BEHIND THE SPARKLE
We think differently.
We find the sparkle.
Here's a look at some of our shiniest examples.
When we started working with Macon, Georgia we immediately heard the rumblings that Ocmulgee National Historic Park was expected to be named the next National Park within the year. We seized this once-in-a-lifetime newsworthy opportunity for them and were able to land them on not one, not two, but eight “Where to Go” lists for the following year including Bloomberg, Men's Journal, Conde Nast Traveler, AFAR, Frommer’s, Southern Living, Insider, The New York Times and a bonus pick up by CBS This Morning as Conde Nast Traveler’s Editor-in-Chief appeared on the morning show to highlight the top destinations. We spent $0 to earn more than 678 million impressions and $6.2 million in value in the first 8 months of working with the DMO.
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We also immediately identified the opportunity of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival as the signature festival for the city. We began work to highlight the festival as the ideal time to visit the area, focusing as many feature stories as we could for the month of March. We also initiated a Pink Provisions Trail, highlighting the rose-colored culinary treats that were created in honor of the celebrations each year. In just two years since TK PR began working with Visit Macon, attendance at the Cherry Blossom Festival- the city's signature event held annually in March - is up by more than 35% from visitors traveling from 50 or more miles away and the economic impact of the festival has doubled.
We Will Never
Guarantee Results
You Can Become a Leisure Destination
When TK PR was hired by Greenville, SC leisure tourism was not part of the conversation for the DMO. But we quickly realized the tremendous opportunity the city had as a hidden gem destination with an up-and-coming food scene. As time went on the visitor’s bureau shifted focus to target leisure travelers to the destination and we continued to work to promote the assets of the entire destination. We’ve hosted almost 500 individual press trips and secured more than 1,500 National stories on behalf of Greenville, South Carolina since 2010. The New York Times naming Greenville one of the 52 Places to Go in both 2017 and again in 2023, The Today Show featuring Greenville as a Great Last Minute Summer Getaway, CBS Saturday Morning saying Greenville was one of the Hottest Vacation Destinations in the World. And perhaps our single most exciting moment was when the city was touted by Food & Wine as one of the next great food cities in the U.S. twelve years after we set out to make a name for Greenville as a culinary hot spot.
We are constantly seeking new opportunities to keep Greenville top of mind- whether it’s launching a Mayonnaise Trail, making 10,000 sandwiches in one day, or bringing celebrities back for a homecoming (Here’s looking at you, Tyler Florence!) BTW, that mayo trail garnered more than 4 dozen national and local media stories in outlets such as Food & Wine, Southern Living and Paste Magazine. The landing page on the DMO website received more than 10,000 page views in the first 5 months.
WORLDWIDE
With no official tourism board to lend assistance, Haig Point on Daufuskie Island had no formal DMO support when they hired TK PR to raise their profile. Quickly, we recognized the opportunity to leverage the lack of tourism promotion on the island and worked that into Haig Point’s PR strategy. If you’re going to convince people to buy a house on a secluded island, they need to be able to visit the island and experience what life would be like first. Over 7 years we hosted more than 100 journalists on the “island with no bridge” and secured coverage in the biggest media outlets in the country. Haig Point was featured by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron’s, Southern Living, Travel + Leisure, Garden & Gun, Forbes, Conde Nast Traveler, and more.
What Comes First... The Homeowner or the Tourist?
Get Your Event Noticed
Landing National press coverage for a festival or event can be difficult, so how do you get some of the country’s most celebrated food journalists to notice your city?
Invite them to judge the largest annual food festival in town.
When we began working with Fall for Greenville, we had an idea to not only shake things up for the annual “Silver Spoon” competition- a culinary showdown amongst all 45+ restaurant participants- but to get noticed by major National media. Instead of using local judges as the festival had done since inception, we decided to invite guest media from across the country who write about food for a living to do the tasting.
Since we began working with Fall for Greenville, we’ve hosted 28 journalists spanning four festival weekends. Not only has the title of Silver Spoon champion become more coveted than ever, but the festival National media attention has reached new heights. Journalists representing Real Simple, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Eater, Food & Wine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, The Local Palate, and more have experienced Fall for Greenville firsthand, and the festival has been featured by AARP, HGTV, Country Living, Taste of the South, The Local Palate, Well + Good, and more.
If You Can’t Bring Them to Your Destination, Bring Your Destination to Them.
Perhaps the greatest lesson a tourism destination could learn during the pandemic was how to bring their destination to others — or armchair tourism as the media coined it. When you can’t travel, how can you experience somewhere far away? We hosted a virtual tour of Daufuskie Island for some of the top media in the US when travel was at a standstill.
During the live experience, four spokespeople from the community shared their personal stories (and businesses) with the media and toured attendees around some of the island’s most popular attractions. Twenty six virtual participants including editors from Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, AFAR, Southern Living, Taste of the South led directly to 14 national media features and mentions, in national outlets such as Southern Living, Forbes, Parents and The Points Guy. In total, the subsequent media coverage following the virtual event was valued at more than $5.3 million. With an investment of just $1,200 the ROI for this event was just shy of 450,000%.
Give Them Something New to Talk About
Inevitably in the lifecycle of working with a PR firm, there will be slow periods. But when months have gone by and there’s nothing “new” or timely to talk about, it’s time to create something that will generate some buzz. During the pandemic in 2020, one of the biggest trends in travel became a play on working from home but at hotels…
As a weight loss and wellness resort, Hilton Head Health already had a majority of guests staying for weeks at a time. We encouraged them not to reinvent the model but just modify it slightly to offer a new program with designated work hours during the day so that professionals can schedule zooms, calls, emails time etc at specific times without missing any of the scheduled wellness activities.
Within just a few weeks WorkWell at Hilton Head Health was live on the website and we were able to secure a story with The Wall Street Journal (along with a pretty fantastic quote from the CEO). WorkWell wound up being featured by CNBC, Essence, American Spa, Recommend.com and Islands- reaching 31 million people that may not have ever otherwise heard of Hilton Head Health prior to 2020.
Find a Reason to Celebrate
Sometimes you have a great client but when the product doesn't change, the media opportunities run out. After securing major features for SuperflyKids' top product — Powercapes — in Inc., The Huffington Post, Redbook, Parents, CNN Money and on Nightly Business Report, NBC Nightly News and Good Morning America, we knew we we had to find another story to tell.
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We found out that April 28 is National Super Hero Day, but it wasn't a widely recognized holiday. TK PR decided to change that. We sent custom superhero capes to news anchors and reporters at 47 affiliate news stations nationwide from the biggest markets like Los Angeles and Chicago to Jacksonville and Portland.
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18 stations dedicated more than one full minute of air time talking about the "holiday" and mentioned the website to purchase your own custom superhero cape. That April be came the single best month of sales in the company's then 2.5 year history. The previous year they say 502 visitors to their website on April 28. That year, they say 28,289 visitors in one day.