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Campus Books Case Study – New Industry Data PR Campaign – Chicago Public Relations Company

By on January 15, 2024 in Campaigns, Client Case Studies, PR for Businesses, Press Release, Public Relations

Chicago Public Relations Company Paramount Public Relations Client Case Study

THE CLIENT:

CampusBooks.com, the leading textbook price comparison website that tracks over eight million college textbooks. The online resource searches thousands of sellers and compares prices on new and used books, rentals and eBooks for students.

THE ASK:

Chicago Public Relations Company Paramount Public Relations was tasked to launch a public relations campaign leveraging CampusBooks.com’s new data in time for back-to-school coverage.  The public relations program goals were to:

  • Generate media coverage of the company and its new data
  • Position the website as a leading resource for textbook comparison; buying and selling
  • Differentiate CampusBooks.com from its competition and position it as an industry leader
  • Drive traffic to the website and increase sales

THE CAMPAIGN:

The public relations company’s campaign announced how COVID-19 severely impacted the back to school textbook industry according to data from Campusbooks.com.  The data revealed that there were price increases, a new textbook purchasing boom and how rentals and used book sales declined.

Here is a link to the press release.

Other pitch angles the public relations company used were ways to save money on college textbooks, best apps for college students, ways to cut textbook costs, among others.

The data was based on CampusBooks.com’s textbook sales and searches in 2019 and 2020. During that time over 1.4 million students visited CampusBooks.com to research and compare prices about textbook options.

THE RESULTS:

Chicago Public Relations Company Paramount Public Relations secured media placements in U.S. News & World Report, Yahoo News, Chase.com, Digital Trends, University magazine, The College Investor, Mashable, among many others. Chicago Public Relations Company Media Results

ABOUT CAMPUSBOOKS:

CampusBooks.com carries over eight million new and used college textbooks in one convenient location. The online resource searches thousands of sellers and compares prices on new and used books, rentals and eBooks for students. For more information, visit www.campusbooks.com.

ABOUT PARAMOUNT PUBLIC RELATIONS:

Founded in 2003, Paramount Public Relations is a full-service public relations and marketing agency in Chicago that offers big-agency expertise with a boutique, entrepreneurial mindset. With every campaign, the firm makes it their goal to solve communications challenges, build brand identity and create visibility in the competitive media marketplace. The agency’s programs aggressively and creatively push client’s position to key audiences—consumers, employees, industry peers, analysts and, of course, national and local media—and they demonstrate a profound understanding of how to work with these audiences and gatekeepers. Above all, Paramount Public Relations works hard and measures their performance by the results. The company has been chosen by Expertise.com as one of the Best PR Firms in Chicago for the fourth year in a row. For more information, please visit www.paramountpr.com, call 312-544-4190 or email info@paramountpr.com.

 

PR Company Case Study – Farmer’s Fridge Launch: Breaking the Fast Food Mold

By on March 10, 2021 in Campaigns, Client Case Studies, Communications, Farmer’s Fridge, Launch, Media, PR for Businesses, Press, Press Release, Public Relations, Social Media for Business

Chicago PR Company Paramount Public Relations Client Case Study – Farmer’s Fridge Launch

PR SUMMARY

Breaking the Mold on Fast Food

Vending kiosks dispensing restaurant-quality salads and snacks made fresh each morning was virtually unheard of before Farmer’s Fridge debuted, making headlines not only in the United States but also across the globe in countries such as Brazil, France, Spain, Italy and the UK. The Chicago-based company’s mission was to create healthy salads, soups and snacks easily accessible through completely independent and technologically advanced vending kiosks. Placed in high-traffic areas, Farmer’s Fridge’s kiosks targeted anyone who wanted to make a healthier on-the-go meal choice. The PR company recommended a campaign that leveraged their environmentally conscious, unique mason-jar salad packaging as well their donation of day-old salads to a local Chicago food pantry.

Since Farmer’s Fridge was a start-up company with a very limited budget, Paramount Public Relations leveraged media relations to the fullest. The public relations launch of Farmer’s Fridge garnered over 2 billion media impressions, sparked global discussion and challenged the concept of “fast food” today as we know it.

RESEARCH

Vending Kiosk vs. Vending Machine

While traveling for his previous job, the founder and CEO of Farmer’s Fridge, realized that healthy eating on-the-go came with a tradeoff. At highway rest areas and common fast food establishments, it was nearly impossible to find healthy, fresh options. While traditional vending machines were commonly associated with candy bars and quarters, Farmer’s Fridge’s refrigerated high-tech, touch-screen and credit-card-only kiosk seemed to fall in its own category.

One of the PR company’s main strategies was appropriately positioning Farmer’s Fridge in both the consumer and vending industry. It was important to differentiate Farmer’s Fridge from traditional vending machines without offending other players in the industry. The program strategically avoided the vending machine stigma altogether by positioning Farmer’s Fridge as a vending “kiosk.”

