Objective:

Impact PR & Communications (IPR&C) was tapped by Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, a nonprofit cultural organization and home of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, to help positively position and promote the organization’s first-ever Peace, Love & Pumpkins event series. Peace, Love & Pumpkins is a family friendly walk-through Halloween experience featuring thousands of unique hand-carved jack-o-lanterns and glowing themed pumpkin art. The IPR&C team was brought on to garner media attention and secure interest in the brand-new event with a mere four weeks before its debut, and only seven weeks until the completion of the multi-week event.

Strategy:

• Meet with key representatives from Bethel Woods to better understand the event and its inspiration, as well as Bethel Woods’s goals, objectives and expectations at the completion of the project.
• Create key messages, story angles and tactics to use throughout the engagement.
• Craft a curated media list representing outlets and reporters on a local, regional and national level in the travel, ‘things to do’ and family-oriented sectors.
• Disseminate press materials such as an introductory note to media, announcement press release and press invitations for media to experience Peace, Love & Pumpkins first-hand.
• Work closely with the in-house team to craft a press release announcing the debut of the event.
• Conduct follow-up pitching efforts with key reporters to secure media interest for stories, as well as in-person visits.
• Work together with the I Love New York PR team to coordinate press visits to Peace, Love & Pumpkins, with reporters who would be visiting the region.

Results:

Within in a few short weeks, the IPR&C team garnered the following results on behalf of Bethel Woods Center for the Arts:

• 96 secured placements and calendar listings
• Approximately 51,854,994+ media impressions.
• Coverage including stories in the following publications: USA Today, Time Out New York, Hudson Valley Magazine and Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals.

The success of the event resulted in Bethel Woods Center for the Arts bringing back the event again for the second year in 2022.