Cases

Challenge: Skinny & Co. was missing out on the global health stampede in search of the best all-purpose coconut oil and they didn’t want to miss out. While their product is wild harvested, hand pressed, small batched, never heated, 100 percent pure, 100 percent virgin, and 100 percent chemical- and solvent-free, their market was niche and they were losing out too much on bigger brands offering mass quantities of sub-par consumer-grade coconut oil.

The popularity of coconut oil is being seen throughout the natural foods industry, and it’s likely that the consumer demand for this oil isn’t going to drop in the near future. Chances are that if the supply continues to trend downward as it has for the last few years, prices for aren’t likely to drop significantly in the near future.

Solution: We reached out to a wide assortment of Fitness & Health, Lifestyle, Parenting, Beauty, and Yoga influencers over three months, 1,236 bloggers on month one, 1,396 on month two, and 1,496 on month three. Each influencer was offered a blogger gift basket which included a broad array of sample Skinny coconut oil-based product unless they asked for something more specific, such as a 16 oz bottle of coconut oil for cooking for cooks and chefs who would prefer cooking oil to beauty products, for example, or for an especially élite Tier-1 influencer.

During the entire earned media publicity campaign, we didn’t compensate influencers, just offered them products for testing and review, though it is a premium product. Our publicity team engaged each and every influencer by hand, making sure they were provided with everything they needed. In addition, as part of the kid-glove, white-glove, campaign, each and everyone who responded and was interested in receiving Skinny & Co. product to review received it. After which, our team facilitated each and every one of the 695 respondents over the course of the three-month campaign.

In some cases, we coached influencers on how to do an unboxing video and publish it on YouTube; in other cases, we would keep reaching out to make sure each influencer actually receiving the product, had the opportunity to try out and have a good experience, and then actually follow through and blog, vlog, and social media share onto Instagram, SnapChat, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Results: Over the course of the campaign, we reached out to 3000+ blogger/influencers in demographics ranging from Fitness & Health, Lifestyle, Parenting, Yoga and more. There were 712 responses (24% response rate) and 434 requests for products to be sent. The outreach campaign generated approximately 500 posts across blogs, YouTube and social channels.

During the three month campaign, the Skinny Coconut Oil website saw a 76% increase in new users and revenue.

"Skinny & Co. is thrilled with the outcome of our 3-month blogger campaign! Working with Chris and Dan was an absolute delight. Their professionalism is unmatched and we were extremely satisfied with the response to their work! Over the course of three months, they contacted thousands of bloggers resulting in 500 posts, YouTube videos, and social media mentions from influencers across the board. This helped increase our audience reach and generate lots of new customers. Plus, everything was timely, well-organized, and easy to understand. I'd highly recommend their services and look forward to working with them again in the future. Thanks so much, Chris and Dan!" - Kaylyn Easton, CMO, Skinny & Co.

Challenge: The running shoe category, led by giants Nike and Reebok, spent $144 million in paid media from June 2011 to June 2012. Mizuno was virtually unknown in the U.S., with 7% brand favorability and a $1.5 million marketing budget — just 1% of category spend.

Mizuno’s best prospects, running junkies, stick to what they know works: Eighty percent know the brand and model of running shoe they intend to buy before they shop, and 90% actually do buy that brand and model. We had to be extremely compelling to disrupt that behavior.

But Mizunos are stiff (for a reason) so they don’t feel as cushy and comfortable as the mainstream brands. So trying Mizunos on in the store is far from compelling.

On top of that, Mizunos are priced 35% above the category, including their flagship shoe the Wave Rider, which they had recently redesigned in a way that alienated many within the small group of Mizuno loyalists.

Solution: We took the shoe trial experience out of the store and on the road.

Mizunos are stiff because they are designed for running. Mezamashii is Japanese for brilliant. We put the two together to create the Mezamashii Run Project.

First, key running junkie influencers, from bloggers to running club leaders and celebrities, received 600 handmade, direct mail invitations and a code to order a free pair of shoes at the Mezamashii Run Project site. They were in turn given invitations they could share with fellow runners who they thought would also appreciate a “mezamashii” run. That used up half our budget.

The other half went to paid, owned and earned media to build awareness of the program and offer the overall running public the chance to be among the 100 people chosen to receive a free pair of Mizuno running shoes.

Mezamashii Run Project members continue to get new, relevant and exciting information and offers from Mizuno, like the opportunity to wear-test future products, influence shoe design, and access future models before they become available to the public.

