Turn nuggets of info from clients or bosses into media gold

Last week I shared a 4-step process for uncovering great story ideas inside your organization.

Today, here’s a great campaign that resulted from that approach.

John Frazier of NYC’s Quinn PR was representing some Caribbean resorts and was always hungry for news to pitch about them. He landed some precious minutes with his client, the director of sales and marketing for the parent company in that area.

Over lunch at Shula’s the client mentioned he had overheard a conversation between two housekeepers at one of the resorts. One said she was trying to get pregnant and the other encouraged her to eat pumpkin soup and have her husband drink sea moss elixir. Apparently those are traditional island fertility-boosters.

Check out what John and his team did with that single nugget of info gleaned from a throwaway line during small talk:

They proposed a promotional package for couples that transcended the tired, typical “romance package” that throws together some champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries and rose petals sprinkled on the bed.

Instead, they bundled couples massages with daily doses of pumpkin soup and sea moss elixir. An enterprising account executive suggested, “Let’s call this the ‘Procreation Vacation,’” and a catch phrase was born.

John’s team worked with the client to have three different resorts from different brands offer the package – because “three makes a trend,” as John says. Then they pitched the story, landing significant coverage.

But it gets better. A freelance travel writer went down to cover the package. She took her husband with her and, lo and behold, she got pregnant.

John’s team pitched her “success story” and landed another round of coverage, including an article distributed national via the AP.

And after she delivered her baby, John’s team landed the happy new parents and child on Good Morning America. The “Procreation Vacation” was still yielding coverage more than a year after its “conception.”

All from one chat over lunch.

John shared more details on this campaign, as well as five others he’s run that have earned worldwide publicity, during one of my Inner Circle training sessions earlier this month. If you’d like to learn more about this program that can show you how to replicate successful media relations campaigns, check out this page.