A unique founder’s story drove the launch of The Normal Brand, an upscale lifestyle clothing line born out of a response to the popularity of coastal brands like Johnnie-O and Vineyard Vines. The Normal Brand founder, Jimmy Sansone, quit a high-paying job as an investment banker to create a lifestyle brand that catered to the Midwest, and he enlisted his entire family to model, market and move his new line.
O’Malley Hansen Communications used Jimmy’s story to secure a high-profile placement in Entrepreneur magazine, and what happened next demonstrates how one well-placed story can be amplified through multiple channels to increase its value.
- Entrepreneur hit generates 16 million print and online impressions.
- The Normal Brand/Entrepreneur social channels promoted it to 6 million followers.
- Jennifer Lopez reads the Entrepreneur story and promotes it to her 45 million Facebook followers.
- The Normal Brand launches a Date with J. Lo video, People Magazine picks up and promotes it to their 12.5 million readers and 13 million social followers
- Local St. Louis outlets pick up national coverage and promote it to hundreds of thousands of local viewers and social media followers.
- Now This media picks up the Date with J. Lo video and republishes it to its 1.3 million social media followers.
- Yahoo and MSN pick up on the Now This promotion of the Date with J. Lo video, blasting it out to more than 275 million more unique monthly visitors.
In total, more than 370 million impressions were generated from the initial Entrepreneur hit. The Normal Brand’s website analytics indicated every time we had a new PR hit, organic and direct website traffic spiked significantly, providing proof that PR drives brand recall, direct site visits and leads to an increase in transactions and sales.