Litzky Public Relations is a full-service boutique PR agency and winner our Best Traditional PR Campaign award, which hones in on the true art of storytelling and media relations.
The winning campaign celebrated Play-Doh’s 60th anniversary on World Play-Doh Day (WPDD), a “holiday” launched in 2006. Given the challenge to double media exposure with half the budget, the Litzky PR team employed a highly targeted approach that capitalized on media and consumer trends. The campaign included kid-generated YouTube videos and invited parents via social to submit what their kids imagined life would look like 60 years into the future. These imaginings were then brought to life by an in-house sculptor to turned these predictions (including houses in the sky, unicorn pets, flying shoes, and more) into intricate Play-Doh sculpts. The creative process was recorded via timelapse, providing powerful creative assets to pitch to parenting press, general media, video, and social media editors.
Play-Doh 60th birthday media mailers included confetti poppers, Play-Doh party hats, Play-Doh compound and mini “photo opp” inserts for media to sculpt and socially share their creations. Mailers went out to 50 national media contacts, social media editors, and family bloggers (bloggers even threw their own Play-Doh 60th birthday parties). While confetti poppers and timelapse videos work for general and parenting press, Litzky took an entirely different approach with business media, pulling together Play-Doh facts, stats, vintage images, and figures.
The results? LPR’s small-but-scrappy three-person team knocked the lofty objectives out of the park with 622M impressions and 320 positive, engaging media stories in one day, a 119% and 416% increase from 2015, respectively.
We caught up with agency founder Michele Litzky to learn more about what’s going on behind the scenes as LPR gets ready to celebrate 30 years in business next year.
It’s incredibly gratifying to see our team’s hard work (and successes!) resonate not just with media, influencers and clients, but with top-tier PR industry experts. We celebrated with widespread recognition for the Play-Doh team during our monthly agency meeting, and have a team lunch on the books for July to continue the excitement.
Lately, we’ve been diving deep into influencer relations strategy over the past couple of years, and this year more than ever we’re uncovering new and smart ways to turn niche influencers into brand advocates. This is an especially exciting trend for the PR industry because influencers drive incredible results. Whether it’s successful activations at VidCon or targeted LPR-run influencer campaigns, we’ve been blown away by how well our team stays ahead of influencer trends.
While it’s easy to get sidetracked by the shiny new social media platforms, we never lose sight of those tried-and-true media relations strategies that drive top-notch coverage. Our award-winning World Play-Doh Day campaign was a great example; while we had digital components like YouTube speed sculpting challenges and celebrity social posts, we led with a strong, traditional media strategy (think creative physical mailers and custom Play-Doh sculpts) that led to the most successful World Play-Doh Day yet.
Whether it’s successful activations at VidCon or targeted LPR-run influencer campaigns, we’ve been blown away by how well our team stays ahead of influencer trends.
Since the agency specializes in lifestyle brands that engage kids and families, the second half of our year gets particularly busy with holiday pitching. The teams have already started their long-lead outreach for our toy, game, and fashion clients, with short-lead holiday pitching on the horizon. In terms of our agency’s internal focus, LPR has a major milestone coming up in 2018 – the big 3-0! – so we’re spending the rest of the year setting ourselves up for a full year of success and celebrations!
Well, I just returned from a client trip to VidCon, so my purse is in “event mode.” That means business cards, a look book, antibacterial, cough drops, vitamin C, tape, pens, receipts, receipt organizers, nail polish, mints, portable charger … you get the picture. I could survive on a desert island for at least one week when my purse gets in event mode.
As mentioned above, influencers are becoming more and more important in 2017, and in 2018, we anticipate niche, micro influencers – the ones who truly connect with (and ultimately persuade) their audiences – will be a major focus. We’ve already had great traction with micro influencers in spring 2017, and given those accomplishments, we’re brainstorming unique ways to include them further in plans for fall 2017 into 2018.
We’re in planning mode for the 2018 BCAs! Want to get in involved as a sponsor, judge or volunteer? Email info@thebespokeawards.com
