Protecting $8.5 million

Challenge

Pat Wales won $42 million in a Powerball drawing. Pat had also participated in a separate, losing office pool with coworkers. Luckily her attorney correctly anticipated that jealous co-workers would make a grab for the money, money she had won buying separate tickets for her and her husband. Mark Robinson’s job was to plan an effective strategy to counter any potential lawsuit.

Strategy & Tactics

Robinson swiftly prepared materials for a press event, just in case. He used media relationships to stay in touch with the rumor mill, and interpreted anonymous tips to media as advance warning of a lawsuit and press conference. Robinson then made the most critical decision of the campaign: hold a pre-emptive press conference as fast as possible (in just 90 minutes), present all documentation, and stay as long as necessary to answer each and every question. This commitment to complete openness won the media’s determination to tell the entire story, rather than just report charges of wrongdoing. This accelerated the inevitable suspicion of the plaintiffs as motivated by greed.

Thanks to intense media coverage, opposing lawyers withdrew their lawsuit 23 hours after they filed it.

Results

Robinson orchestrated four national press conferences in four days. His campaign began a media onslaught that the opposing attorneys could tolerate for less than 24 hours, rebutting all charges by plaintiffs a full hour before they were even made. His meticulous strategy included live appearances by Pat’s lawyer on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Early Show on CBS, and MSNBC, putting enormous pressure on the plaintiffs’ legal team. Opposing lawyers dropped their $8.5 million lawsuit and ended any challenge to the legitimacy of Pat’s $42 million Powerball win. Robinson’s PR blitzkrieg reached around the world, securing the full exoneration of his client in the court of public opinion.

The Maine Public Relations Council recognized the campaign with a Golden Arrow Award for public relations excellence.