Month: June 2023

Media Case Study – Publicity for Off-Broadway Play

Posted on by Mark Macias

In 2018, the founder of MACIAS PR – Mark Macias – wrote and produced an Off-Broadway play on the final hours of Elvis Presley’s time on earth. The King, The Final Hours was an artistic look at what went through Elvis’ mind as he realized he was dying. 

This agency led the entire publicity and marketing campaign for the play, and it had a direct impact on ticket sales. The King, The Final Hours received local, national and international media attention and sold out 50 percent of its shows. More than 50 independent theaters across the country expressed interest in the play before COVID hit. The first syndicated play was scheduled to open in May 2020 in Portland, Oregon. COVID put that on hold.

Media Coverage for the Play

Local TV, community newspapers, radio, national and international online publications all published features on The King, The Final Hours. Here’s a look at some of the mentions from those news stories.

  • New York Post – “The King, The Final Hours, Macias’ debut play that imagines Elvis Presley’s sad last hours on this earth, had a well-received reading… with an eye towards enticing more investors.”
  • Broadway Box – “The King, The Final Hours will take baby boomers back to their youth and introduce a new generation to the powerful entertainer who became the most famous man on Earth.”
  • NY1 – “While many story tellers focus on what made Elvis so successful, this play examines the singer’s struggles.”
  • PIX 11 – The play looks at how his life ended and finds themes we can all explore in our lives.
  • Rock & Roll Globe Magazine – “This story explores some of those personal failures that he had as a human. If a play is going to succeed, it has to be a great story, a new story, something that hasn’t been told. And I believe this does have that.”
  • Brooklyn Reader – “The play doesn’t shy away from the truth about Elvis.”
  • Brooklyn Paper – “Macias’ show imagines Elvis realizing something very strange is happening, and calling out to the three most important women in his life: His mama, his first wife, and the woman he loved but didn’t marry.”

Media Partnerships

In addition to securing media placements and creating content for social media, MACIAS PR also partnered with sponsors from different industries. We created experience packages for hotels. This included a Meet & Greet with the cast, seats in the front row and a private Q&A with the producer following the show.

You can see more of our media coverage in the case study below. Interested in hearing how MACIAS PR can help promote your show or play? Click here to get a free PR estimate. We learned a lot from producing and promoting this play, and can share more of this knowledge with your creators.

ABOUT MACIAS PR

Marketing peers named MACIAS PR the 2017-2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the Financial PR Firm of the Year. The founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. City & State Magazine named him a PR Political Power Player in New York

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Media Case Study: Congressional Candidate in Virginia

Posted on by Mark Macias

MACIAS PR led the media campaign for Congressional candidate Vangie Williams, from the First District of Virginia in 2018. The District encompasses three media markets – Washington DC, Norfolk and Richmond, requiring a complex strategy that appealed to reporters in both small and large markets.

Our media strategy led to prominent placements with targeted news organizations in all three media markets. 

The publicity we generated helped the challenger come within single digits of beating the Republican incumbent in a solidly Red District. Our campaign had no financial support from the DNC yet we continued to make local and national waves on the media front with the DNC taking notice.

Media Campaign

MACIAS PR created the media strategy, led the entire execution, coordinated all interviews with reporters and media trained the client. We were on a boot-strapped budget yet we still managed to run a publicity campaign securing media attention in all three media markets.

Media coverage included stories with: The Washington Post, The Daily Press, Richmond Times, Prince William Times, Fauquier Times, Digital Journal, The Blue & Gray Press, Blue Virginia, Virginia Gazette, Fredericksburg.com, Bustle, Inside Nova, Potomac Local, WTVR.com, Essence, WTOP, Virginia Mercury, Gazette-Journal, People’s World, Deutsche Welle and Radio IQ. 

