Case Studies

Made to Stick
MADE TO STICK

by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Random House

Bestseller lists:

New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com, and 25 months on the Business Week bestseller list

Media highlights:

NBC-TV “The Today Show”, CNBC-TV, NPR, New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, Inc. cover feature, Fast Company, Businessweek.com, Psychology Today, Men’s Health, Worth, Boston Globe.

Overview:

The authors were unknowns but Mark Fortier worked with Random House to create a balance of business and crossover mainstream media by using customized pitches that would appeal to different audiences. We translated the book’s message into visual ideas that could be taped for mainstream television shows like The Today Show and we developed news pegs for the authors to comment on such as Superbowl Ads to secure business news media like CNBC. The authors hired Fortier PR for their next New York Times bestsellers and their books have since sold over three million copies.

Duhigg
SUPERCOMMUNICATORS

by Charles Duhigg
Random House

Bestseller lists:

New York Times (Advice), New York Times (Business #2), USA Today, LA Times, Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com

Media highlights:

PBS NewsHour “Brief but Spectacular,” CBS Saturday Morning, Morning Joe, NPR On Point, NPR 1A, NPR Life Kit, KQED “Forum”, KERA “Think”, The Economist ‘Bartleby,’ The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, TIME, Adam Grant’s substack, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, School of Greatness with Lewis Howes, Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris, Motley Fool Money, The Rich Roll Podcast, A Bit of Optimism with Simon Sinek, The Good Life Project, Ed Mylett Show, Life is Short with Justin Long, Freakonomics People I (Mostly) Admire, Plain English, and bulk-buy events with the World Business Forum, Treasury Executive Institute, and a C-Suite dinner with leading HR executives.

Overview:

Charles wanted as many needle-moving podcasts as possible (he recorded well over 50). He was looking for a firm to seamlessly partner with his publisher, Random House, and himself. We closely collaborated on joint pitches which offered a one-two punch, successfully landing bookings on many of the most listened to podcasts in the country. We leveraged Charles’ talent as a writer to secure essays with the Wall Street Journal, TIME, and Harvard Business Review. Drawing on his journalistic credentials, we booked interviews with PBS NewsHour and multiple NPR shows. Random House secured media hits including CBS Saturday and Morning Joe, with everyone contributing to a team effort that we all enjoyed and felt proud of. The book debuted on the New York Times Advice best-seller list at #4 and on the New York Times Business list at #2 and continues to be on these lists months later!

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM

by Shoshana Zuboff
PublicAffairs

Bestseller lists:

LA Times, London Times

Media highlights:

Twice in The New York Times Book Review, 12 times in The New York Times including a daily review and columns by David Brooks, Tom Friedman and Natasha Singer, feature in The Economist, twice in the Wall Street Journal, 11 times in The Financial Times including the shortlist for Business Book of the Year, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, TIME, Fortune, Fast Company, Newsweek, The Nation, LA Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, NPR, PBS Frontline, PBS Newshour, Amanpour, MSNBC-TV.

Overview:

Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff entrusted Fortier PR with the campaign for a book that is now known around the globe as a masterpiece. We’re still working together more than a year later to manage press for what has become a movement.

9781982166694
THE GOOD LIFE

by Robert Waldinger M.D. & Marc Schulz Ph.D
Simon & Schuster

Bestseller lists:

Debuted at #3 on The New York Times bestseller list.

Media highlights:

The Today Show, Morning Joe, a NYT 7-day exclusive in the “Well” section, NPR’s All Things Considered, The Wall Street Journal “Saturday Essay” cover story, NPR’s All Things Considered, The Wall Street Journal book review, The Wall Street Journal interview, The Atlantic adapted excerpt, TIME: an op-ed and top books of the year, Washington Post feature, 80+ podcast interview bookings including: Making Sense with Sam Harris, Ten Percent Happier, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, HBR IdeaCast, The Human Upgrade, The Model Health Show, and The Diary of a CEO.

Overview:

The New York Times was one of our top goals, but we wanted coverage that would engage their readers more than a traditional article. So we brainstormed with Dr. Waldinger and our contacts at the “Well” section to design a Wellness Challenge that ran in The New York Times for 7 consecutive days (and even received an endorsement from Jennifer Aniston via Instagram)! Typically books are only allowed one network morning show per launch, but we strategized in tandem with the team at S&S and landed NBC’s The Today Show, MSNBC Morning Joe, CBS Mornings, and CBS Sunday Morning by orienting some of the segments around the book and the others on The New York Times feature. We then leveraged them to land NPR’s All Things Considered, a feature excerpt in The Atlantic, a segment on The Drew Barrymore national daytime show, and more. The Wall Street Journal originally passed on the book due to the New York Times exclusive, but we went back to them stressing the breadth and rigorousness of the book’s research and landed coverage there four times including a book review, a Saturday Essay, a management column and a personal finance column. The book debuted on The New York Times bestseller list at #3 and was on the list for five weeks over the life of the campaign.