PR COMPANY PLANNING

The objective was to successfully launch a targeted public relations campaign for Farmer’s Fridge and the goals included:

  • Introduce Farmer’s Fridge to business and consumer and trade media
  • Generate coverage of Farmer’s Fridge in key media outlets
  • Drive traffic to Farmer’s Fridge kiosks
  • Position Farmer’s Fridge as the newest innovation in the vending machines—natural, healthy, fresh food easily available to the health-conscious consumer
  • Differentiate Farmer’s Fridge from other innovative vending machines
  • Leverage the founder as an innovator and industry leader

Farmer’s Fridge target audience included key health, food and trade media, consumers, business partners and health enthusiasts.

STRATEGY AND EXECUTION

Catering & Media Drops

In addition to the kiosk locations, Farmer’s Fridge also offered catering across the Chicagoland area to local businesses. Before the official launch, the team targeted mid-size companies in the Chicago Loop that were not only located near the kiosk but also corporations that could potentially become catering customers. Not only did this help test the product but also grew organic, local buzz around the concept, especially on social media. After the catering initiative, the PR team then moved on to media drops at top Chicago media outlets.

Leveraging Competitors, TV Segments and Trend Stories

For the official launch of Famer’s Fridge, Paramount Public Relations distributed the launch press release over PR Newswire and to comprehensive, targeted media lists that included both local and national media. Some additional tactics included:

  • Identifying other vending “outliers” across the globe to align with Farmer’s Fridge, including caviar, champagne and makeup vending machines to include in a national trend story. Coverage included Good Morning America, San Francisco Chronicle and more.
  • Pitching a healthy eating television segment tied to the New Year, which resulted in a WGN-TV
  • Leveraging the popularity of the Mason jar salad trends seen on Pinterest and other websites to position Farmer’s Fridge as trend-forward.
  • Monitoring timely news for any relevant angles and competitor coverage.

PR EVALUATION

Local & National Media Attention

Paramount Public Relations secured media placements in the following media outlets: NBC Nightly News, CNN, SHAPE, Fox Business News, Chicago Grid, The Huffington Post, Good Morning America, Progressive Grocer, Huffington Post, BusinessWeek, Food Network, The Daily Meal, WMAQ-TV, Yahoo! Small Business, Vending Times, Entrepreneur, MSNBC, WCIU-TV, CNET, The Daily Mail, Crain’s Chicago Business, Examiner, WGN-TV, Daily Candy, PureWOW, Well and Good and many more.

Closing

The public relations efforts for the launch of Farmer’s Fridge garnered more than 2 billion impressions with a very limited budget.

ABOUT PARAMOUNT PUBLIC RELATIONS

Founded in 2003, Paramount Public Relations is a full-service public relations and marketing agency in Chicago that offers big-agency expertise with a boutique, entrepreneurial mindset. With every campaign, the firm makes it their goal to solve communications challenges, build brand identity and create visibility in the competitive media marketplace. The agency’s programs aggressively and creatively push client’s position to key audiences—consumers, employees, industry peers, analysts and, of course, national and local media—and they demonstrate a profound understanding of how to work with these audiences and gatekeepers. Above all, Paramount Public Relations works hard and measure their performance by the results. For more information, please visit www.paramountpr.com, call 312-544-4190 or email info@paramountpr.com.

Chevrolet Shakes Up Their Latest Press Release

By on June 26, 2015 in Communications, Media, Press Release, Public Relations

Microsoft Word - 0828-Chevrolet-Cruze-3-Million.docx

Chevrolet is bringing things further into the digital age with an all-emoji press release. Emojis are small pictures frequently used in text messages to convey emotion.

The new 2016 Chevrolet Cruze was announced in a press release Monday, and was decoded the next day for those who were unable to read the emoji message.

Why did Chevrolet decide to write an emoji press release?

Previously, Chevrolet’s attempts to reach a younger demographic have been underwhelming. Creating an all-emoji press release was their way of appealing to the demographic that would have the greatest likelihood to buy a car that is priced around $16,000 such as the 2016 Chevrolet Cruze.

According to PR Daily, Chevrolet’s new technique will likely bring in more interest from the targeted audience for the new Chevrolet model. With this departure from a normal press release, PR Daily said Chevrolet is trying to attract younger consumers who use emojis often.

Chevrolet was able to create a press release that not only drew the desired attention, but required active participation for those who were interested in attempting to decode the emoji message. The car brand also took to Twitter to tease their press release by using even more emojis and the hashtag: #ChevyGoesEmoji. Commercials starring celebrities Norm Macdonald, Zendaya Coleman, Jamie Chung and Ashley Benson were posted on Chevrolet social media accounts. The commercials show the young celebrity women teaching the older generation how to use emojis.

