NEW YORK: Genesys has tapped the resources of the first Apprentice winner, Bill Rancic, to give interviews on behalf of the company and product on Tuesday.
In an interview at PRWeek's office, Rancic and Tricia Heinrich, Genesys' senior director of PR, explained how the relationship was fostered and how Rancic was a good fit for the company. Rancic himself was a customer of the company, which provides audio, video, and web conferencing solutions.
Through his winning prize, as president of the Trump International Tower project in Chicago, Rancic had to constantly travel to New York and receive Trump representatives in Chicago.
"I was looking for a way to bridge the gap so I wouldn't have to get on a plane as much in order to work with Greg [Cuneo, the owner representative for Trump Place in Manhattan]," Rancic said. "I started looking at different companies, and Genesys was literally less than 50 yards from my office."
Rancic said the company demonstrated the product for him, and he began using it with Cuneo. When Genesys released how high-profile the client was, they contacted him to see if he would be interested in talking about his experiences with the product to reporters.
"Genesys asked me to talk about their product for a couple of interviews, and I had used the product, so I could feel confident about what I was going to say," Rancic said. "I didn't want to get up and talk about motor oil or something I don't know much about."
Outside of the Genesys relationship, in which he only worked with them for that day, Rancic also has a commercial relationship with Advanta MasterCard, which distributes MasterCards to small businesses. Given his experience as president and founder of small business, cigarsaroundtheworld.com, he seized the opportunity.
Genesys said that while Rancic's profile, as a customer, was unusual, its approach was not.
"It's our custom to use customers as much as possible in our communications, so there was already a precedent," Heinrich said. "Bill provides a level of excitement and visibility that has jumpstarted our program."
Genesys said that it was too early to tell the amount of media impressions that resulted from the experience. Rancic's relationship with Genesys has been mentioned in stories in the Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Tribune.