Charan
WHY WE REMEMBER

by Charan Ranganath, PhD
Doubleday

Bestseller lists:

New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, ABA’s Indie Bestsellers List

Media highlights:

New York Times Magazine (Profile), New York Times (op-ed), Wall Street Journal essay and book review, NPR’s “Fresh Air,” PBS “NewsHour” and “Amanpour & Co,” MSNBC “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” Washington Post book review, TIME, Oprah Daily, Los Angeles Times op-ed, Planet Money/Indicator, Maria Shriver’s “Sunday Paper,” CNBC Make It, Fast Company, Salon, Big Think, Inc, Talks at Google, 30+ podcast bookings including Lex Fridman Podcast, 10% Happier, Re: Thinking with Adam Grant, School of Greatness with Lewis Howes, the Jordan Harbinger Show, goop Podcast, Art of Manliness and more.

Overview:

Our goal for this first-time author was to start a national conversation right out of the gate. So we went first to the New York Times Magazine and landed a Q&A in their Talk column. Without a famous author’s name to sell, we focused on the book’s content. Its rich variety of subject matter gave us a wide arsenal we could offer as excerpts to our content editor relationships at publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal and TIME to Oprah Daily and CNBC Make It. As soon as we read the book, we had ideas about how to interest podcast hosts with the kind of curiosity triggers they look for. This effort resulted in over 20 podcasts including some of the biggest of all ranging from Lex Fridman to Adam Grant.  When we got past launch week, we didn’t rest on our laurels. Instead, we leveraged the hits that ran to convince other podcasts that had been on the fence: School of Greatness with Lewis Howes, Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey, goop with Gwyneth Paltrow and more. Throughout the campaign, we scoured the news for relevant angles. Two weeks before launch, special counsel Robert K. Hur issued a report on President Biden’s memory. That same day, we pounced into action to offer an op-ed by the author to The New York Times, which ran a couple days later titled, “I’m a Neuroscientist. We’re Thinking About Biden’s Memory in the Wrong Way”. After pitching this op-ed out widely, we secured a number of major national broadcast bookings for both the op-ed and his book, including MSNBC’s “Last World with Lawrence O’Donnell,” NPR’s “On the Media” and PBS NewsHour. As always, we partner with publishers and Doubleday contributed high value media hits ranging from NPR’s Fresh Air and Planet Money to reviews in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. We’ll never forget how much it paid off to strategize, persevere, collaborate and leverage one thing for the next for Why We Remember.

Blue Ocean Strategy
BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY

by Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
Harvard Business Review Press

Bestseller lists:

Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, #1 on 800-CEO-READ list, Over 4 million copies sold

Media highlights:

New York Times interview, Businessweek review, Financial Times review, Fast Company review and feature, Inc. interview, Boston Globe interview, Chicago Tribune review, Philadelphia Inquirer review, Dallas Morning News review, 2 features in Investor’s Business Daily, Bloomberg Television, ABC News Now, Marketwatch Radio, Public Radio International, Chief Executive 3-page adaptation, American Way review, strategy+business review.

Overview:

One challenge of the book was that the authors were virtual unknowns in the U.S. and didn’t live here. But Mark Fortier arranged meetings for the authors at major media outlets, focused attention on the book’s core idea, and helped the authors to create a strong presence in the U.S. speaking circuit by signing the authors with the Leigh Bureau speakers agency, and by arranging lectures for them at Microsoft, Starbucks, and other venues around the country. The book became the fastest selling title ever published by Harvard Business School Press, it coined one of today’s most talked about strategy catchphrases, and it has sold over four million copies. Fortier PR has been hired to work with the authors three times since.

Ginni
GOOD POWER

by Ginni Rometty
Harvard Business Review Press

Bestseller lists:

Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Porchlight

Media highlights:

CBS Mornings, MSNBC Morning Joe, CNN Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNBC Mad Money with Jim Cramer, Bloomberg Tech, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economist, The New York Times, Associated Press, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Forbes, Washington Post Live, Fast Company, NPR.com, C-SPAN, Lex Fridman Podcast, Masters of Scale Podcast, HBR IdeaCast.

