Recently a former client, now with a nationwide acquisitions group building related platforms of manufacturers, stopped for an update and to unveil a product made by one of their more recent purchases.
It might be perfect for use by the Gulf oil spill clean-up crews suggested the friend. There followed a session of spirited dialogue about how we might position such a product, and even a phone call to an oil industry acquaintance who knows contacts who know other contacts—-who know a lot about these kinds of products.
Driving to work the next morning with an ear to National Public Radio, a feature about actor Kevin Costner aired. The day before he apparently appeared before a Washington sub-committee gathering information about the spill. His sole purpose for being there was not as a socially conscious actor with a rant about long term enviro and marine life damage. No. Costner, with an upfront intro about his appearance not being the result of listening to voices (as in his “Field of Dreams” and the voices of long dead baseball greats clamoring for a ball diamond in the cornfields of Iowa), but to pitch them on an oil gathering centrifuge a company he has invested in manufactures.
It worked.
Within a week, British Petroleum (BP) purchased $25M in centrifuges manufactured by Costner’s company.
No lobbying or PR firm in the country could have negotiated that timely turnaround.
Star power has currency—at least in the halls of a Congress long infatuated with Hollywood.