Results: In just 60 days, the Mezamashii Run Project accomplished the following:

• Engaged 19,504 Mizuno runners and Mezamashii Run Project members
• Welcomed 100,000 new unique visitors to mizunorunning.com, an increase of 52%
• Brought 155,859 visits to the Mezamashii Run Project home page through paid and earned media
• Gained 25% more Twitter followers

Brand favorability, which was reflected in comments made by Mezamashii Run Project members who rated the shoes they received, grew 54%, from 7% to 10.8%, in the first five weeks of media support.

Of those Mezamashii Run Project members posting reviews, 94% gave top 2 box scores to the shoes and 93% said they intend to buy Mizuno shoes in the future.

Mizuno saw immediate growth in strong specialty store sales and quickly achieved a three-year share high.

Challenge: To raise the awareness of new study issued by the Alzheimer’s Association pertaining to Alzheimer’s disease and the Baby Boomer generation.

The Alzheimer’s Association aims to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease, symptoms, and search for a cure.  They conduct and release various studies concerning different aspects of Alzheimer’s disease and its effects.

In March 2011, we were tasked with helping the Alzheimer’s Association raise the online profile of their latest study “Generation Alzheimer’s”.

Strategy/Tactics:  Leverage the influence of bloggers in target demographics (Baby Boomers and medical field) to promote a new study released by the Alzheimer’s Association

We reached out in two campaigns to over 4,000 bloggers covering topics relevant to Baby Boomers and Alzheimer’s.

To better equip each blogger with special content relating to the Alzheimer’s Association and its latest study, our created a social media news release including embeddable pictures, videos, banner ads and message copy concerning findings that bloggers could paste into their blogs.

The purpose of the blogger outreach was to earn bloggers’ support and encourage them to act as amplifiers and informants on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Results:  We secured hundreds of blog posts for the Alzheimer’s Association, resulting in more than 23 million impressions. 

The social media news release we created for the Alzheimer’s Association received over 72,000 views in just over 2 months.  The SMNR is now a permanent part of the online landscape when searching for information on Alzheimer’s.

The increase in blogger coverage of Alzheimer’s and the “Generation Alzheimer’s” study resulted in organically boosted Search Engine rankings for the Alzheimer’s Association

Challenge: Stever Robbins, a popular blogger, and podcaster was releasing his first book in the Fall of 2010.

He and his publisher needed to establish him as a respected and recognized author and ensure that awareness of, and excitement around his book exploded in his target demographic.

Strategy/Tactics: We reached out to online influencers in the tech and self-help demographics with copies of the book, excerpts, and information to drive them to share with their spheres of influence.

We launched a six-week campaign to promote Stever Robbin’s book. This process started with the creation of a social media news release. The release included a 2 chapter preview, Q&A, photos, bio, summary, etc.

Our campaign connected with over 3600 bloggers in three different waves of messaging. We developed relationships with all who responded and concierged them towards posting articles and reviews.

Results: The six-week campaign let to over 320 posts making over 35 million impressions, and 140,000 views of the Stever Robbin’s social media news release.

In the days following the book release “Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More” ranked 94 on Amazon’s best-selling book list and 58 on Amazon’s best selling Kindle book list with 5-star reviews.

Our campaign also helped secure multiple personal Q&A’s between Stever Robbins and prominent bloggers leading to high-profile interviews.

Stever is now recognized as a highly-regarded and successful author in the business world.

Challenge: Brandsclub, a private online fashion buying club, was having difficulties with its delivery processes. This was leading to large amounts negative sentiment toward the company spreading across social networking sites and the blogosphere, seriously undermining the company's brand, their growth, and their customer retention. Our challenge was three-fold: turn negative sentiment into positive, drive new users to the Brandsclub website, and provide ROI through higher customer satisfaction, retention, and activity. Brandsclub, now the leading private sales club in Brazil, operates 100% online and a strong, positive presence on the internet is pivotal for the company’s success. We took a daily deluge of public complaints and turned it into a chorus of enthusiastic praise and loyal championing of the client's brand.

Strategy/Tactics: Leverage blogger influence to increase awareness and good sentiment, and constantly support customers on social networks by taking a position of transparency and willingness. Our team implemented a comprehensive, multi-staged and highly targeted blogger outreach campaign to encourage bloggers to share information about Brandsclub. Over 5,000 bloggers were contacted during 8 outreach efforts. Every response was personally followed up by a member of our team.

Results: Drastically increased brand awareness via online mentions and strengthened presence in social media. 100,000+ followers on the Twitter handles created by us and over 50,000 “Likes” on their Facebook page. In addition to the initial followers and “Likes”, there were tens of thousands of fans interacting with the brand on the various handles. Generating thousands of impressions daily. On average the Brandsclub handle was seeing 200 fan interactions daily.

