Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?The last time the stills were full on this patch of land in Pine Plains New York, it was not exactly a legitimate operation. After nearly 88 years to the day, the FBI raided the bootlegging operation run by legendary mobster, Dutch Schultz, Rachel Harrison Communications (RHC) was retained to relaunch Dutch's Spirits as a distillery and tasting room in the Hudson Valley. RHC's goal was to generate continued awareness for the relaunch of the distillery, driving consumers towards a new operation with both indoor and outdoor facilities with an unbeatably rich local history. RHC chose to pitch The New York Times as a target outlet to do an in-depth feature on the reopening for its local, metro, and national audience reach. The Times was the perfect outlet to tell the full story as it relates to NY history and as a must-visit destination for both historical and leisure reasons for anyone visiting NY state. The freelance writer RHC pitched had an extensive background in covering NY, spirits, and travel/destination stories. The writer conducted multiple interviews including with the new owner of Dutch's Spirits, the previous owners, local historians, and current retailers. By pitching The New York Times surrounding the relaunch but coordinating the story to run after the initial launch period, RHC's goal was to ensure continued, target coverage ran for Dutch's to build brand awareness and drive traffic to the destination post-official launch period.

Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)It took 88 years, but the distillery was back in business in September 2020, this time as Dutch’s Spirits; a farm-to-bottle distillery set to lead the local craft spirits renaissance that has turned this region into the Napa Valley of the East Coast. RHC achieved its aforementioned goals of (1) generating continued awareness surrounding the relaunch of Dutch's Spirits (2) reaching a local and national audience (3) having the New York Times tell a historical account of Dutch's Spirits story. The New York Times feature ran in November of 2022 on the front page of the Metro section plus an additional double page spread. Telling an in-depth, historical account of the rich story of Dutch's Spirits through the ages. The story ran on print (circ: 831,000), online (unique monthly visitors: 111,667,699), was a featured article on the Times' website front page and their app for 3 days post-publication. The story included detailed accounts of the land dating back to the 1930's, verified sources such as newspaper clippings, historian-approved documents, and exclusive photography. This was achieved by RHC coordinating the sourcing of newspaper articles surrounding the original Dutch's operation, documents from the local historical society, interviews with verified sources from historians to previous owners of the land, and a large scale photoshoot of the land, the tasting room, the old bunkers where the bootleg operation was performed, the new Dutch's moonshine and more. Following The New York Times piece going live, Dutch's Spirits experienced multiple sell-out weekends at the tasting room despite November being an off-season month for Pine Planes. The influx of inquiries received by Dutch's Spirits as a result of the story included private bookings, locals reaching out to tell their stories from Dutch's in the past, retailer opportunities for Dutch's Spirits moonshine, and additional media outlets wanting to also tell the story of Dutch's return.

Budget: Please include total budget vs. total actual cost. How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?N/A. RHC was given no additional budget outside of a monthly retainer to coordinate this coverage. The journalist visited the distillery with coordination from RHC but of their own accord and own expense.

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Entry TitleDutch's Spirit Relaunch - Inside the Mystery of a Country Moonshine Bunker

DivisionPublic Relations - FEATURE PLACEMENT PRINT - Consumer Magazine or Newspaper

CategoryPublic Relations