VIRAL PR: EXHIBIT A

If you don’t think one person can make a difference, you should see what’s going on at City Place.

City Place is an upscale, downtown retail/dining/housing complex in the city of West Palm Beach, FL. It’s a great place to spend a day (even if you can’t afford to buy anything). You can wander around the finest names in clothing, kitchenware, home-design, furnishings, etc. You can be mesmerized by the street performers. You can eat at imaginative sidewalk cafes, graze at one of the trendy watering holes, or enjoy gelato or fine chocolates on the plaza. It’s all in a fashionable urban setting that really helped revitalize the city a decade or so ago.

City Place has made the news lately, though, for all the wrong reasons. They forgot two central lessons of the Digital Age.

It seems that the complex recently told its employees – who had been parking in a lot near their stores – that their parking area was being moved a few blocks away, to make more room for customers. In addition, rather than the $10 a year they had been paying for parking, they would now be charged $50 a month for the privilege of being moved a few blocks away – for spots that City Place would only have to pay the City of West Palm Beach $20 a month for. Apparently, the shopping complex had discovered a potential new revenue stream – its own employees.

Well, the employees didn’t take it sitting down. Except for one. He sat down at his computer, and posted the news on several blogs. Within a day or two, the Palm Beach Post and local TV and radio stations picked up the story.

Soon, employees began picketing in front of the complex, and West Palm Beach’s smart-set was faced with the prospect of crossing picket lines to get inside. And the employees appeared before a meeting of the City Commission.

Don’t get me wrong. I love City Place. I love going there with my wife and daughter to wander around the beautiful old urban buildings and the fancy new shops and bistros and fountains and tables with umbrellas. To tell you the truth, I love it even though I rarely buy anything there (other than lunch and some ice cream).

But, from a public relations viewpoint, I think City Place has probably learned two good lessons for the Digital Age.

The First: Your employees are your lifeblood – even more so, in some ways, than your customers. Because if your employees are unhappy…your customers will know about it very soon.

And, Second: In this New Age, bad news doesn’t just travel fast. It travels at the speed of light.

Steve Winston
President, WINSTON COMMUNICATIONS
steve@winstoncommunications.com
www.winstoncommunications.com