Chevrolet’s goal was to reach a young demographic who can afford a car like the new Chevrolet model. Because consumers respond more favorably to celebrities that they recognize, Chevrolet chose young celebrities that are popular right now and are heavily followed on social media for the campaign. The celebrity and consumer interaction on Twitter is evidence that Chevrolet succeeded in making their announcement interactive. Twitter was torn as to whether the press release was effective, but it definitely drew attention and sparked a discussion.

The method was attention-grabbing, but even though this was the first time that emojis have been used in PR, other companies have used emojis as part of their marketing strategy. According to Mashable, today’s marketers have to “speak their language” to appeal to the younger generation—and emojis are part of the language.

According to Digiday, many companies are trying to be more appealing to the younger generation. Companies are using trendy words like “fleek” and “bae” in attempt to appeal to the younger audience. The incorporation of pop culture into marketing shows that marketers have realized that the younger generation is becoming increasingly important to business.

Will other companies follow suit and get creative with their press releases?

Beckett Simonon’s New Goodyear Welted Collection

By on November 14, 2013 in Beckett Simonon, Press, Press Release, Public Relations

Paramount Public Relations, Inc. has been assisting with the launch of Beckett Simonon’s new Goodyear Welted collection, which contains beautiful, high-quality men’s shoes for under $139. Beckett Simonon is a a leading online retailer of men’s footwear that sells high-end footwear, including their new Goodyear Welted collection, at an amazingly affordable price. What is Goodyear Welt? A type of shoe construction that is the gold standard for American, high quality shoes. However, most Goodyear Welted shoes these days are well over $300 and not in the budget for many men.

But Beckett Simonon footwear is styled for a “new breed of gentlemen” that want to look dapper but are also price conscious.

Thanks to Beckett Simonon’s direct-to-consumer business model, Beckett Simonon is able to offer their shoes at an affordable price without sacrificing quality. Instead, Beckett Simonon is taking the extra money needed to go through retailers and putting it right back in the customer’s pocket. Plus, free shipping!

Pretty awesome we’d say!

For more information, visit www.beckettsimonon.com!

BECKETT SIMONON LAUNCHES ITS NEW GOODYEAR WELTED COLLECTION

Online-Only Men’s Footwear Retailer Offers High End Product Collection at an Affordable Price

Beckett Simonon, a leading online retailer of men’s footwear, announces the launch of their new Goodyear Welted collection, which is available for under $139 thanks to the company’s unique direct-to-consumer business model. Styled for a “new breed of gentleman,” Beckett Simonon is ideal for American men who want to look dapper but are also price conscious.

As the American gold-standard in quality shoe construction, Goodyear Welt construction* is most commonly found in expensive shoe brands that typically cost more than $300, however, since Beckett Simonon bypasses all “middleman” retailer costs and ships all their products directly to consumers free of charge, they are able to offer their Goodyear Welted collection at an affordable price without sacrificing quality.

“We see a huge gap in the men’s footwear market. It’s outrageous that well-made leather shoes retail above $300. We operate without the complex layers of big businesses (no middlemen, no distributors, no expensive physical stores, etc.) so we can offer the same quality products for a much more affordable price,” says Andres Niño, CEO and co-founder of Beckett Simonon. “By selling directly to consumers we bypass the traditional retail markup, around 2.5X, so we are technically selling to consumers at wholesale prices.”

Highlights of the Goodyear Welted collection include:

 

“Beckett Simonon is a great alternative for guys who want to look dapper but are also price conscious.  Good style doesn’t end with a nice suit or well-fitted clothes, there are also shoes, but very few guys can afford to spend $300+ on a pair of fine shoes,” says Nicholas Hurtado, lead designer and co-founder.

Beckett Simonon is the only online footwear company to sell Goodyear Welted construction shoes under $139, setting them apart from competitors with equivalent craftsmanship and materials but retailing above $300.

*ABOUT GOODYEAR WELT CONSTRUCTION

As the American gold-standard in quality shoe construction, Goodyear Welt construction holds together the sole, insole and upper sole with one thick stitch and a leather welt. Between the insole and outsole is a cork layer that creates a custom-like footbed, which makes the shoe breathable and flexible.

ABOUT BECKETT SIMONON

Beckett Simonon is a leading online retailer of affordable men’s footwear. Launched in 2012 by Co-founders Andres Niño and Nicholas Hurtado, Beckett Simonon is a direct-to-consumer value-oriented brand that sells shoes to a new breed of gentlemen who want to look good but are price conscious. Beckett Simonon’s newest Goodyear Welted collection utilizes the gold standard for high-quality shoe construction while being sold at an affordable price. For more information, please visit http://www.beckettsimonon.com/.

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