Initiated a partnership with Primedia Publishing, joint-venturing sales of historic trees through their 9-magazine History Division (America’s Civil War, World War II, etc.) and negotiated dozens of free full-page color ads in nationally-distributed publications. These created ongoing sales of historic seedling trees every month, and thousands of new customers in the database.
Negotiated an agreement with MBNA Bank for an affinity credit card for American Forests, to take advantage of the over 50,000 new subscriber database. The card was projected to generate $96,000 in annual revenues for the organization within its first year.
Created displays and represented the organization at trade shows such as the Gift Fair in NYC, the Johnny Appleseed Festival, the 140th Anniversary of Gettysburg, the Shot Show, and at media events dedicating newly-recognized historic trees. Through careful and thorough PR, these generated “community pride” articles that were often front page or center spreads in local publications… further driving sales for the Nursery.
Download sample articles for Kitty Hawk Grove & Johnny Appleseed Festival (130K)
Secured commitments from 96% of the public television stations (196 of 205), for the group’s Telly Award-winning Silent Witnesses special and 13-episode TreeStories series. In some markets these are still being run today, continuing to create market interest, new leads and customers for the organization.
View TreeStories video clips from the TreeStories PBS website
Near the end of his contract, Emerson took over negotiations with Walt Disney World, creating a first-ever exclusive joint venture agreement with Epcot. He worked onsite with Epcot staff for six weeks to showcase 37 of “America’s Timeless Trees” during the 2003 Flower & Garden Festival. Disney shared a percentage of all sales with American Forests.
The agreement with Epcot to display America’s “Timeless Trees” exposed 2 million visitors to American Forests’ programs.
