Kraft wanted a "feel-good" publicity campaign for Maxwell House coffee in its top markets. Drawing from the brand's popular "Our House" firehouse TV commercials we created a firehouse makeover competition that generated significant, positive, branded broadcast, print and social publicity in three waves over three months. Great community engagement only firefighters can inspire.

1. PR inbrief
Maxwell House
Consumer PR Campaign
Maxwell House is America’s leading brand of home-brewed
coffee. It competes head-to-head with several other popular
brands.
Kraft Foods hired our
agency to create a To some extent premium coffee is viewed as a commodity.
goodwill publicity
campaign for its Maxwell
Nonetheless consumer preferences are greatly influenced by
House brand in 10 key brand image.
U.S. markets:
Maxwell House ‘s wholesome image is closely associated with
Atlanta; Baltimore; Buffalo;
Cleveland; Cincinnati; home, community and sharing. This has been reinforced by
Detroit; Orlando; decades of advertising.
Philadelphia; Tampa;
Washington, DC
Our total budget was
$500,000 and we had six
months to complete the
program.

2. PR inbrief
Creative Approach
Our mandate was to create a
PR campaign that drew from
the brand’s successful “Our
House” TV commercial In researching firefighters we learned that in urban areas many
featuring firemen gathered at work at firehouses that are in shockingly poor condition. Fire
a firehouse. departments spend their budget on equipment, not comfort.
Who knew that so many local heroes lived half their lives at
blighted fire stations with relic appliances and cast-off furniture?
So we devised a photo-essay competition and invited local
firefighters to pitch their firehouse as the one most in need of a
$10,000 spruce-up.
Click image at right to view TV commercial
*this PowerPoint slide must be viewed in Slideshow

3. PR inbrief
Strategy/Tactics
Pitting firefighters in friendly
competition for a firehouse
makeover had terrific public
and media appeal.
Finalists’ photo-essays were
posted on our micro-site where
winners were decided by
Outreach Contest Rules Winners
popular vote.
Voting was driven by publicity, We secured approval Submissions were One winner per-city
virally and word-of-mouth. from municipal fire chiefs limited to active received a $10,000
to solicit entries from firehouse personnel cash prize and
Firefighters and their local fire companies professional design
supporters campaigned for Requirement: 250-word help
Fire stations within the photo essay explaining
votes virally. Room makeovers
media market (a 25-mile need for a makeover
radius of city center) had to be completed
Local media were allowed to were invited to participate Campaign’s judge within six weeks of
cover the story from inside the . named two firehouse award
firehouses before, during and semi-finalists in each
after the makeovers. market Winners agreed to
. participate in press
coverage

4. PR inbrief
Partners
We secured HGTV as our
media partner, which
enhanced the campaign and
extended its reach.
We secured help from local
architects and interior The makeovers were handled by
HGTV provided Kristin Cunningham,
designers, all of whom host of Design on a Dime, to serve local professionals who completed
donated their services. as campaign spokesperson. the work on time, on budget and
to professional standards.
Kristin announced the contest with a
20-city satellite media tour funded by 100% of the $10,000 cash prize was
HGTV. used for materials and construction.
Kristin judged the entries and All designers more than doubled the
consulted with winners. purchasing value of the cash prize by
sourcing free or deeply discounted
HGTV.com promoted the contest and materials and services.
linked back to the voting pages on
our Maxwell House site.

5. PR inbrief
Execution
Feb Mar/Apr May June/July
To maximize our publicity
window this campaign was
executed in four phases. Phase Phase Phase Phase
I II III IV
Announce Contest Announce Finalists Announce Winners Reveal Makeovers
Entry solicitation Judges reviewed 80 Local TV, radio, Maxwell House hosted
submissions and print and web an open house
18-city SMT picked 20 semi- media named the breakfasts where
finalists, two-per winning firehouse makeovers were
Generated buzz market and then followed revealed to the press
with local the makeovers as and community.
publicity and Local media covered they progressed.
stories in the the contest and .
firefighter’s trade urged the community
media to view the finalist
essays online and
vote.
Firefighters engaged
family and friends in
viral voting drives

