Maker’s Mark
Maker’s Mark is a small distillery that was full of wonderful news stories. The one problem was its location, which made it impossible for local TV crews and reporters to get a story within their deadlines. I solved this by first convincing the stations to cover the grand opening of their new visitors’ center with Maker’s supplying a satellite truck for the news outlets crews and reporters. To avoid the appearance of self-promotion, I had local government and tourism officials talk on the growing importance of Bourbon and distillery tours on Kentucky’s economy. Not only did the Louisville TV stations cover the event, but other stations in the region were able to use the satellite feed. Additionally the Courier Journal had a page one lead story on the growing Bourbon tourism industry, highlighting Maker’s Mark.
Then I worked to produce journalistic reputable video, copy and hi res photos that the media would accept, and use, along with news worthy story lines like the Candlelight Holiday Tours and Mark of Great Art Contest. Not only did this expand the amount of coverage in all print and broadcast news outlets, but raised the awareness of the brand, allowing for top placement in future news coverage both on a local and national level.
Realizing that national media was only accepting high definition footage in a particular format with that being soon the norm for local TV media, I had all the b-roll generic footage re-shot and then uploaded to a FTP site for easy download along with high resolution photos, news releases, background information and bios.
Not only did this save time in getting footage and information immediately to the TV stations for airing, but enable me to reach to more broadcast and print news outlets. And it saved money by no longer making dubs and shipping them.
Please click on each event for details and photos.
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