Tweet

Can PR Produce Miracles? Maybe!

Guest post by: Thomas J. Madden

Article Overview: It's a question Christians ask themselves every Christmas: How to keep Christ in Christmas? And some have turned to PR for answers.

Can PR Produce Miracles? Maybe!

About a month before last Christmas when all through South Florida, not a creature was stirring, except at the malls, a Christian group came to us and made us an offer we could hardly refuse. Could we get them some publicity that would help them to sell "Keep Christ In Christmas" car magnets? Could we help them pro bono for just a month to promote Christ in Christmas? At the time, things were going rather well. Our firm was pulling in loads of business from around the world. We had recently opened a small office outside of London. We were doing a big pre-Olympics project in LA and one of Florida's largest home builders had just retained us. So why not? We promote so many different clients, from Israeli hospitals to Miami SpaCapsules, so why not Jesus Christ? So we wrote up a news release. The headline read: "A Christian Grassroots Volunteer Organization Has Retained TransMedia Group for a One-Month Publicity Campaign to Help 'Keep Christ In Christmas.'" We put it out on jolly ole PR Newswire. And in it, I was quoted as saying, "I suppose you could definitely call it a 'pro bono' project. They knocked on our door and it just opened to them." The original committee to Keep Christ In Christmas comprised 15 parishioners from local parishes concerned about the growing attempt to remove the name and images of Christ from all Christmas celebrations, according to Kay Mansolill, Chairman of the Pilot Program to Keep Christ In Christmas, who retained us. Little did I know what profound success this little program would have. The group was selling car magnets not so much as a fund raiser, said Pastor Dennis Glick, St. Paul Lutheran Church here, but rather to get the message out to our community what the entire celebration of Christmas is really all about. We promised in the release that TransMedia Group would get the word out about the car magnets and how they can be purchased in bulk by churches, schools, individual ministries and organizations. And did we ever understate the amazing results we would have. Near the end of January, I received a letter from our erstwhile client, Kay. "On that joyous evening of the blessing of the nativity," she wrote, "none of us could have imagined the tremendous impact TransMedia Group would have on the Christmas car magnet campaign to Keep Christ In Christmas." Here's what happened: The Sun-Sentinel article resulting from our news releases sent ripples across the entire South Florida community helping to sell over 50,000 magnets in our area alone. The children from Pope John Paul School II, who helped sell magnets, "learned the value of focusing on Jesus and his amazing birth story," she wrote. The Knights of Columbus, after reading this article, were inspired to place billboards of the birth of Christ in two communities, Wellington and West Palm Beach, with promises of more next yearl. And then came a bombshell that nearly spun my chair around, which I can only describe as maybe a PR miracle! Our publicity had inspired one Christian man to purchase anonymously 1 million Christmas car magnets for next year...paid in full!. We don't know how much the charity netted, but the last we heard the car magnets were going for $2 apiece. Kay closed her letter citing what a pleasure it was working with our publicist Kelli-Ann Bloechinger and how the project "sure showed how vital and important a PR firm like TransMedia Group is to our Community!" Today most Supreme Court observers are noticing that free speech is still free speech even when you talk about God. And Christians may certainly have a First Amendment right to celebrate the birth of Christ in the public square. Keeping Christ in Christmas is at the heart of Christian beliefs, I said in one of our releases. Along with the holy day of Easter, the birth of our Lord is the holiest of Christian holidays, I said. "We're happy to give our Lord some good PR."

Related Articles
  The Everyday Common Miracle
  How To Attract Miracles Into Your Business And Personal Life
  Do You Believe In Miracles? Olympic Gold for Teamwork and Motivation
  Have You Found Any New Marketing Truths
  Formula For Creating Miracles
  Your Credibility Factor
  Are Your Clients Really on Holidays
  Surrender to Know Deep Fulfillment
  Help I have Trouble Sticking to My Daily Sales Plan
  Are You Lucky Today?
  What Are You Looking For - A Miracle?
  Is Einstein Right About Miracles?
  Commitment
  The Placebo Effect
  If Life Gives You Lemons, Pay for Them When You Can
  How Aikido Can Save Your Business Marketing
  Improve Your Bottom-line by Outsourcing
  Do You Just have to be Brave to Sell?
  Team Building Seminars
  So you want to make money online

Article Tags: charity, Christ, Christians, Christmas, faith, giving, holidays, PR, religion



Related Forum Posts


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

10 Golden rules to survive the Global Crisis

Quick Tips on Buying a Business

••••••>SEO Tip Of The Day: HTML Validation

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.