Problem: Firebrand needed as much blogger coverage about Firebrand Monday; the Monday after the Superbowl, Firebrand showcased the best Superbowl commercials. With only two weeks we needed to create as much conversation around this new and unique company.

Strategy: We focused almost exclusively at getting the A-List, marketing, advertising, and PR bloggers to post about Firebrand and its Firebrand Monday event. This was a personalized outreach that focused on conversations and personal relationships.

Tactics: It was a classic case of pulling out the Rolodex and reaching out to the connections that we have nurtured. These conversations and interactions were carried out over Twitter, Facebook, email and ultimately blogs.

We created 3 separate Social Media News Releases. One of these videos was created specifically for the A-List blogger outreach. It contained an exclusive video that A-List bloggers got to see before anyone else in the general public

In addition to the focus on blogs, we created a group on Facebook, sharing commercials and other gifts with members.

Results: Firebrand Monday was a great success with our team securing approximately 100 blog posts. The Page on Facebook grew to over 600 people in the course of two weeks. In a matter of a short period of time, we were able to really create a fantastic buzz and real interest in what Firebrand had to offer.

Challenge: Help strengthen brand awareness, expand existing Fresh Air Fund community, and increase donations. The Fresh Air Fund has been a recognized and highly regarded organization for over 135 years, with an excellent presence in New York’s top publications. As the 21st century dawned a younger generation of counselors, parents, and donors emerged with a dropping interest in paper print and a growing interest in online media. The Fresh Air Fund had virtually no social media presence before we took on the task of designing an integrating social media strategy to strengthen brand awareness, expand existing communities and increase support of the organization. We focused on three goals for the Fresh Air Fund Campaign: recruiting hosts, recruiting counselors, and increasing donations.

Strategy/Tactics: Employ an integrated social media strategy using blogger outreach, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to increase exposure. We launched 11 separate blogger outreach campaigns on behalf of the Fresh Air Fund. Each campaign was introduced with a topic-specific social media news release (i.e. hosts, counselors, etc.) to target bloggers who would share the information with their readers. Our blogger outreach strategy also included a number of novel campaigns including a "Thank You" outreach and a dollar for dollar donation match campaign. In addition to blogger outreach, We also helped develop profiles for Fresh Air Fund on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Results: Drastically increased brand awareness via online mentions and strengthened presence in social media. In the days following each blogger outreach campaign, social media monitoring showed consistent spikes in online conversations, with the largest spike occurring as a result of the dollar for dollar outreach. Over the course of a year, we helped drive the number of online mentions about Fresh Air Fund from 4,000 to 65,000 mentions. Our social media efforts garnered approximately 11 million impressions. Their Facebook profile grew from 400 to over 3,050 and their Twitter handle grew from 229 to over 8,000 followers. Their efforts in social media also boosted their Google SEO results in an order of magnitude, making them easier to find and more accessible to parents, counselors, and donors.

Challenge: This was a two week, high-pressure campaign focused on getting International Medical Corps (IMC) into the final five of the American Express Members Project $2.5 million giveaway competition. 1,190 projects were nominated for participation in the competition, Amex cardholders could vote for their favorite project, and the top five projects will receive a portion of the $2.5 million in grant money. Our challenge was to take IMC, a relatively low-profile $100MM per year organization that gets all its money from government grants and had essentially no support base among the general public and activate a mass wave of support and votes for the organization - in two weeks.

International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training, relief operations, and development programs.

Strategy: We had developed strong relationships with a large group of bloggers interested in humanitarian issues who in turn act as influencers in their communities of readers. The goal, as with all online influencer outreaches, was to earn these bloggers' support and their willingness to act as repeaters and amplifiers of our client's message, get their implicit or explicit endorsement, and motivate their readerships to action - in this case to vote for IMC in the Amex Members' Project competition.

We were in constant consultation with the client advising International Medical Corps on their message copy, their use of widgets, their posting of banner ads, and guiding their broader strategic decisions.

Tactics: We reached out to close to 4,000 bloggers across a spectrum of demographics. The Gerris team reached out to these bloggers multiple times over the course of two weeks directing them to the Members Project website and the helpful, blogger-friendly Social Media News Release that made blogging on the topic an easy cut-and-paste action.

We also turned to our strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, and several other social networks, building groups and messaging followers as well as the broader Gerris community and Chris Abraham's own sizeable community influence. To drive SEO and further traffic, every one of the over 150 blog posts was posted on Digg and several other social bookmarking platforms.

