The Situation: A Juilliard-trained couple opened a small business dedicated to building musical communities by offering high-quality music classes, programs and training for adults and children of all ages and abilities. Now the firm wanted to launch Vivo, a class specially designed for elementary-age children with autism. Touch Points was charged with quickly developing an aggressive media relations strategy that included crafting the messaging about this new class, pitching the story to print/broadcast/online media and connecting with all of the region's advocacy groups that work with special-needs and autistic children.
Touch Points Immersion Included:
• Interviewing the client's founders and music therapists to identify key messages and media hooks.
• Crafting press releases, flyers and customized emails for all of the target audiences.
• Using our contacts to set up a photo shoot at no charge to the client. The resulting photos were
posted on the client's web site and used in several of the media placements.
• Relentless pitching and follow-up with all area media to secure story placements.
• Researching, identifying and communicating with a wide array of advocacy groups and agencies that
provide services or counseling to families of children with autism.
The Results:
• Stories about Vivo appeared in nine print publications.
• The Vivo instructors were featured in a 4-minute morning news segment
• Almost 60 special-needs educators, healthcare professionals and special-needs/autism advocacy
groups were identified and targeted to receive information about the Vivo class; all were sent a PDF of
a flyer about Vivo and invited to share it with any families who had children with autism spectrum
disorder; many of these groups emailed back to thank us for making them aware of Vivo.
• The first Vivo class had 7 students, which was one of the client's largest classes. All of them
participated in the finale concert where they accompanied their teacher on a xylophone while she
strummed the guitar. They were making music together, even though they couldn't carry on a typical
conversation with each other.
• The class was so successful that it will be offered again in three locations.
