SAN FRANCISCO: Like most hot Internet startups these days, CarOrder.com has both a powerhouse PR firm (Miller-Shandwick) and a major-league advertising agency (Leo Burnett) on its payroll. But the massive media coverage generated in San Francisco last week can actually be attributed to Alisa Mall, a summer trainee at CarOrder’s parent company, Trilogy Software.
SAN FRANCISCO: Like most hot Internet startups these days,
CarOrder.com has both a powerhouse PR firm (Miller-Shandwick) and a
major-league advertising agency (Leo Burnett) on its payroll. But the
massive media coverage generated in San Francisco last week can actually
be attributed to Alisa Mall, a summer trainee at CarOrder’s parent
company, Trilogy Software.
Mall proposed paying the tolls for all Golden Gate Bridge commuters for
a day, an idea that cost the Austin-based auto-buying service about
dollars 160,000.
The company anted up dollars 400,000 more to buy space above the toll
booths.
For their part, Mall and Trilogy PR manager Mary Ellen West both say
that publicity was not the goal - the promotion itself was. Traffic to
the site has spiked dramatically, and the residual value of tying
CarOrder.com’s name to the indelible image of the bridge can hardly be
quantified in marketing dollars.
As for Mall, it’s back to ’Trilogy University’ basic training, though
she’s now a bit more clear on her future career path: ’It will
definitely be in marketing.’ That is, if she’s not first whisked away by
a PR firm.
