Project Objectives: Educate and increase awareness for the role of temperature in achieving healthy sleep.

Strategies and Tactics:

Drafting Original Editorial Content: To generate awareness for this issue, Amélie Company drafts editorial content and articles for trade publications. Most recently we authored a two-part series for a leading home furnishing trade publication about sleep physiology and how Outlast® bedding products can help mitigate temperature fluctuations, particularly as it relates to symptoms associated with menopause.

Social Media: Participating in conversations and discussions on the internet related to health and wellness; development of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace pages for viral marketing efforts. We combine these with participation in online message boards and forums.

Endorsements: We have had a great deal of success reaching out to influencers and menopausal experts for their endorsement of Outlast® bedding and sleepwear products.

Sponsorships: In honor of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month this past September, Outlast Technologies and Menopause The Musical Out Loud Tour^™ teamed up to raise awareness and funds for ovarian cancer research. For this promotion, Outlast donated a percentage of sales to ovarian cancer research.

This partnership gave Outlast a chance to do something positive for the community, while giving women the opportunity to experience the unique performance of Outlast® bedding products.

Media Coaching: Amélie Company works as an extension of Outlast’s staff, and as such is responsible for training management staff about working with the media. Group and one-on-one training about key messages has proven an efficient and effective way to insure maximum impact.

Results: We are pleased with the traction we’re getting, particularly with our core textile and bedding trade press. The coverage in consumer publications is also growing exponentially as Outlast’s reputation continues to grow. We have garnered over 15 million impressions across a variety of industries thanks to hits in national lifestyle publications like Skiing Magazine, Bicycling Magazine, Forbes + Forbes.com, Snowboarder Magazine, Women’s Health, Health Magazine, and inclusion in a technology segment for Martha Stewart Living Radio.

The company is also seeing this exposure translate into sales. In less than a year, Outlast has tripled its penetration in the bedding segment. Outlast’s revenues from bedding have almost doubled and it has become the single largest contributor to the company's profits.

Project Objectives:

Expose the brand to a mass audience of non-tennis fans and convey the brand’s core values of history and innovation

Generate10 million impressions of Babolat (the brand, the products, the players) in local, national and international media

• Strategies and Tactics
• Player Appearances: Amélie Company capitalized on the buzz leading up to the US Open through the Grand Slam event by leveraging media appearances of Babolat players to local, regional and international broadcast outlets.

Key Messaging: To establish Babolat’s strategic presence at the event, Amélie Company developed a theme and media hooks for players for media pitches as well as a key message platform.

Public and Media Outreach: Traditional PR tools included news releases, media alerts, pitching, custom packages for NYC area journalists with Babolat branded tennis balls, a wire release with event photos and a video news release. Online PR marketing tools included a series of html invitations to journalists, web banners on Babolat player fan sites and listings on event related websites.

Community Outreach: Amélie Company reached out to the New York City City Parks Foundation to create an opportunity for Babolat to participate in some cause-related marketing. During the event, Amélie Company also coordinated a press conference during which Eric Babolat, President and CEO of Babolat, announced a donation of tennis racquets, valued at $20,000, to the CityParks Tennis association of New York City. City Parks Tennis provides free tennis lessons for kids between the ages of 5 and 16.

Implementation and Development: Over 3 months Amélie Company pursued ongoing aggressive pitching to appropriate media outlets, both print and broadcast, in order to get editorial coverage. We also scheduled on-site media interviews with players and the Babolat CEO, arranged for photo opportunities and interaction with players and a hosted Q & A with the media pool.

Media Training: In order to effectively deploy key messages, we also conducted media training for the executive management team to assist in communications with members of the media in handling print and broadcast interviews.

Results: Amélie Company exceeded our and Babolat’s objectives, generating more than 30 million impressions, mostly in national broadcast media.

Babolat has become the fastest growing racquet company to enter the US market. The company grew from 0% of the market share in 2000 to nearly 18% in 2007. Company sales have more than tripled since introducing racquets, reaching 120 million dollars in 2007. Babolat is now number three in the US for tennis racquets.

Project Objectives :

• Increase awareness of CPRD programs
• Boost attendance at community outreach programs
• Bolster attendance and media coverage of CPRD events
• Improve the image of CPRD
• Improve the look and feel of CPRD’s brand

Strategies and Tactics : Target Audience Definition: Primary and secondary research methods gave us a clear and updated definition of the organization’s target audience. The new audience included a broader age group and a growing African-American population who stated that their culture and heritage were of increasing importance to them.

Re-branding: We drew from our market research findings to complete a refreshed and redesigned CPRD identity, responding to the client's request for a more professional, modern and clean image. Our final results consisted of a new logo, color palette, set of design elements and key messages. The new identity and design elements were incorporated into every subsequent media and piece of collateral.