Overview:

For this busy author we needed to maximize sales impact with as few as possible needle-mover interviews and events. We launched the campaign to the mainstream with CBS Mornings and to the business world with Wall Street Journal and Financial Times profiles, Fortune magazine features, high impact podcasts Lex Fridman and Masters of Scale, and CNBC’s Jim Cramer and Bloomberg Radio. We kept the book on the bestseller list for several weeks with sustained attention on major television shows like GPS with Fareed Zakaria and Bloomberg Surveillance and she capped off the launch with Adam Grant’s podcast. We leveraged Ginni’s views on the current state of stewarding good tech to land Bloomberg TV Tech and a Q&A with the Associated Press tech reporter. To secure an interview on Morning Joe on MSNBC-TV, we pitched host Mika’s “Know Your Value” platform for women about how she unexpectedly took on the responsibility of a role model for women in business. We were always careful about messaging to ensure interviews did not rely on stale cliches about “women in power” but illuminated that everyone has power that can be used for good, a message that continues to resonate. We also leveraged Ginni’s stage presence for public and private events across the country including SXSW, Goldman Sachs, New York Historical Society, Chief, SHRM, Commonwealth Club, women’s conferences, and more.

TT
TURNAROUND TIME

by Oscar Munoz
HarperBusiness

Bestseller lists:

3 weeks on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list

Media highlights:

Wall Street Journal “Personal Board of Directors,” Wall Street Journal “On the Clock,” TIME Magazine “The Leadership Brief,” Financial Times, Hemispheres, Washington Post Live, CBS Evening News, ABC, CNBC “Squawk Box,” Bloomberg “Surveillance,” Bloomberg Businessweek Radio, CNN “Quest Means Business” Fox Business “Varney & Co, C-SPAN Book TV, MSNBC “Morning Joe,” Forbes, Yahoo! Finance LIVE, Business Insider, McKinsey Author Talk, Fortune “The Modern Board,” and “CEO Daily,” The Stacking Benjamins Show, Motley Fool Money, Finding Mastery, USA Today, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine.

Overview:

The former CEO of United Airlines already had plenty of press for his retirement so the challenge was how to get new attention for him and the book after much of his story had been told. So for the Wall Street Journal we landed three hits with three different fresh angles. He did interviews about the future of aviation for their “Future of Everything” section and conference, on the workplace for their “On the Clock” column and for a profile in their “Personal Board of Directors” feature that highlighted the lessons he learned from mentors in the book. To get more, we diversified messaging further for opportunities on leadership (TIME Magazine’s “The Leadership Brief” and Fortune’s “CEO Daily”), immigration (Washington Post Live), diversity in the workplace (Fortune’s “The Modern Board”), workplace culture (CBS Evening News), transportation (USA Today), and the latest airline news (CNN, CNBC Bloomberg TV, Fox Business, Yahoo! Finance LIVE). We also leveraged the author’s network to secure him a Wall Street Journal “Personal Board of Directors” profile feature. The book hit the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and stayed on for three weeks in a row.

BOA
YOUR BRAIN ON ART

by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
Random House

Bestseller lists:

Instant New York Times bestseller; Publishers Weekly

Media highlights:

The New York Times, Washington Post, SF Chronicle, NPR All Things Considered and Science Friday, PBS NewsHour, TIME, Fortune, Fast Company, CNBC.com, Scientific American, New Scientist, WGBH Boston, WGN-TV Chicago, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard.

Overview:

Fortier worked closely with Random House to crystallize the human-interest angle and practical applications of the emerging field of neuroarts to reporters across health, science, and arts and culture media.  We framed customized pitches around meaty stats and actionable tips we pulled from the book including “20 minutes of art a day is as beneficial as getting enough exercise and sleep” and “to extend your life by up to 10 years, participate in just one art experience per month.” To land stories in the Washington Post “Brain Matters” column and New York Times “Well” section, we crafted special pitches showing how specific activities—such as dancing and drawing—affect the brain. All our pitches emphasized that art is for everyone—no talent required. Thanks to a full lineup of top-tier media and local events, Your Brain on Art was an instant New York Times bestseller.  

WWL
WHEN WOMEN LEAD

by Julia Boorstin
Avid Reader Press

Bestseller lists:

Los Angeles Times

Media highlights:

NBC’s Today Show,  ABC’s GMA3, NPR’s Marketplace, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, CNBC’s Squawk Box and Mad Money, MSNBC’s Know Your Value, Velshi, and Morning Joe, Morning Brew, Thrive Global, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Recode, The goop Podcast, CNBC.com “Make it”, Fortune, Variety, Fast Company, Forbes and more.

Overview:

Fortier PR coordinated a top-down strategy with NBC-TV and the cable networks in its family for bookings on “The Today Show” (NBC-TV), CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, and MSNBC’s “Velshi.” In tandem, Boorstin and FPR secured 40+ events during the month of publication and after with companies such as Goldman Sachs and the Wall Street Journal.  We also leveraged Julia’s writing talents for placements in more than ten publications such as Fast Company, Fortune and Harvard Business Review. The book continued to gain momentum through the rest of the year, with additional events, TV appearances, podcast interviews and pieces in online and print media.

