HSMAI Marketing Review August 2009 - 18

Hamilton Island far. I couldn’t manage people or a company, and she taught me how.” Quinn has a knack for taking everyday news and making it hot stuff. “We like to hit it out of the park,” she says. Of their 78 HSMAI Adrian Awards, six are prestigious Platinum winners and two HSMAI Best in Shows were awarded for the Algonquin’s $10,000 Martini on the Rocks campaign, and a Procreation Vacation for Starwood resorts in the Caribbean, which gave couples trying to conceive the islanders’ remedy for conception. Tapping into the mood of the moment has been a winning strategy for those big ideas. In a brilliant move ripped from the headlines, when the “pink slip” frenzy hit Wall Street and hordes of dot-comers were getting laid off, a Pink Slip Pick Me Up package at the Metropolitan Hotel sympathized with the more than 30,000 techies, earning coverage in the likes of Forbes and Money. To promote the Four Points By Sheraton Los Angeles’ selection of over 22 beers, Quinn & Co. created the first-ever Beer Sommelier that got ink in USA Today, US News & World 18 Report and on the cover of the Wall Street Journal. And with New York’s extended stay hotel, the Envoy Club, Quinn hit a triple play in the same day when Business Week, Newsweek and Crain’s New York Business all covered its “Suddenly Single” program, positioning itself as a sympathetic heartbreak hotel and hasty retreat from the family home. Divorcees and seperatees were offered services and amenities such as a copy of the bestseller The Creative Divorce, a list of top divorce attorneys and relationship therapists, sound machines for sleeplessness, self-help tapes and a session with a psychic. And to create buzz about the simple re-launch of a Web site for The Corcoran Group (at the time led by one of her mentors, Barbara Corcoran), Quinn was the first to feng shui a Web site, which got business and magazine stories in the New York Times. “For 20 years we brought this creativity, a different way of thinking, and others caught on to it,” says Quinn. “Then the digital media hit, which has been a real sea change in PR. It’s just a different channel that demands the same creativity; you need to start with a wow to have digital and print media work their magic.” Quinn & Co. is the PR firm behind promoting Tourism Queensland’s groundbreaking “Best Job in the World” campaign—an online contest to be the caretaker of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef and blog his/her way around the island for six months and get paid $100K. The PR and viral marketing phenomenon generated worldwide media attention with over $11 million worth of exposure and 627 million media impressions in the U.S. and Canada alone. Looking to get 400,000 new visitors to the Web site over the one-year campaign, there were one million hits on the second day; 34,684 people from more than 200 countries applied for the job, and a social networking frenzy let loose as people voted for their top 50 finalist. Quinn is excited by the opportunities today to dialogue directly with consumers and how that can be used to go viral. She believes new media/social media is an explosive marketing and PR tool, and when combined with traditional PR and advertising, the result is a dynamic, relevant, and highly effective integrated marketing communications program. She also says the approach is much more strategic today. “It begins with the client’s objective, message points and target audience and we build a campaign around that. It used to be about quality and quantity of press clips, and now it’s about measurable results and ROI—what’s driving business, making the phone ring, and the analytics that go along with digital media. “You can’t succeed without passion, hard work, and love of what you’re doing,” affirms Quinn. Add to that a mind that is determined, committed, and unstoppable and there’s no bounds to what will be the next really big idea. s HSMAI MARKETING REVIEW • AUGUST 2009

HSMAI Marketing Review August 2009

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