Archive for July, 2010

Team Holds Event at Qdoba to Promote Healthy Lifestyle Choices

By Brooke Perellis
Intern  

The Peritus intern team held an event in downtown Louisville Thursday, July 22^nd to benefit the American Diabetes Association. The team managed a booth outside of Qdoba Mexican Grill on Market Street and offered free bottles of Fruit2O to the work crowd in exchange for making a healthy lifestyle pledge to benefit the ADA. Despite the afternoon heat, several downtown professionals stopped by the booth to support the cause.  After making the pledge to live a healthier lifestyle, donors were eligible to enter a drawing to win prizes such as a health food basket from Amazing Grace Whole Foods, gift cards to Shiraz Mediterranean Grill, and a gift card to Captain’s Quarters. 

ADA Supporter Makes a Healthy Lifestyle Pledge!

The ADA joined forces with Fruit2O to promote their small changes > Lifelong Results campaign to help fight diabetes. Peritus volunteered to help the campaign by recruiting ADA supporters to make a healthy life style pledge by visiting the Fruit2O Facebook page or in person at the event. For every pledge made on behalf of the Cincinnati/Kentucky ADA chapter, Fruit2O will donate $1. As an extra incentive, Fruit2O agreed to donate an additional $15,000 if at least 5,000 people make a pledge and designate Cincinnati/Kentucky ADA as their chapter.

In addition to donating space for the event, Qdoba offered contributors free samples of their healthy mango salsa, t-shirts, and coupons.  For individuals looking for more information about diabetes or the ADA’s annual Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes, a local representative of the ADA was present with informational brochures and registration sheets. The ADA also held a drawing where people could enter to win a healthy cookbook.

As a result of the Peritus intern team’s efforts and the support of Qdoba and other generous sponsors, the successful event collected nearly 150 small changes > Lifelong Results  pledges, raised awareness about diabetes prevention and promoted the ADA’s annual Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes.   

Didn’t make it to the event? You can still help in a fast and easy way! Go to the Fruit2O Facebook Page and make a healthy living pledge or post. For every pledge, Fruit2O will still donate $1 to the American Diabetes Association! All you have to do is write what you pledge to do to live healthier. Be sure to mention “proceeds to Cincinnati/Kentucky” and tell your family and friends!

Peritus Interns at Qdoba Event

Kentucky startup blog interviews Peritus VP, Gary Gerdemann

See below for an interview with Peritus’ Vice President, Gary Gerdemann on crisis management for startups.
Gerdemann has been involved in several high-profile startups including eToys.com, Homestore.com, Gamefly.com, Boston Market and Einstein Bros. Bagels.

On the tech and startup side of your experience, what was a major Public Relations issue you encountered?

A very interesting example was eToys.com. At the time I was the Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations for E-Toys.com. One major hurdle we faced was a reputational issue that faced the online industry. The previous Holiday season was marred by spectacular market failures. Toys ”R” Us not only failed to deliver toys by Christmas, they failed to alert customers about the delay. The FTC opened an investigation on the industry and fined Toys “R” Us. Angry mom’s and major public skepticism ensued.

What did you do to counter public skepticism?

Our solution: radical openness. Typically, in our business, the logistics and fulfillment system are secret from the public because of inside / proprietary information. But this time we knew that our ‘trust us’ system wasn’t going to be enough for mom. We needed to show people how awesome our delivery process was so that they could formulate their own opinion.

We worked with NBC on a ‘how does it work?’ segment on NBC Nightly News (10 million weekly viewers). We had someone place an order from NBC’s studio office in New York as a camera crew tracked the whole process. From when the order was received in California, to when it was shipped and finally received by the customer in Denver.

Our message was that all of our employees were serious about every order every time. For example, our head of Logistics was a Vietnam War veteran. His job was to make sure the package was packed, shipped and delivered on time. NBC loved this. They even asked for his old war photos to air. During the segment, we interviewed all employees involved and discussed all high-tech machinery used in the process.

What was your success from this?

Well, our overall success was a real time result:
A) No government intervention and no restrictions on business.
B) Put customer concerns to rest.

Any other words of wisdom in handling PR crises?

The lesson is that sometimes in a difficult business position, you have to make a move that is well beyond what you may normally consider prudent. It’s worth doing some mental computation and asking yourself: What if we took an idea and blew it up 100 times larger? What if we did the exact opposite of that which most would consider “safe”? When we originally approached NBC with a standard pitch, they weren’t interested. But, we doubled down and offered unfettered access and they jumped at the chance. It was a hit and the piece the aired was a gem.