Overview
In the chocolate industry, Valentine’s Day is bigger than Christmas. Chatham’s Fine Chocolates was a retail chocolate shop on the Camelback Corridor in Phoenix specializing in truffles and chocolate bars from artisan chocolatiers. While promoting chocolate on Valentine’s Day might seem like a no-brainer, owner Chatham Kitz knew he needed to make the most of the PR value of the holiday to maximize his sales. He turned to Tin Can Marketing to coordinate a campaign.
Strategy
Over the years, Tin Can Marketing had positioned Kitz as a chocolate expert and a reliable, camera-ready personality. While Valentine’s Day could be considered a one-note story, Tin Can Marketing countered expectations with a string of releases and pitches to diversify the holiday including:
- Chatham as a chocolate expert
- Thinking Outside the Heart-Shaped Box: 5 Gift Ideas
- Cupid Goes Digital – Online Gifts
- Economy Can’t Stop Love – Estimated Valentine’s Sales
The goal of each release was to appeal to different aspects of Phoenix television and print – from features stories to ties to national news and trends.
Results
Media response to the ideas was exactly what Chatham’s Fine Chocolate and Tin Can Marketing had hoped for. In a five day period, Kitz was either the main focus or an featured interview in 10 television stories for Valentine’s Day. This included morning and mid-day lifestyles programming, but also included three spots on the evening news – a significant increase from year’s past.
Print and web media responded as well. Leading into February, Chatham and his chocolates were featured in at least 8 stories. Again, aside from lifestyle and round-up stories, Chatham was viewed as a local expert and interviewed in a piece on the new light rail route stopping near the store.
Downloads
Read about Chatham in frondoors magazine... Download
Chatham appears in AZ magazine... Download
