| Helping to Create an Eggstravaganza | | Gold Glitters Forever | | Celebrating Hopes & Dreams | | Creating a Cow Town Renaissance |

Title: “Helping to Create an Eggstravaganza”

Client: Ilya Abelsky’s Eggstravaganza, Inc.

SITUATION: LL&A first met Ilya Abelsky in 1997 when the Russian jewelry designer did an exhibit of his miniature Faberge-style jeweled eggs at Benold’s in Austin. The two men talked and Lubenow offered the opinion that public relations could promote Abelsky’s exhibits across the country.

Shortly after that the two men began working together. Abelsky uses Lubenow to gain news coverage in the media located in cities in which he is holding exhibits, as well as to gain exposure in the national jewelry trade media and entry into new markets.

OBJECTIVES:

• Gain quality coverage for Abelsky and his products in markets where he is to have exhibits.
• Open new markets for Abelsky and Eggstravaganza.
• Establish new non-retail channels of sales and distribution of Abelsky’s special eggs.

METHODS:

• Gain additional exposure for Eggstravaganza through Lubenow’s extensive contacts in the jewelry industry.
• Focus media materials on the news making aspects of Abelsky and his product.
• Establish a library of photographs of Abelsky’s eggs and pass them by email to both potential exhibitors and the news media.

RESULTS: LL&A has helped produce the best years ever for Eggstravaganza by (1) producing more coverage for Ilya Abelsky’s exhibits; and (2) Helping to increase both the number of people attending the exhibits and the sales of each event.

Abelsky now advises each host jeweler that their shows will be more successful with when supported by the services of LL&A.

In addition, when Abelsky launched his line of Patriotic Eggs following the 9/11 Terrorist Attack on America, LL&A arranged for these eggs to be featured in a national jewelry trade magazine, plus Abelsky credited the agency with opening to new markets.

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Title: “Gold Glitters Forever”

Client: “Mel Fisher’s Treasures of the Atocha” Exhibition

SITUATION: When Larry Lubenow & Associates was first introduced to Mel Fisher’s Treasures of the Atocha” exhibition and sale in April 1995, the conventional wisdom was that successful Atocha exhibitions could only be the product of local public relations agencies.

It seemed to make sense.

The touring exhibition visited some 30 cities a year — presenting both inherent public relations strengths and weakness.

While the national tour created an aura of “national” importance — most local PR agencies treated the show as a low-priority, one-time project. They had little incentive to invest time and money to learn about the courageous quest of the Fisher family or the historic consequences of the ill-fated Atocha.

Still Conventional Wisdom asked:

How can an agency from outside a show’s market possibly produce news coverage of an exhibition being staged half way across the country?

LL&A’s answers to these questions:

First, by using expert knowledge of the news media, how they operate, what turns them on, and what it takes to turn the Atocha and Mel Fisher stories into a compelling life and death struggle that captured the interest and imagination of the media audience. ]

Second, by investing the personal and professional time to understand the Atocha as a business proposition and to become an authority on both Fisher’s 17-year-search and the impact of the Atocha’s sinking on the economic future of all of Europe.

While the Atocha exhibition was undeniably a money-making program for the Fisher Family, Treasure Group International, its sponsors and its host jewelers — Larry Lubenow quickly realized it had to be positioned as a non-commercial historic cultural exhibition of Spanish artifacts if it was to gain widespread coverage by the news media.

He has succeeded in this task.

OBJECTIVES:

• Create quality and extensive coverage of the television, newspaper and radio media in cities where the exhibition was staged.
• Translate this news coverage into big crowds for the free exhibition.
• Create public interest in the exhibition (big crowds) and the opportunity to “own a piece of history” so that the show generates significant crowds (bigger sales).

METHODS:

• LL&A’s approach is one stretching over 60-90 days and includes two personal visits to the media in the Atocha market.
• Because of the success of its first Atocha show, LL&A was retained by six Atocha exhibitors in 1996
• The success of these six shows led to LL&A being retained by 17 Atocha exhibitors in 1997 with exceptional results
• LL&A will support more than 15 Atocha exhibitions in 1998.

RESULTS:

LL&A has now been retained to do more Atocha exhibitions than any other individual or agency in the nation. (More than 30 shows conducting media relations in more than 60 cities in 18 states.)

• Because of LL&A’s success, Atocha exhibitors now expect maximum (total) media coverage of the show when it is in their city.
• LL&A’s Atocha exhibitions have consistently attracted more people (8,000 to 10,000 per city).
• Our Atocha exhibitions have consistently achieved higher sales than competing shows.
• As Kim Fisher, treasure hunter and Atocha tour spokesman, puts it: “When it comes to getting media coverage of the Atocha Exhibition, there is simply no one better than Larry Lubenow.”

