The "case study" format in newspapers is the most PR-friendly story construction possible so I'm excited to notice that The New York Times ran one about social media marketing today.
Jane L. Levere reports on how EPC Cigar Company's CEO Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., chose a social media campaign over traditional advertising to launch the company.
The great thing about "case study" articles is there is no downside - if the format is challenge/solution/lesson, if there is no solution, there is no story so they can't turn negative on you and no matter what problems you admit to, you know you'll get a happy ending that positions your client as a problem solver.
While admitting that absolute numbers of Facebook fans (700) and Twitter followers (250) were small in the first months of the campaign, the article closes with this kicker:
The 25,000 limited-edition cigars that EPC Cigar has been releasing monthly since December “are selling extremely quickly,” Mr. Perez-Carrillo III said. He projects sales of $1.5 million this year.
There's another PR lesson as well - if the company wasn't willing to disclose those figures, it couldn't erase the small absolute numbers in Twitter and Facebook. Often emerging companies need to hide their size to protect supplier relationships but in this case, disclosure meant a huge boost in visibility via The New York Times.
Comments