A Viral Campaign Begins

Earlier this year, I was retained by DoodleBra to get them some press for their product. My initial meeting with Randy, Betty Ann Segal, Deborah Delaunay and one other person was to discuss how Midtown Marketing Group could help them grow their brand awareness. I explained – the rules of marketing change rapidly and public relations is front loaded. Most of the work is done in the beginning; interviewing them, learning more about them and their business, their product line, researching potential media outlets that would be interested in their press release or pitch, and preparing their pitch grid. (A pitch grid is a fancy name for a story-pitch tool that is visual and laid-out in grid fashion.)

Once the research is done, press releases, new product releases and pitches are written based on what is learned. The power of their brand relies on the ability to focus. That is why defining their target market would help to strengthen their brand's effectiveness. In the initial meeting, I saw fashion, teen entrepreneur, and party favor attributes as the assets that I could leverage. Once retained, we could flesh-out the strategy over a few days, and build-in the flexibility to roll with the punches. Mounting a visibility campaign and build awareness in target top-tier dailies, weeklies, long-lead monthlies, syndicated columnists, reviewers, radio and TV talk shows, and bloggers. Blogs also have comment fields, allowing users to leave comments and be more interactive with the blog author.

Their web site was good but needed to operate more like a product driven site. Who comes to the site should experience easy navigation and be able to find what they want. The web site works more as a digital, online brochure and information gathering site. Adding a shopping cart is a good idea, so when a buyer does come - they can buy. Randy said he was working with an India company to get that done.

I advised they would need an online press kit. They had the makings for one since they had been published locally; the information just needed to be re-structured and included into a link on the site called PRESS. (A press kit is a promotional package that includes press releases, tip sheet, bios, FAQ sheets, photographs of you, your business, product shots, logos, etc., reviews, published pieces and other pertinent information.)

It all boils down to budget. Different amounts get different things. I am, however, mindful of the budgetary constraints. Randy stated they would love to have press right away as they want to sell bras. I explained it does not always work that way, sometimes you can get the press right away and other times, the press picks you up when they have the need. I added that I could pitch them to my sales database. We could try and get a rep to rep his product but they generally want a line not just one product. Randy said he would retain me to pitch my PR and sales database. I pitched 1200 contacts including manufacturer's reps, resident buyers, QVC rep, television, radio, print and bloggers. And whala!

http://www.beautycutie.co.uk/2009/04/doodle-bra.html

http://www.pinkblog.it/post/3527/doodle-bra-decora-il-tuo-reggiseno-personalizzato

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/crafts/2009/04/doodle_your_bra.html

http://www.lilyqtalksclothes.com/2009/06/doodled-all-over-that-shiz.html

Fab Sugar

Glamour Magazine
http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/slaves-to-fashion/2009/04/all-of-that-plus-the.html

Lingerie Buyer Magazine

The View

http://abc.go.com/watch/the-view/167365/241870/the-view-1120

http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=doodle+bra&date=2009-11-20&sa=X

http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=di7yAlNt7j7lfaMFs4s_XGtQ-UI-M

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Doodlebra&spell=1&oi=spell&sa=X

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Doodlebra

http://hotissuestrends.blogspot.com/2009/11/doodle-bra.html