Case Study
Clayton homes

To leverage the market strength of Clayton’s parent company and generate maximum media attention, Ackermann PR built the campaign around a Berkshire-Hathaway shareholders meeting. This shareholder meeting annually attracts over 25,000 attendees and the world’s major media. An actual 1,000 square foot i-house was erected at the Quest Center in Omaha and presented to meeting attendees and the media by Berkshire-Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett.

In advance of the meeting, Ackermann pitched nearly 1,000 reporters and editors in the national media, from print and online publications to television and radio stations and networks. Our primary focus? The Associated Press. We knew an earned placement with the national newswire – with photos – would have huge ramifications. What further elevated this campaign was our strategic outreach to bloggers. We gave them the same access that we provided members of the traditional media. We started with the niche bloggers and the viral spread led to prominent placement on some of the most mainstream, most-read blogs in the world.

The campaign did more than build awareness; it manufactured i-house mania! Not only did the Associated Press story run on the national real estate, feature and finance wires, the story – with photo and in some cases video – also appeared on the landing page of Yahoo!, Huffington Post, CNBC and Fox news. As a result of the media hype, the dedicated i-house website crashed and ClaytonHomes.com so its heaviest traffic to date.

In all, more than a thousand editorial placements were secured in newspapers, on local television, and on blogs throughout the country. Kevin Clayton, the CEO of Clayton Homes, called it a historic day for the Berkshire-Hathaway company. Clayton Homes razed its  competition with unprecedented media coverage of the manufactured housing industry.