Results: Within two weeks the team had achieved close to a 10% response rate to the outreach emails, leading to over 170 blog posts with more trickling in daily. Multiple millions of impressions were made, and given the permanent nature of blog posts and the resultant presence on the search engines, impressions will continue to be made into the future.

International Medical Corps was able to fend off challenges from those organizations in 6th and 7th place, finally finishing in the top five, winning their portion of the $2.5MM of Amex Members' Project Grant money, and for the first time in the history of their organization, creating a broad public image and public support base for themselves.

An AP article came out that wrongly accused a financial services firm of laundering drug money. The article hit the wire and was repeated over 600 times online. They reached out to Chris Abraham to do a reputation defense for them. Luckily, they contacted us immediately after the article was published so we were able to completely protect the first 5 pages from any sticky web or blog mention at all.

Challenge: AP article incorrectly implying the company was involved in drug money laundering. The article was picked up and reprinted by 600 newspapers and many many news sites. The client and its CEO had very little to no web presence prior to the articles viral spread. This resulted in the first 60 pages of search results returning only this negative story.

Objective: To regain control of the client’s online reputation and to clear it of this negative and false information.

Strategy: To achieve this objective, Chris and his team needed to promote the presence of the client in the online realm with a goal of positive and neutral results dominating the first 3 pages of search results.

Tactics: We launched a large and multi-pronged Online Reputation Management (ORM) campaign. This meant that multiple domains, blogs and Social Network profiles were created for both the company and the CEO. These sites were then populated with many positive and neutral articles which were then cross-linked and submitted to all of the search engines.

Results: In a matter of 6 weeks Chris and the Gerris team had regained the control of the identity and image of the client. The negative article no longer dominated the first 3 pages - only a tiny percentage of users read beyond the first 3 pages of results - instead the positive and neutral stories that had been spread around the web by the team dominated the search results.

Challenge: Industry PR Offensive Derailed Growing Green Support.  

During the fight around the 2007 Energy Bill, The National Environmental Trust (NET), at the head of a large coalition of the nation's major environmental organizations, was struggling to get a 35mpg CAFE automobile fuel efficiency standard into the bill over the threat of a White House veto if Democrats insisted on keeping that provision.

Though successful in its public awareness campaigns, NET hit a political stumbling block in August of 2007 when the 35mpg CAFE standard they were pushing became a battle point for the Bush Administration. The White House, under pressure from corporate interests, chiefly the automotive industry, chose to draw a line in the sand threatening to veto the bill if Democrats kept the raised CAFE standards in the bill.

To ensure the veto threat could stand against pressure from the Green movement, the corporate opponents of the raised CAFE standards launched public relations campaigns to counter NET's efforts and very quickly succeeded in derailing the support NET had been building in the general public. The message, “Too strict and too soon” was successfully propagated by industry and the Greens' focused message was brilliantly and effectively dissipated by industry-inserted discussions about various global climate change theories and complex conversations about what the extent of the government’s role to regulating national energy consumption should be. The confusing and distracting industry disinformation spread rapidly, and the pro-Green pressure from the public on Congress and the White House dropped to harmless levels.

NET was facing a defeat on the issues it was pushing and it needed a fast and massive surge of public activism to get the Bush Administration to back off its veto threat and give the Democrats the public support they needed to keep the raised CAFE standards in the bill.

NET called in Chris Abraham and the team to go online to rally an extraordinarily broad and diverse base of supporters ranging from left wing environmentalists, through the moderate Democrats and Republicans, all the way over to the national security-oriented “America First” right-wingers. There were potential supporters to be mobilized all across the spectrum with broadly divergent reasons for supporting higher CAFE standards. 

Strategy: Mobilize Broad Support Online, from Greens to “America-Firsters.” 

We launched an aggressive Online Conversation Marketing Campaign just days after NET made contact. During a high-powered 45-day campaign prior to the final vote on the bill, we reached out to the online communities with both a top-down “influencing the influencers” campaign, and with a bottom-up grassroots messaging campaign. With the top-down approach, the goal was to get the influencers to mobilize their readerships by echoing the NET message and calling their communities to action. The “bottom-up” grassroots messaging aimed to make the messaging ubiquitous in the places where the various potential supporters “lived” online, while keeping the messaging not only appropriate for the community in question but attractive and motivating as well.

Tactics: Influence the Influencers, Mobilize the Grassroots Online. 