Creative Development and Production: Amélie Company produced billboards, radio spots, bus signage, print collateral, press kits and more. We also developed a media plan, calendar of program rollout and original photo image library.

Media Outreach: Amélie Company developed an updated, custom list of key media contacts which we maintained and farmed regularly with news releases, media advisories and story pitches. To launch concerts or school events, we invited the media to special press briefings where they could 'scoop' the event before it went live to the public. We organized onsite interviews in conjunction with custom photo shoots and special arrangements for filming TV footage. In efforts to keep our media audience current and updated, we relied on email blasts, a particularly effective medium for time-sensitive announcements.

Community Events: Amélie Company created school and youth center lists to reach our most relevant contacts – African-American youths – with news releases and other media information. We also established personal contacts with school directors, administrators, and key government representative. We fostered these relationships with regular meetings, performance invitations, special appearances, seminars, phone calls and e-mails. Event such as the 5 Points Jazz Festival were critical for maintaining and building these relationships.

Direct Marketing Campaigns: Direct mail flights to a database of 20,000 contacts delivered print promotional pieces to constituent households. Email blasts reached 100,000 contacts.

Paid Advertising: Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Colorado Homes and Lifestyles, 5280, Westword and more.

Results: Amélie Company’s programs met Cleo Parker Robinson’s assigned objectives. In terms of program awareness, our three-fold approach to media coverage produced a significant increase in awareness among our target audience. Media coverage in publications directed towards African-American populations increased most dramatically – anecdotal evidence points to a 100% increase.

Our hugely successful publicity efforts are reflected in the editorial coverage we garnered on behalf of CPRD in national (Ebony, Jet and African Magazine) and local (Urban Spectrum, Brother Jeff, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, KUSA 9News, WB2, Colorado Public Radio and La Voz) publications. Concert ticket sales increased by 17%, and marketing and communications costs decreased compared to previous years.

Project Objectives Amélie created the "Trendy Cupcake Bake Sale for Charity" to raise public awareness and funds for Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline Colorado, a local non-profit providing nutrition education programs.

• Increase awareness of the need in our community and the importance of local fundraising to serve that need.
• Drive attendance and participation at our event to raise money through the sale of cupcakes.

Strategies and Tactics

Community Outreach: Local bakeries engaged as our partners in this friendly competition and donated cupcakes for us to sell at the event. These businesses promoted the event in their stores and neighborhoods as well as to their database of customers.

Partnerships: Amélie Company solicited a partnership with a local Starbucks location that included the use of space for the promotion, promotion of the event on-site, free coffee with donations and the use of Starbucks branding. Starbucks' reputation for giving back in the community gave them an opportunity to also fulfill part of their local mission in Denver.

Volunteer Management: We worked with Operation Frontline’s volunteer corps to help promote the event by coordinating business participation and the event. We also leveraged Operation Frontline’s highly targeted database for event promotion.

Media Outreach: Through press releases, media advisories and press drops with cupcakes, Amélie conducted media outreach to TV, radio, print and online media outlets. Resulting coverage included KUSA 9News on Colorado and Company, CW2 TV, KOSI, KYGO, KALC, KEZW, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Denver Business Journal, and Altitude Sports.

We enlisted the help of local celebrities to judge the competition, which added a layer of credibility for this first-time event and leveraged their involvement for earned media exposure. Press drops were extremely successful in generating day-of mentions and on-air interviews on Denver-area radio stations.

Grassroots: We developed suite of collateral materials for promotion including business cards, flyers, postcards/takeaways with recipes, poster and sandwich board for sidewalks. These were distributed by and displayed in partnering bakeries and other businesses, generating great enthusiasm building up to the event. Grassroots outreach in the community by our Amélie Company street team and participating bakeries proved successful in achieving our second goal of attendance and sales.

Talking Points/Media Training: For our Operation Frontline spokespersons and celebrity media judges, we developed key messages and talking points for discussing the activities of Operation Frontline and the needs it serves in the Denver community. Members of the Amélie Company team attended classes at a local high school taught by Operation Frontline volunteers to develop testimonials and real-life examples of how Operation Frontline is making a difference in children's lives. We carefully reviewed these with our spokespersons and conducted media training for them to practice delivering the messages. Our Amélie Company PR professionals also acted as spokespersons in the promotion of the event.

Event Planning: Amélie Company planned and executed every detail of the event from table rentals to coordinating bakery deliveries to creating the criteria for judging the cupcakes.

Results: Amélie Company garnered over 3 million impressions in the Denver area. The concept and execution was so successful that Share our Strength made a case study of the event for other affiliates around the country to adopt.