Content Marketing Today

The Public Relations Secret Behind the $1 Million House Coupon Phenomenon

How a small PR firm built an abbondonza of buzz for a Florida client with a house to sell.

Big ideas can trump big bucks.  This is especially true in the new Internet-powered world of public relations. 

Savvy marketers with minimal budgets can get pervasive press coverage that would have been impossible five or 10 years ago.  Just ask Tina Haisman, Southwest Florida PR professional, who was able to generate an astonishing amount of TV, radio, and print coverage far beyond Florida borders. 

Tina’s challenge was to help a Southwest Florida homeowner that needed to sell his multimillion dollar mansion in a very tough real estate market.  The homeowner knew that he needed to reach well beyond his local market for likely buyers of his luxurious home.  So, he cooked up the idea of a $1 million coupon that would be offered to anyone who bought his house.

She began with a traditional public relations approach of assembling a list of a hundred or so media contacts that might be open to writing about the unique coupon idea, particularly in the area of real estate.  She would then plan to e-mail reporters and follow-up with phone calls.  For decades, some variation of this proven approach has worked well to get news coverage.  But, without a lot of time, a big staff, and a big-budget, she could expect good, but limited success.

Instead, motivated by the client’s reiterated push for’ buzz’, Tina decided to make a big bet on a social media press release approach via PR Web.  This enabled Tina and her client to reach and influence a global audience with minimum effort and maximum impact.

She created a persuasive news release that was optimized for social media exposure. The release included:

• a brief summary at the top that highlighted key points and keywords
• an embedded YouTube video which offered a house tour
• a photo of the house
• a hyperlink to a dedicated webpage for the house itself
• an attached file of the actual $1 million coupon
• multiple options to print, blog, and share the release
• a hyperlink to the million dollar coupon webpage
• a host of social media bookmarks for sharing
• phone and e-mail contact info for Tina

All of these elements add genuine value to the PR Web news release, but the power of the editorial appeal derives from the big idea: the $1 million coupon exemplifies the need for marketers to be really creative to help their clients sell products and services. In other words, the press release was not about a house for sale.  It was about a wonderfully creative marketing idea that happened to be perfectly in tune with a challenging American economy

Here is how Tina put it in the summary of the release:

The downturn in the real estate market has inspired some creative thinking. A Fort Myers, Fla. couple, ready to sell their $10 million dream home, thought of an inventive way to attract a buyer to their property. They created a $1 million coupon and placed it in local and national newspapers. The couple hopes this creative real estate marketing idea will help attract a buyer for the home.

Tina noted that the realtor invested in advertising in appropriately targeted, high profile publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.  Their thinking was that, apart from their intrinsic merits, these targeted ads would underscore the seriousness of their marketing effort.  Even though they did get press coverage from some of these ads, Tina emphasizes that the overwhelming impact came from the SEO-optimized PR Web release.

The effectiveness of this new approach hit home with Tina when she realized that her client was getting extensive media coverage from reporters who had no need to call her to cover the story.  The information and links she had provided on the PR Web release was comprehensive enough so that they had exactly what they needed to do their job.  That timesaving element is increasingly important for reporters who are having to work harder than ever in a challenging media environment. 

Of course, Tina saves time and effort, to not only did she not have to make hundreds of outreach phone calls, but she did not have to field incoming phone calls in order to generate the press coverage and the ensuing buzz she sought for her client.

Thus, a big idea nicely articulated in a well-structured social media release generated global coverage that even big-time PR shops would envy. 

The cost of the PR Web release: $360.  The public relations pay off: priceless.

If you are looking to build buzz with big ideas, I suggest you get in touch with Tina Haisman.  She has become an ardent advocate and successful practitioner of the new Internet-centric public relations.