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Title: “Celebrating Hopes and Dreams”

Client: Flint Hill Resources & “Fiesta de los Ninos”

SITUATION: In 1992 when Flint HIll Resources, the major employer in Corpus Christi and Nueces County, agreed to underwrite a major multi-year fund raiser for the local Children’s Hospital — it quietly asked LL&A for guidance and counsel.

The effort was tremendously important to the future of the quality of life in the Corpus Christi area.

The hospital, the principal provider of rehabilitation services to young people, was founded without a foundation to sustain its continued growth and development. Flint Hill agreed to underwrite the costs of staging an annual fund raising event so that a significant foundation could be established — and grown!

A steering committee was formed from a cross section of the city’s business, government and education communities and a vehicle for the fund raiser was agreed upon. The event would include a barbecue dinner, silent and live auction and a concert and dance by a leading country & western artist.

METHOD: Everyone realized the event had to capture the imagination of the entire community if it was to be a long-term success. The first important consideration was choosing a name that would be reflective of the event and its importance.

At this point, Flint HIll asked Larry Lubenow to meet with the Steering Committee and discuss a name and appropriate public relations activities to help insure success. Larry’s counsel on a name was to focus on the area's South Texas heritage and to celebrate the fine work the hospital was doing for very special children.

The name he recommended, Fiesta de los Ninos — Festival of the Children — was an immediate hit with the committee and ultimately with the Coastal Bend audience. Today, Larry is known as the “Father of Fiesta de los Ninos”.

Equally important, LL&A counseled Flint HIll to publicly tie the headliner talent to the children, the hospital and the cause of letting the children be all that they can be.

This has been accomplished by Larry through research, writing and production of television and radio public service announcements and interviews with headliners, Gary Morris, Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel, Marty Raybon & Shenandoah, Wade Hayes and Jerry Jeff Walker.

RESULTS:

• Fiesta de los Ninos has become a fixture on Corpus Christi’s social scene.
• Fiesta has raised more than $1,000,000 for the important work being done by the hospital.
• Headliners at Fiesta have garnered excellent media coverage for the event and Flint HIll.
• The company has extended its sponsorship of Fiesta.

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Title: “Creating a Cow Town Renaissance”

Client: Kansas City

SITUATION: In 1972 a group of leading Kansas City business leaders took stock of their community and its image.

They discovered that other urban areas were conducting massive advertising and marketing campaigns to attract new business, convention and tourists. They conducted research that revealed that Kansas City lacked recognition among national business leaders, convention and meeting planners and the travel industry.

The conclusion:

Kansas City didn’t have a bad image -- or a good image. It had virtually no image.

The leadership realized that time was critical. Kansas City had a $3.2 billion urban revitalization program underway — 75 percent of which was privately funded.

The problem was that few people in Kansas City — or across the country — knew about it.

OBJECTIVES: Throughout the 10-year program, designed and implemented by Larry Lubenow, the objectives were:

• · Create a positive national awareness of Kansas City as a “City in Renaissance” and a model of “self-made” urban revitalization.
• · stimulate economic development by attracting new business, investment, conventions, tourism and renewed local business expansion.

METHODS:

• Exploit Kansas City’s news-making potential through publicity and special events to attract the positive comments of the nation’s business, convention, travel and media decision makers.
• The openings of Kansas City International Airport, the Crown Center and Alameda Plaza Hotels and the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex were used to highlight the city’s rapid change.
• Sporting events such as the 1973 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the NFL Pro Bowl.
• Dr. Charles N. Kimball, chairman of the respected Midwest Research Institute, the city’s official spokesperson, became a modern-day Marco Polo, addressing important business audiences in virtually every major U.S. city.
• The city’s role in the U.S. political scene was revitalized when it hosted the 1974 Democratic Mini-Convention and the 1976 GOP National Convention.
• Kansas City’s cultural reputation was enhanced with the internationally acclaimed Archeological Finds of the People’s Republic of China and “Sacred Circles -- 5,000 years of American Indian Art” by its Nelson Gallery.

RESULTS:

• More than 4,000 news stories reaching an audience of more than 500 million were generated during the 10-year program.
• Convention & meeting income increased from $22 million in 1973 to $150 million in 1981.
• Corporate search visits and relocation inquiries doubled. Mutual Benefit Life, Sony and Toyota led more than 100 companies that established major operations in Kansas City.
• Advertising Age estimated that the coverage of the 1976 Republication National Convention was worth $100 million to Kansas City.
• The Kansas City Prime Time Public Relations program was honored with an unprecedented three Silver Anvils -- the highest award for professional excellence presented by the Public Relations Society of America.
• The program has been termed the most successful urban promotion ever undertaken and has become the yardstick by which all city PR programs are judged

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