McQ helps AMS, the nation's largest book distributor but an often-invisible "middle-man" between giant retailers and publishers, move into the spotlight. Client Challenge: If you've ever been to a club warehouse, you've seen Advanced Marketing Services' (AMS) at work. They're the little-known company that provides bestsellers to CostCo, Sam's Clubs and other discount venues Nobody predicts, stocks and sells "high-velocity"books better than AMS. They have to manage selling titles that have the half-life of People magazine, while playing to the vagaries of seasonal and regional purchasing habits, and re-stocking within 24 hours of order to hundreds of outlets nationwide, is a daunting task. Yet AMS had successfully danced on this razor's edge for many years, 36 straight quarters of profitability before the downturn triggered weak consumer demand. But weak demand also meant weak stock performance, and in 2002 AMS realized it needed to communicate the public company's upside better to the Street and the national media. The problem was, how to do this without "upstaging" AMS' powerful retail partners (CostCo, Samís Club, Staples) on the one hand, and its publishing partners (Random House, Penguin, and Scholastic) on the other. AMS' management had wrestled with the problem for years and years. Virtually every good news item had to be passed on to the AMS partners, to allow them to leverage the publicity benefits. McQ Response: The McQ team presented many ideas to AMS, but the concern for upstaging AMS' retail partners remained. Rapidly rising book revenue at CostCo was a CostCo story, even though AMS did the buying and selling. A promising emerging author was a publisher story. So where did billion-dollar AMS fit in, how could we tell its story without offending its partners? Two weeks later, McQ pitched the right idea showcasing AMS' impressive vendor management system. A small news blurb mentioned that the fifth Harry Potter title, Flight of the Phoenix, had been scheduled for release in mid-summer, six month's hence. The squib went on to say that the print run could exceed six million copies. McQ quickly realized Harry Potter V could be the largest print run in history. We did a little more checking, and confirmed that AMS would be receiving millions of copies for distribution to warehouse clubs. We also discovered that AMS was a part owner of the Canadian distributor that had sole rights to Potter in Canada. Clearly, AMS was going to be in the thick of Potter sales. After much thought, the McQ account team devised a plan to position AMS as the logistical expert behind the nationwide Potter phenomenon, the organization that would ensure that, when Potter flew off the shelves, more copies were available for instant re-stocking. After all, an "out-of-inventory" sign meant lost sales. Consumers would buy elsewhere. Then we sat back and waited. Media Advisory issued. As spring rolled into summer, we issued a "Media Advisory" in which AMS CEO Michael Nicita warned that the upcoming Potter release, likely the largest book-selling event in North American history, could be a transportation nightmare. The sheer logistics of moving millions of copies of a very large and heavy book, within a 48-hour window, would create special hauling, security and storage problems, the likes of which had never been seen before! And then we rested, not at all surprised that no one picked up on our Media Advisory. After all, AMS was a complete unknown. But not for long. A couple of weeks later, an article in London quoted the publisher of Potter (Scholastic of UK) as saying that the print run would likely be raised to 9 million, and that special security must be imposed to ensure "Printer's copies" were not stolen and posted on the Internet. Indeed, security concerns, book allocations and margin battles began to heat up throughout the global book selling world, as Potter-mania started to build. Timely national media outreach. For once, AMS was in the thick of it. McQ staff got on the phone and reminded national media that AMS, as the "middle-man," was the group that understood logistics – the one voice that had the scoop on truck fleets, special shipping tactics, guard dogs and pilfered early copies. All of a sudden, things started to move. First it was a call from the Boston Globe. Then it was the Wall Street Journal. Then the Los Angeles Times decided that being a distributor of best-sellers was actually an interesting story, and it ran an AMS profile. Then the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and Associated Press. The coup-de-grace occurred when the leading national wire service, the Associated Press, syndicated a Potter story with high profile mention of AMS - with pick-up all over the country. Soon thereafter electronics stories started to appear on media online affiliate sites. Result: By the time Potter V arrived on June 25, no-name AMS had received over 11 million print "impressions" around the nation. When the online impressions were added, the full media count was well over 16 million impressions!* For the first time in its 17-year history, AMS was in the national spot light – only three months after signing McQ as its PR counsel. Can a good PR agency make a difference? You bet it can!