Press Kit Perks

Have you noticed a recent surge of flora in your newsroom?  Are your fellow reporters collecting bouquets like business cards?  If so, there’s good reason.  But it’s not a slew of secret admirers like your floral-fied friends may want you to believe.

The real powers behind all the flowers are posh promoters Jayne Sandman and Barbara Martin of BrandLinkDC.  The dynamic duo has been wooing the Washington press corps with pockets full of posies to celebrate the District launch of their client, H. Bloom flower service.  Over the last few weeks more than 100 local VIPs and 50 reporters received arrangements like the one shown at left.  In return, recipients were asked to post photos of their flora on Facebook and were then gifted a second H. Bloom delivery.

To see which journos pimped out their pansies on Facebook, visit H. Bloom’s album here.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

Taste of the South celebrated its 29th year at DAR Constitution Hall Saturday with barbecue, music, and an open bar. Proceeds from the event went to the Children’s Safety Center in Arkansas and the Capital Area REACH Program in the D.C. A real added bonus: Lots of free stuff. 

Most guests arrived at 8 p.m. and entered the main room, where each sponsor had a booth featuring their state’s food and freebies. Each had an unofficial slogan hung high above. Guests were invited to “tee off” in South Carolina, spend “a night at the Opry” in Tennessee, and Missippipi invoked the Doobie Brothers’ song “Black Water”: “Mississippi moon won’t you keep on shinin’.” The music was great,  but not without perplexing moments. When you think “southern,” Hall & Oates, Frank Sinatra, and Billy Joel don’t come to mind.

Some states fared better than others. The South is apparently big on pulled pork. Nearly every state served guests pulled pork, albeit with different rolls and sauces. There were, however, exceptions. Missouri served a delicious seafood gumbo and Florida offered an amazing grits dish and classic key lime pie. But it was Virginia that won the Fishbowl Food Prize with a warm artichoke and crab dip, turkey meatballs, potato salad, and cupcakes from D.C.’s own Georgetown Cupcake.

Giveaways ranged from lame to awesome. Most states gave away pens, buttons, and bumper stickers, including one from Florida that read: “I <3 Publix,” a southern grocery store chain. Florida also gave away salt water taffy. The Fishbowl Giveaway Prize, however, goes to Mississippi. The state offered hats, T-shirts, and polos with the Mississippi State emblem, as well as Elvis memorabilia. The famous rock star was born in Tupelo, Miss. Honorable mention goes to Aflac, a sponsor of the event, which gave away talking stuffed ducks.

The crowd was young, and there were countless bow-ties and southern belles. Guests in the VIP room were a bit older. We didn’t spot any congressmen, though there were dozens listed as hosts. We spotted Ben Stein though, who showed up later in the night and munched on a Georgetown Cupcake as he flirted and posed for pictures.

Among the Sponsors: CQ Roll Call, Politico, The Hill, Air Canada, Coca-Cola, Aflac, Reynolds American, CSX, AT&T, NAHB, Altria, Lockheed Marten, Volkswagen, Wal Mart, Edison Electric Institue, Cellular South, Air Tran, Progress Energy, Duke Energy, Southen Company, Poarch Creek Indians, and the American Natural Gas Alliance, NRECA.

Photo credit: GWU student Kelsi Browning

It’s only 11 am and I’ve already housed a bag of M&Ms and half a can of honey roasted peanuts.  Why?  Because I eat my feelings…and because C-SPAN enabled my self-destructive behavior with a care package meant to celebrate the launch of C-SPAN3′s American History TV, a  new “network within a network.”  Every weekend on C-SPAN3 and C-SPAN HD, the network will air 48 hours of people and events that help document the American story.  For more on American History TV, check out the corresponding website at www.c-span.org/history.

I’m not sure how I got so lucky but damn, I love a good press kit. Last week we got hammered with the help of Jack Daniels and this week we’re bleaching the whiskey stains from our teeth with this wicked cool teeth whitening light kit from GO SMiLe. The light is new (and I can’t wait to try it) but I’ve used the company’s whitening ampoules for years and highly recommend them for everyone – especially broadcast journos.

Have you received an interesting or awesome press kit recently? We love hearing how companies are grabbing media attention in Washington so drop us a line – fishbowldc@mediabistro.com. Anonymity ensured.