The online “habitats” of the Green, Democratic, Republican, and “America First” communities and their influencers were identified, their interests in a higher gas mileage standards assessed, and effective and appropriate message models for each of these groupings crafted.

Email outreaches were done to the universes of influencers, each according to their political motivations, and Social Media News Releases were constructed and posted to make it easy for the online influencers to “steal” the NET message and calls to action and echo them.

To support the top-down campaign, Chris and his team also deployed a massive Online Grassroots Advocacy offensive reaching potential supporters in over one thousand online communities (including online message boards, forums, Usenet, Listservs, social media outlets, and the blogosphere). Members of these communities were engaged in conversation and re-informed of the clear facts surrounding the issues, the benefits of the higher CAFE standards for them and their communities, and the actions they as individuals could take to push the Bush Administration and their representatives.

Results: Victory: Higher CAFE Standards Passed into Law.  

In the end, we reached an estimated 250,000 online influencers and mobilized countless formerly passive activists all across the political spectrum. Support for the higher CAFE standards rose online and offline, and the political pressure mounted tremendously. The White House backed away from their veto threat, and the Democrats recognized the higher CAFE standards as non-sacrificable.

On December 19th, 2007, the Energy Bill passed, complete with the higher CAFE standards.

Challenge: Originally known as the Landmine Survivor Network (LSN), Survivor Corps had outgrown its focus on land mine survivors and was looking to re-brand the organization to focus on all survivors. This re-branding was launched at the same time that one of the founders of LSN, Jerry White, released his book, Getting Up When Life Knocks You Down: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis, which focused on sharing his experience and advice on navigating survivorship.

Strategy: The focus was placed on reaching out to those communities that already struggle with issues of survivorship - Military Veterans, Cancer Survivors to name but two. Using the book as a vehicle to promote the overall change in brand and the human interest story of Jerry White played critical roles in our overall strategy.

Tactics: The campaign focused on Online Outreach, messaging thousands of bloggers and sharing the news and offering a copy of the book, Getting Up When Life Knocks You Down, to every blogger who wanted one. In addition to our Online Outreach, we focused on building a presence on social networks, creating profiles, groups, and pages. Finally, the campaign heavily utilized Twitter and Facebook to message thousands of friends and followers on a daily basis.

Results: The campaign met with huge amounts of positive response with many, many blogs and book reviews being written and posted. Changing a brand is never an easy thing and is not done overnight, for this reason, we were very excited to retain Survivor Corps over a longer term contract enabling us to continue building up a presence in the social media space.

Testimonial: "Chris Abraham and his team have been a critical catalyst for the online debut of SURVIVOR CORPS. They helped us create a blogging buzz around the launch of Survivor Corps, offering savvy counsel on strategically targeted audiences who would resonate with our mission. They cleverly leveraged the release of my book -- Getting Up When Life Knocks You Down: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis -- to generate word of mouth promotion online and cultivate new supporters for our work to help survivors of war in the United States and abroad. Chris and his team will jump into a campaign with passion and panache. They've been responsive to our needs and a pleasure to work with from day one." -- Jerry White, Co-Founder, and Director, Survivor Corps"

Fotolia: Extending a European Brand into the US Market

Challenge: Get Europe's #1 stock photography brand established in the US market, where it was well behind its competitors in terms of its visibility.

Fotolia is the largest stock photography website in Europe and has been looking to increase growth beyond Europe into the United States. Our challenge was to generate buzz around Fotolia, increase awareness, encourage photographers to become members, and encourage submissions.

Fotolia was also looking to grow their presence on social networking sites and increase user engagement/interaction on Facebook and Twitter.

Strategy/Tactics: Leverage the influence of bloggers in target demographics such as photography blogs and technology blogs to promote Fotolia.

We reached out in three waves to bloggers in the target demographic contacting over 10,000 bloggers.

To better equip each blogger with special content relating to Fotolia our team created a social media news release including embeddable pictures, videos, banner ads and message copy concerning findings that bloggers could paste into their blogs.

In addition to blogger outreach, our took over the management of Fotolia’s Facebook and Twitter profiles. We were responsible for interacting with fans, functioning as customer service representatives, and seeding relevant content to encourage user interaction.

Results: Drastically increased the number of users interacting with the brand, secured hundreds of blog posts driving SEO and influencer endorsements, garnered millions of impressions with a permanent blogosphere presence that garners millions more each month.

Our blogger outreach garnered over 7 million impressions for Fotolia. The social media news release created for the Fotolia campaign is now a permanent part of the online landscape when searching for information on Fotolia.

