.com, MSNBC and WSJ Online. There have been nearly 9 million media impressions to date,
site traffic is up 6,800 percent, and overall site revenues are up 5,675 percent, all attributable to PR since there have been no other promotions around the site. (Johnson, [email protected])