BACKGROUND
Since Gary began working with The Brooks Group in 2007 his primary PR objective has been to promote his roles as both a wine and business expert. For three years we have created unique ways to build awareness of his personal brand and position him as the go-to resource for wine and business stories.
IDEAS
Building on the success of Gary’s NYT best seller “Crush It,” in the fall of 2010 we were charged with developing a creative PR campaign for the launch of his second business book “The Thank You Economy.” Our strategy needed to highlight not only Gary’s personality and tech savvy, but also connect the book’s main theme - that humanizing the marketing process and offering outstanding customer service are the keys to a brand’s success in the age of social media.
Five months prior to the book launch we began our campaign. Our initial tactic was for Gary to make personalized videos in which he expressed his appreciation to members of media who have supported him over the past few years. We chose 75 print and broadcast contacts to receive these special videos. At the conclusion of each video, Gary invited the recipient to meet with him one-on-one in person or via skype to discuss The Thank You Economy. The videos were a huge hit and captured the media’s attention with feedback such as “Wow that was awfully nice. Send me that book.”
As a secondary tactic we distributed a generic video of Gary explaining the book to a larger group of key print, online and broadcast targets. We followed up with all contacts via telephone and with a targeted press kit and galley mailing. Our print outreach resulted in high profile placements in Financial Times, Associated Press, Success Magazine, Men’s Health, BuisnessWeek, Chicago Tribune and more.
The third wave of outreach included putting together a schedule of broadcast segments that would create buzz and drive target audiences to book signings during the March 2011 launch week. As a result we kicked off the launch with an appearance on MSNBC Morning Joe, followed by CNBC’s Street Signs, Fox Business’s Willis Report, CNN’s Piers Morgan, MSNBC Your Business, Philly.com, AOL, and Bloomberg TV. Lastly, along with Gary, we engaged in a large scale social media campaign interacting with Twitter and Facebook fans. Throughout launch week the book remained in the top 50 books on Amazon.com and online chatter about the book continues to grow post launch resulting in book sales & landing on the NYT Best Seller List.