Recommendations

“I worked closely with Mark Macias throughout the general election campaign for Congressional can- didate Vangie Williams. Our resources were small, yet Mark and his team were able to get our story in the local news throughout our congressional district, which spans three different media markets. Our weekly strategy calls and quick adaption to the news cycle helped us get exposure with local TV, newspapers and national media outlets – a major feat during a popular midterm election with compet- ing healines. Overall, we had a higher media placement than our opponent, leading several political observers to note that we were running the most organized and competitive campaign for the district in quite some time. I highly recommend Mark for any political communications campaign. He under- stands the public sphere and knows how to shape messaging that’s authentic to the candidate and influential for the overall campaign.”

Sheri Shannon, Campaign Manager

You can see more of media coverage in the document below. If you’d like to schedule a call with Mark Macias, feel free to message him here and schedule a call. You can also get a free PR estimate by clicking here and answering a few quick questions.

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Client Case Study – Market Leading Lifestyle Brand

Posted on by Mark Macias

MACIAS PR led the rebranding and media campaign for the world’s largest online dating site, Plenty Of Fish from 2013 to 2015. Our media campaign re-introduced the lifestyle brand to singles between the ages of 20 to 45 in the US, UK and Canada.

The dating site approached MACIAS PR after Tinder and other dating apps started to steal its market share. The founder said he also wanted to reposition his dating website for an acquisition. 

Our initial goal was to grow the user base among females. Within six months, our team achieved their female acquisition goals and broadened our campaign to reach all singles. Six months into our launch, the founder told Business Insider his app was growing its use-monthly base by 15 percent.

Our creative media strategy used editorial and programming campaigns that led prominent news stories (not mere mentions) with some of the most influential publications around the world. Media coverage included features with: Time Magazine, The NBC Today Show, The Daily Mail in the UK, Yahoo Finance!, Business Insider, Glamour Magazine, Cosmo Magazine, Women’s Health Magazine, as well as local TV and radio stations in the USA. In 2016, the company was named one of the “Best of the Web” by Time magazine.

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Case Study: How We Helped a Client Increase Brand Awareness by 400%

Posted on by Mark Macias

Many potential clients assume MACIAS PR only works with large health care brands. Yes, we have run media and branding campaigns for large tech and health care companies, but we’ve also launched publicity campaigns for boot-strapped startups.

Find Your Trainer is a mobile app that matches consumers with physical trainers. The boot-strapped startup was only 5-months old when MACIAS PR launched their publicity campaign.

Goal: To increase app downloads and bookings for their physical trainers during the holiday shopping season. We positioned Find Your Trainer as a unique start-up that was reinventing the fitness industry – just as Uber and Seamless had reinvented their industries. 

Challenges: Find Your Trainer had no media coverage or messaging in place when MACIAS PR took over their publicity campaign. Our team had to identify editorial angles to pitch to the media with little help from the founder. In addition, the mobile app was only in NYC, limiting our media exposure to primarily one media market. MACIAS PR had less than a month to identify the message and get the timely story out to consumers.

Strategy: Position the mobile app as a great gift idea for couples. Messaging: Here’s a gift to help your out-of-shape partner lose weight. We also highlighted how this mobile app enabled consumers to try out the best gyms without pricy membership plans. The founder also gave fitness advice to targeted health sites.

Results: This publicity campaign succeeded with local and national media, securing media coverage with targeted TV, newspapers, magazines and influential lifestyle websites. The founder of Find Your Trainer told a reporter  in January that he saw a 400-percent increase in sign-ups from December to January, largely based on our organic media coverage.

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Will AI Replace Publicists? A Closer Look at What the Data Says

Posted on by Mark Macias

Nearly 3 years ago, I wrote an article for Forbes that predicted the future of PR and AI.

We’re still in agreement today that AI will make life easier for publicists. Machine learning will continue to help content creators and publicists develop content faster. But at the root of my Forbes article was a bold prediction that AI won’t replace publicists over the next 10 years.

Here’s why I still stand by that prediction three years after making it.

Continue reading “Will AI Replace Publicists? A Closer Look at What the Data Says” →