Case Studies

We launched a contest during Covid19 “lockdown” to keep people engaged. In less than 30 days, the contest reached more than 400k people through social shares and drove more than 12k unique visitors to the website. Photo: @KPFusion

A Wet Wedding

Our client, Hotel Caravelle in St. Croix, needed fresh publicity. They wanted local and international attention. WPR decided to leverage the fact that the world’s largest underwater wedding had been held in the waters off St. Croix. We developed the concept of a “Wet Wedding” package for the hotel and organized an underwater wedding and reception to introduce the concept to the media. The event made a splash! The wedding itself was broadcast on a Tampa, FL television station, and SCUBA Radio. WPR secured a partnership with Ocean Reef, a provider of underwater recording devices, which enabled us to provide live sound of the ceremony. The wedding reception following the ceremony attracted more than 60 members of the media and guests. The reception was broadcast via web cam, and website visits more than tripled. The “Wet Wedding” package has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, numerous consumer publications, on TV, and a variety of websites.

Social media is visual, visual, visual. We break through the clutter with gorgeous photography and illustrations. We work with map makers to create art for road trip blogs (very successful on Pinterest and social media) and for on-property sales materials.  Map by Scott Schiller

An Artist

Florida metal artist Theresa Thomson wanted more clients. WPR secured coverage in Coastal Living Magazine, Lexus Magazine, and a feature article ran in the Miami Herald. Teresa received over 10,000 unique hits on her web site the week the Coastal Living piece appeared. The first art show she appeared in following the Lexus article, people were calling Teresa “The Lexus Lady”. (Florida is the number one market for Lexus) The Miami Herald article produced at least two orders the day the article ran. Within the first year of the coverage received, the demand for Teresa’s product grew at such an incredible rate that she was able to double the average selling price of her work, went into mass production of one of her more popular pieces, and moved into a larger production facility.

For Topnotch Resort we developed a Yappy Hour and partnered with non-profits. The event increased restaurant sales and built community relationships. We secured million-follower influencers by supporting their charity. The more you give, the more you get proves to be effective. 

A Cookbook

For ten years WPR successfully recruited top celebrity and award-winning chefs to participate in the St. Croix Food & Wine Experience. Chefs included Govind Armstrong, Sam Choy, Leah Cohen, Paula DaSilva, Tiffany Derry, Rocco DiSpirito, Todd Gray, Anita Lo, Tim Love,  Kevin Rathbun, Gabriel Rucker, Sue Zemanick, as well as Josef DeSimone, Tony Castellucci and Dean Spinks - the culinary team from the corporate headquarters of Facebook. The event is regarded by many media outlets to be one of the top ten food and wine festivals in the world. Thanks to a strong and strategic relationship with the team at Tourism, dozens of media have experienced the event. Every year, the number of hotel packages sold for the event increases. And, new programs, including a program where local high school culinary students earn an internship opportunity in the US-based kitchens of guest chefs, were also developed to benefit the community. The cookbook, compiled and designed by Watkins PR, is a success.