The Fotolia Facebook Page grew by 104% over just 4 months from 10,848 fans to over 22,000. We added new applications to their page, “The World of Fotolia”, that have directly impacted the increase in user interaction.

Their Twitter handle experienced similar success growing from around 3,000 followers to over 15,000 in the same 4 month time frame.

Challenge:  To boost local awareness of Goethe-Institut Washington’s summer courses and cultural events in the short-term and build a strong social media following in the longer term.  Engage directly at first,  while simultaneously preparing the Institut staff to be able to handle social media interaction on their own.

Goethe-Institut is an internationally known organization whose mission is to promote German language and culture around the world.  Goethe-Institut Washington tasked Chris Abraham and his team with the challenge of reaching out to the local community to raise awareness via social media of its cultural offerings and German language courses.   It had a very limited social media presence through which to strengthen brand awareness, expand existing communities and increase support of the organization.

Strategies/Tactics: Create interest in the German culture by actively engaging in conversations and highlighting the tradition and quality of what Goethe-Institut Washington had to offer.

We took the Institut’s Facebook and Twitter profiles from a nascent stage and built and strengthened them in both reach and content.   After increasing the following base, the gains were capitalized by providing interesting and shareable content and constantly monitoring and engaging with the audience. A blogger outreach to 800 local bloggers was followed by a “meet and greet” at the Goethe-Institut Washington to entice the bloggers to spread the word about the Institute. Working in the Institut’s social media properties was shared and monitored by both the Institute and Abraham Harrison as a way to achieve immediate goals while also engaging in experiential training for the Institut staff.   Chris and his team also conducted a formal, in-person training day to the Goethe-Institut Washington staff as a final step to ensure that it was ready to take on full responsibility for the organization's ongoing social media efforts.

Results: Drastically increased brand awareness via online mentions and strengthened presence in social media and the broader Washington DC community.

Ensuring an engaged, interactive community was as important as the aim of increasing the base on Facebook and Twitter.  With our advice, Goethe-Institut Washington was able to better understand the users of such social networking sites and provide interesting and engaging content.  The public is attracted to these sites not just for information about classes and events, but also to give their input in discussions and polls.   The lnstitut is now connected to the local blogosphere and continues to build relationships with bloggers interested in the Institut’s offerings.  The staff is trained and the success has continued as Goethe-Institut Washington’s online presence continues to grow.

Challenge: To raise the profile of World Habitat Day online.

World Habitat Day is held on the first Monday of October every year. The theme of the October 2009 event was “Planning Our Urban Future” which tried to raise awareness of the need to improve urban planning in communities all over the world. We were tasked with helping Habitat for Humanity raise the online profile of World Habitat Day to encourage advocacy, foster education and increase donations

Strategy/Tactics: Leverage the influence of bloggers in target demographics to increase coverage of World Habitat Day.

We reached out to over 2,600 bloggers covering topics relevant to urban planning and humanitarian aid.

To better equip each blogger with special content relating to World Habitat Day, the team created a social media news release including embeddable pictures, videos, banner ads, and message copy that bloggers could paste into their blogs.

The purpose of the blogger outreach was to earn bloggers’ support and encourage them to act as amplifiers of the World Habitat Day message motivating readers to become involved in the effort.

Results: Drastically increased the amount of online coverage for the event over 635% from the previous year – 31 articles to 228 articles.

With a boost from our extensive blogger outreach in September, online coverage of World Habitat Day 2009 increased 635% from the previous year. 

Those 228 earned blog posts resulted in an estimated 1+ million impressions and boosted SEO results.

Testimonial: “On behalf of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), thank you for your company’s pro bono work on World Habitat Day blogger outreach during the fall of 2009. We were astounded by the results achieved by Chris Abraham and his team, and we appreciated your donation of staff time and resources.”

- Colleen Fitzgerald, Director of Advocacy Implementation, Habitat for Humanity International

Achieved over 260 earned media mentions and increased traffic to the client’s site by 150%.

Challenge: To elevate brand awareness that Kimberly-Clark Health Care has joined the fight against healthcare-associated infection.  In particular, to increase visits to the “Not on My Watch” website.

The “Not on My Watch” website was not receiving as much attention as the client hoped.  The client wanted to increase visits to the site, as well as more generally raise awareness of their role in helping healthcare professionals and patients prevent the spread of healthcare-associated infection.

Strategy: Leverage the influence of bloggers to broadly increase awareness of the “Not on My Watch” site through earned media. 

We began a five-month blogger outreach campaign on behalf of Kimberly-Clark Health Care.  Over 5,000 healthcare and related-issues bloggers were contacted and asked for their help to spread the word about the “Not on My Watch” site and the valuable resources it offered both patients and healthcare professionals.    