9780593542408
ADRIFT

by Scott Galloway
Portfolio

Bestseller lists:

The New York Times (Nonfiction, 4 Weeks in a Row); The New York Times (Business Monthly); USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly

Media highlights:

The Atlantic first serial excerpt, The New York Times profile, The New York Times “On Politics”, The New York Times “DealBook”, CNN (x3), MSNBC Morning Joe, NPR’s Planet Money/The Indicator, TIME Magazine.

Overview:

We knew we needed to start the conversation about this book with a top-tier media outlet that would frame it as big-think.  So we anchored the campaign with a first serial adapted excerpt in The Atlantic. This first major print piece became our tool that we leveraged to land some of the most needle-moving TV shows and podcasts and to drive preorders. We’ve now worked on three New York Times bestsellers by Scott and just launched a fourth book by him.

The Innovator’s Solution
THE INNOVATOR'S SOLUTION

by Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor
Harvard Business School Press

Bestseller lists:

New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Amazon.com

Media highlights:

New York Times feature and follow-up mention, 2 interviews in USA Today, Associated Press interview, Washington Post review, 2 interviews in the San Jose Mercury News, Investor’s Business Daily interview, The Economist mention, Public Radio International’s “Marketplace“, and NPR.

Overview:

The book received coverage from every target outlet in the business press and we arranged two full days of back to back meetings with the authors and various editors and journalists. The book’s sales have remained steadily very high, especially for a high-level business theory book.

Loonshots
LOONSHOTS

by Safi Bahcall
St. Martin’s Press

Bestseller lists:

Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly

Media highlights:

Two-part Tim Ferriss podcast interview, two NPRs, three Wall Street Journal opeds, Harvard Business Review article and podcast, Financial Times management column, reviews in Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, and strategy+business, five INC magazine stories, Scientific American, Business Insider, Forbes, Bloomberg, Yahoo! Finance, The Verge and thirty podcasts and we successfully pitched the book for inclusion in the Next Big Idea Club curated by Adam Grant, Susan Cain, Dan Pink and Malcolm Gladwell.

Overview:

First-time author Safi Bahcall was unknown to most of the media but before publication date we set up in person interviews with the Financial Times and Tim Ferriss, over ten events, and helped put the book on the map with a Harvard Business Review article and their podcast, and inclusion in the Next Big Idea Club, with plenty more media and word of mouth that continues today and has helped generate a constant stream of speaking invitations.  The book debuted at #3 on the WSJ bestseller list. In the first 10 months, over 100,000 copies sold. The author extended his contract with Fortier PR.

9780063052932
LEADING WITH HEART

by John Baird and Edward Sullivan
Harper Business

Bestseller lists:

Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller, Porchlight Bestseller

Media highlights:

The New York Times, NYT “Quote of the Day”, USA Today, Forbes (x5), INC (x3), Fortune (x2), Harvard Business Review (x2), Fast Company, MarketWatch, SiriusXM Business Radio, Rotman Management Magazine, SHRM.

Overview:

Leadership coaches don’t typically attract media attention, but we positioned these first-time authors as the experts urgently needed to navigate today’s changing world of remote work by prioritizing empathy. This resulted in two Harvard Business Review articles, two Fortune articles, five Forbes articles, and three INC articles. We also played off of news angles like the 2021 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and leadership failures in Silicon Valley, which culminated in a New York Times “Quote of the Day” print feature and a USA Today section cover. The book ran for three consecutive weeks on the Wall Street Journal and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists and was named a Best Leadership Book of 2022 by our client, The Next Big Idea Club.

9781119815365
THE POWER OF ONE MORE

by Ed Mylett
Wiley

Bestseller lists:

Wall Street Journal (#1), USA Today (#4), Los Angeles Times (#8), Prevention Magazine (#2), Amazon (#1 in Small Business, Business Mentoring & Coaching)

Media highlights:

ABC-TV’s Good Morning America, INC, Forbes, USA Today, Success Magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, School of Greatness, Skinny Confidential, Goal Digger, and Entrepreneur on Fire.

Overview:

Wiley hired FPR for their biggest author of the year in 2022, Ed Mylett, whose goal for The Power of One More was to land a network morning TV show for the first time. We reached out to our producer contacts over and over, each time sharing more clips, more news about the book, and fresh angles.  By adopting the book’s message of the power of one more, we never gave up and it was that “one more” pitch that finally landed Good Morning America, the highest rated network morning show.  The book hit #1 on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and stayed on for 17 weeks.  Our other challenge was a busy author with limited time. So we devised a system to assess the impact of each podcast so we could make the best use of his time with such podcast bookings as The School of Greatness with Lewis HowesGoal Digger with Jenna KutcherSkinny Confidential, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, and Entrepreneurs on Fire.