Challenge:
Poker is played by millions of people around the world including many Canadians who have won at the sport’s highest levels – including Daniel Negreanu and Poorya Nazari. Despite this popularity and success poker is not often covered by mainstream Canadian media. When a young Canadian rose to the top of the poker world, qualifying for the final table of – and ultimately winning – the World Series of Poker, Paradigm seized the opportunity to introduce the country to one of its newest sports stars: PokerStars.net sponsored player, Jonathan Duhamel.
Strategy & Execution:
When Duhamel qualified for the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), Paradigm took advantage of the opportunity to introduce Canadians to the young poker phenom and build anticipation for the final table – no Canadian had ever won the WSOP. Though he entered the final table as chip leader, there was no guarantee of victory. To leverage his position and the rare opportunity, Paradigm coordinated interviews in July with national print and broadcast media, including: MTV, TSN, Post Media, Canadian Press, Sun Media and sports radio stations across the country.
In November, when Duhamel took home the grand prize, Paradigm built on the excitement from the summer and quickly organized two press conferences (one in his hometown of Montreal, and one in Toronto) including securing a venue, developing speaking remarks, signage, media materials and media relations. Additionally, Paradigm organized a satellite media tour to cost-effectively generate coverage in U.S. media.
Results:
The summer media outreach leading up to the final table generated 54 stories and more than 19 million impressions
Media activities after the final table generated 851 additional stories and nearly 200 million impressions
The satellite media tour generated 505 broadcast hits in the United states for nearly 150 million impressions
Virtually every story mentioned that Duhamel honed his poker skills playing online. In all broadcast coverage, Jonathan Duhamel was featured wearing PokerStars branded apparel