Tactics: Broad but personalized approach to bloggers, with the offer of easy-access resources for their blog posts in a Social Media News Release.

We identified blogger communities, assessed their interests, crafted appropriate message models, and developed a social media news release.  The bloggers were approached in groups spread across five months, with personal and immediate responses sent to every reply received about our initial message.  Continual follow-up and timely and friendly responsiveness to requests for additional information ensured that coverage was achieved across a wide swath of the healthcare-related blogosphere.

Results:  Garnered over 260 earned media mentions directly connected with the blogger outreach campaign.

Challenge: Boost global awareness of OLX and increase the number of users of the website in the U.S. and internationally.

OLX is an emerging leader in the online classifieds marketplace relying on innovative and globally-focused strategies to differentiate itself from other well-established competitors in the industry.  We were tasked with using online social media, including multi-lingual blogger outreach and Twitter campaigns in addition to press releases and A list outreach, to help bolster OLX’s reputation and increase users of the website both in the U.S. and internationally.

Strategy/Tactics: Contribute to an increase in website traffic through media outreach and multi-lingual blogger outreach and Twitter campaigns.

We launched campaigns on behalf of OLX in English, Spanish, Portuguese, European Portuguese and Polish.  These campaigns included targeted blogger outreach, twitter management, press release writing, and distribution to A-List tech bloggers.

We contacted over 6,000 U.S. and international bloggers distributing a tailored social media news release that included videos, explanation of OLX, pictures, and contact information; all formatted to be easily copied by bloggers and pasted into posts.

For Twitter management, our multinational team was able to manage their various profiles in the native tongue to be most effective.

Results: Executed the social media portion of the campaign leading to the doubling of OLX’s website traffic in one year, from 50 million unique viewers in 2008 to over 100 million in 2009.

Our comprehensive social media strategy has helped contribute to OLX doubling their website traffic in one year.  

The campaign’s social media news releases, press releases, TechCrunch and other A-List coverage garnered over 205 million impressions in the US, Mexico, Poland, and all of Latin America over a 10 month period. 

All of these impressions were achieved at a fraction of the cost that a similarly effective paid-ad campaign would have cost them.

Testimonial: “It's been a true pleasure working with the team. They increased the online awareness of OLX far more than I thought would be possible with English, Spanish and Portuguese bloggers.” - Fabrice Grinda, Co-Founder and Co- CEO, OLX

Challenge: The Youcast Corp. turned to us to gain access to the blogger community and to introduce Snapple's new product - Snapple Antioxidant Water - to the broader online community. The goal was to get as many bloggers to talk about this new product in the shortest amount of time.

Strategy: The first hurdle for a new product is to create a presence - to let people know it exists. We have relationships with many bloggers who have grown to trust the products and services that we introduce them to. We decided to reach out to many of our existing relationships and to contact and start conversations around the product with bloggers that we had not previously reached out too.

Tactics: We approached 10 unique demographics ranging from Yoga to Parenting bloggers. The need to offer a gift to the blogger is always a critical element of success in an online outreach campaign and in this campaign, we had a great gift. We were able to offer bloggers several bottles of the new Snapple Anti-oxidant Water. In some cases, this was prior to the product arriving on local store shelves.

We sent several waves of Online Outreach emails which resulted in approximately a 70% response rate.

Results: Our efforts garnered close to 80 blog posts across multiple demographics and helped create lively conversations in the blogosphere comparing the Snapple product with other leading brands.

Challenge: Drive branding of the new Snuggle Crème premium fabric softener via online social media.

We were tapped by Lowe Worldwide to run the social media side of the Snuggle branding campaign. Lowe Worldwide handled the traditional side while we was tasked with promoting Snuggle Crème via online social media, specifically through a blogger outreach campaign.

Strategy/Tactics: Drive demand for a $2-off coupon by leveraging the influence of hundreds of bloggers in target demographics.

Lowe and Snuggle had already identified two promising assets to be used in traditional media: a $2-off coupon and the Snuggle Bear. To ensure these would be appealing to bloggers as well, we combined the two into an animated widget.

We identified a set of over 2000 bloggers for four separate outreaches over an eight-week period. We created a social media news release complete with the embeddable widget, information, images, video, coupons, etc. Then began launching their personalized outreach campaign.

Results: Demand for the coupon exceeds maximum projections by 100% - Branding reaches over 2 million impressions via online influencers.