6. PR inbrief
Highlights
Each makeover was an amazing
Ten Firehouse Spruce-ups
before/after transformation. The dank cellar at a
Chicago fire station
Atlanta Kitchen was reclaimed as a
Firefighters were incredibly Baltimore Kitchen lounge.
enthusiastic about their prize Buffalo Tool/Repair Room
Cleveland Kitchen
and this was apparent in the Chicago Lounge
media’s coverage. Detroit Bunkroom In seven cities
Orlando Kitchen professional kitchen
Philadelphia Kitchen contractors did wonders
Our open house press event Tampa Kitchen with the prize money
had clout with elected officials, Washington Kitchen supplemented by
fire chiefs, professional generous product
athletes, and other VIPs in donations.
attendance.
In each phase Maxwell House An architectural firm in The dreary bunkroom atop
was integral to the story, so Buffalo brought style and a century-old Detroit
publicity was always branded. order to a disorganized firehouse was rebuilt for
repair shop using privacy and comfort.
industrial cabinets,
counters, lighting and
flooring.

7. PR inbrief
Results
This campaign generated
extraordinarily positive
SMT HGTV’s 18-city SMT with Kristin Cunningham and support on its website
publicity coverage for
Maxwell House: TV Network affiliates and local cable – multiple segments – all markets
Radio Local news and talk radio – multiple mentions – all markets
Print Daily and weekly newspaper features - multiple stories – all markets
Web 80,000 unique votes cast on the Maxwell House website; coverage on
community websites; viral buzz as firefighters sought votes
Click left to view
sample publicity clip
Click left to view sample
viral publicity

8. Social Media
Maxwell House’s Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram
Publicity materials would be optimized
for community-building and
Today social media would play a much for search engines
promotion. Links push traffic to
bigger role in this campaign. Here’s website for voting and
how we might approach it: promotional offers.
Publicity copy and content would be
optimized for search.
Firefighters would campaign for
Social media would link to a hub using a votes using various social
multi-media microsite tools, such as Twitter, SMS,
IM, and email, bookmarks.
Hyperlinks and ‘share’ widgets
A mix of social channels would share Microsite for viewing would drive voters to voting on
updates, talk and photo/video posts. photo essays and the micro-page
voting. Voters would
Off/online publicity, brand websites, viral/ be linked back to
word-of-mouth buzz, etc. would drive Facebook and
traffic to the voting site. Twitter for updates
and brand Integrating brand and community
promotions. social networks would drive
Social/digital platforms would be used for Publicity links from offline and
brand promotion by driving traffic to traffic to website hub for
online media would push traffic
online coupons and recipes. promotional content..
to the website for promotional
content and voting. Content and
publicity materials would be
optimized for search.

9. PR inbrief
Perspective
EXPERIENCE & SKILLS
Gerry Casanova
Rubenstein Associates, NY
Creative development
PR strategy & tactical execution
Biggest Challenge
Very tight budget and timeframe. Our Team supervision – I led a four-person account team and reported to three
account team had to work fast and client-side managers
smart.
Partner solicitation, contracts and distance production
PR Bonus
Firefighters are part of a large extended Writing; editing
community, providing a big viral boost
as they campaigned for votes. Media relations – local media and HGTV partnership
Added Value. Events management
Professional services could have
depleted each of the $10,000 makeover Digital media
budgets. Bartering publicity for local
design services was a huge win-win. Budget
PR 101
This campaign offered all the elements
for media coverage: local human
interest and a compelling visual story
everyone can relate to. The web gave
the campaign greater reach and social
engagement.

10. PR inbrief
Perspective
EXPERIENCE & SKILLS
Gerry Casanova
Rubenstein Associates, NY
Creative development
PR strategy & tactical execution
Biggest Challenge
Very tight budget and timeframe. Our Team supervision – I led a four-person account team and reported to three
account team had to work fast and client-side managers
smart.
Partner solicitation, contracts and distance production
PR Bonus
Firefighters are part of a large extended Writing; editing
community, providing a big viral boost
as they campaigned for votes. Media relations – local media and HGTV partnership
Added Value. Events management
Professional services could have
depleted each of the $10,000 makeover Digital media
budgets. Bartering publicity for local
design services was a huge win-win. Budget
PR 101
This campaign offered all the elements
for media coverage: local human
interest and a compelling visual story
everyone can relate to. The web gave
the campaign greater reach and social
engagement.