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Not Just Another Groundbreaking

Member: Paul Eisenberg

Client: Acorn Development Corp

Challenge: During the heyday of suburban office construction, groundbreakings had become so commonplace that by the time Acorn Development Corp. was ready to break ground for its Four Falls Corporate Center, getting publicity for another new office park groundbreaking was almost next to impossible.

Strategy: While gathering information for press kits on the new development, it learned that more than 90 percent of the site was solid rock, so it was suggested that Acorn break ground with a dynamite blast instead of the traditional shovels or earthmoving equipment. Then, because the site bordered the Schuylkill Expressway, instead of inviting the press to a ground breaking ceremony, a media advisory was sent out asking them to alert motorists and neighbors not to panic when the blast went off at 1:30 p.m. because it was just a new office park groundbreaking.

Results:

• Not only was there radio news publicity about the groundbreaking both a half-hour before the blast, but also for another hour afterward.
• Every local TV news station sent a camera crew plus there were TV stringers for CNN and other news syndicates.
• Still photographers came from all the local newspapers plus more than a dozen syndicates.
• In all, the groundbreaking drew 41 representatives of the media at a time when groundbreakings were hardly considered news.