Our efforts garnered hundreds of earned media mentions on behalf of Snuggle Crème. The online social media news release (SMNR) microsite we created for the campaign received over 200,000 hits. Big spikes in online conversation were witnessed after each of our four outreaches. 

The campaign was so successful that Snuggle had to double the number of coupons they had originally allotted for the campaign.

Challenge: Generate widespread coverage and views of a new video by Unity Production Foundation called “My Fellow American” a campaign promoting the core American values of racial and religious tolerance in post 9/11 America.

The team at Unity Production Foundation (UPF) wanted to garner views for their new video short “My Fellow American” in the months proceeding the 10 year anniversary of September 11th.

In addition to video views, UPF wanted to encourage Americans to share their personal stories about positive experiences with their Muslim-American neighbors and re-encourage a mindset of tolerance and peace that has considerably suffered in our country since September 11th.

Our challenge was two-fold: drive viewers to the My Fellow American video, and increase traffic to the My Fellow American website.

Strategy/Tactics: Tap thousands of impassioned bloggers to reach millions of readers and dominate the search results with the end goal of increasing awareness, encouraging sharing, and generating video views.

Our team implemented a comprehensive, multi-staged and highly targeted blogger outreach campaign to encourage bloggers to share UPF’s video with their readers. As each of these bloggers expressed interest, we responded to them individually, encouraging them to post and providing them with any additional information they found necessary.

Results: Since the release of the “My Fellow American” short the YouTube video has garnered over 1,183,934 views with that number increasing by the thousands daily.

Over 1,387 bloggers responded to our outreach resulting in over 800 posts sharing the My Fellow American video in two months.

When we began working with UPF to promote the “My Fellow American” video in July, the video had just launched and had only a few hundred views. In just two months, the posts secured by our efforts garnered over 59 Million impressions. These impressions resulted in thousands of people sharing and commenting on the video.

Challenge: To increase registration with TeamUSA.org by offering access to exclusive US Olympic Committee content and information during the Winter 2010 Vancouver games.

The US Olympic Committee relies on fundraising to support American athletes who, unlike those in most other Olympic-participating countries, are not supported with government funds while they train for the games. Timed with a high-level of interest due to the Winter Games in February 2010, Chris Abraham and his team's challenge was to expand potential financial support for Team USA by raising awareness about the USOC’s mission.

Strategy/Tactics: Leverage blogger influence to increase awareness and support for Team USA by implementing a targeted and multi-staged outreach effort.

The team implemented a comprehensive, multi-staged blogger outreach to encourage bloggers to share information about supporting the US Olympic team in Vancouver. Over 4,500 bloggers were contacted during six outreach efforts. The first outreaches included a more general message to a broader set of demographics that would likely be open to the USOC message. The second outreaches, sent at the beginning of and during the Games, were more tightly focused on bloggers who were already covering the Olympics or the sports included in the Winter Games.

Results: Achieved 298 earned media mentions within 8 weeks

Garnered 298 earned media mentions, resulting in an estimated minimum of 5 million impressions. Registrations on the teamusa.org site significantly exceeded USOC’s targets, giving them a substantial new pool to approach with direct outreach in the future.

Challenge: Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation launched a newspaper exclusively for iPad users called The Daily.  We were tasked with spearheading the social media side of the launch promotions. This specifically included blogger outreach and social networking site profile management. 

While the initial task was helping promote The Daily through social media, upon launching a  new challenge presented itself. As with all emerging technologies, there were some glitches/issues with users downloading and using The Daily. We then stepped into the role of monitoring and responding to customer comments and queries that were emerging in the social media space. 

Strategy/Tactics: We custom created a universe of around 4,000 online influencers. We reached out in 3 rounds of messaging to announce the launch of The Daily and direct them to an easily copy and paste-able social media news release.  Our team responded individually to each blogger who replied to our initial emails.  This resulted in hundreds of posts and millions of impressions. 

As a result of closely monitoring various social media platforms, the team noticed some user questions and comments that needed attention from  The Daily. We then functioned as an extension of The Daily’s customer service team following up,  answering questions, and assisting The Daily users. 

Results: The six-week campaign led to over 250 posts generating millions of impressions. We are normally able to provide our clients with exact figures on how many impressions our efforts garnered. In the case of  The Daily, Abraham Harrison was only a piece of the marketing mix thus exact impressions were difficult to determine.  Our team, functioning as a branch of The Daily’s customer service team, created over 40 exemplar tweets for The Daily to use when addressing both negative and positive comments.  We also interacted with over 150 Twitter users during a three week period who were commenting on issues they were having with The Daily.