1st Annual Hellenic Festival, Buffalo, NY

Scanning in the evidence of my work as the Public Relations Director for the first Greek festival in Buffalo, New York gives me great joy, for it allows me to recall fond memories of having worked hard to help a non-profit organization — the Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation— raise the money for its building fund, while simultaneously innaugurating a fun-filled event that would kick off the season of festivals that makes summer in Buffalo such a special, magical experience.

The initial Greek festival was the brainchild of Father George Pantelis, a charismatic, young priest who saw the festival not only as a way to raise money for the church's building fund, but also as an opportunity to bring his congregation together in a shared experience that would inject them with pride and community spirit. Father George was the driving force and the inspiration for the entire affair. The challenge —as it was presented to me— was how to promote a brand, new festival in Buffalo with a very tiny budget, limited artistic resources, and no previously established media contacts.

At that time — the year was 1977—I was attending a non-credit night class at the University of Buffalo in "Advertising and Marketing for Small Businesses," given by Statten White, my former boss at the Rich Advertising agency. I had worked for Statten as a copywriter immediately after I got back home from four years in the Peace Corps, but I was awarded a fellowship from Syracuse University to study film and TV production, so I left the agency to get my masters degree. After three years in graduate school, I wanted to re-integrate myself into the Buffalo economy, so I sat in on Stratten's night classes.

During the course, Katie Johnson (now Katie Johnson Hoffman) approached Stratten, asking him if his agency would take on the job of promoting her church's festival. Since the church had no budget to speak of, it could not afford to hire Stratten's agency, so he had to decline. But, as he did so, he pointed me out to Katie, telling her that she should "hire that guy, because he's a one-man band." Katie and Father George did exactly that, and I became the only non-Greek to work for the festival in a key role.

Elements of the Public Relations Campaign

In those dark days before computers were even a glimmer in the eyes of youngsters who would someday breed a new generation of techno-geeks dependent on using the Internet and web sites as a promotional tool, public relations actually meant meeting people and selling them on promoting your ideas through the traditonal media, which they controlled. With only a shoestring budget and the support of an enthusiastic, volunteer congregation, I somehow managed to promote the festival in all media —print, radio, television, and outdoor advertising. This page provides links to samples of some of media elements I developed as part of the campaign to promote Buffalo's first Greek festival.

	Press release	• I wrote the press releases for the festival, and ...
	Buffalo News, Wine Almanac Buffalo News, Art Notes Buffalo News, Events & Openings Courier-Express, Active List	...I provided follow-up information that was the basis of several feature articles appearing in the Buffalo Evening News and the Buffalo Courier-Express, that wonderful daily and Sunday newspaper, which is now defunct.
	Brochure	• I wrote a brochure, ...
	Window Poster	...and I collaborated in the design of flyers, window posters, ...
	Business Card / Print ad	...and over-sized business cards that volunteers distributed for display in practically all of western New York's restaurants and public buildings.
	Ad in Buffalo News, entertainment section Ad in Buffalo News, TV Topics section	• For frequency and repetition of image, I used the design of the "over-sized business cards" which we handed out in restaurants as the advertisement which we ran in several different food-oriented, or entertainment-oriented, sections of the local newspapers.
	Street Banner	• I developed a street banner that we strung across the corner of Delaware Avenue and West Utica, where the church is located.
	Letterhead stationery Envelopes	• I collaborated in the design of a "brand image," a graphic logo, slogan, and advertisement that the church used on all stationery and correspondence to tie-in with the street banner and all other communications we distributed.
	Outdoor sign	• I had a sign developed and placed outside the church, at the corner of the intersection.
	Radio Spots	• I wrote the copy for radio promotional ads, which the local stations broadcast as public service announcements.
	TV Spots	• I wrote and produced short promos featuring young Greek dancers, and I convinced local television stations to run them as TV public service announcements.
	TV Talk Shows	• I arranged for young Greek dancers and chefs to appear on local TV talk shows and news magazine shows, like WKBW-TV's "Dialing for Dollars" and " AM Buffalo," and WGR-TV's "Magazine" to provide entertainment samples and cooking demonstrations.
	TV Public Service Announcements	• I developed a photographic slide, which TV stations used as the image along with my narration during station breaks and short public service announcements.
	Color and black-and-white photographs, e.g.: Baking bread, before Baking bread, after	• I took color and black-and-white photographs which the newspapers used as illustrations for relevant articles promoting the festival.
	Buffalo Courier-Express, Sunday Magazine cover	• I arranged for the Buffalo Courier Express to publish a full-page color photo of young Greek dancers performing on the steps of the Church for the cover of its Sunday Magazine section, two weeks prior to the weekend-long festival. I provided story information and additional color photos for the feature articles written by the magazine's editor-in-chief and its food editor.

The publication of that full-page color photo in the Sunday Magazine section of the Courier-Express was the key element of the delicately timed campaign I had planned to promote that first Greek Festival. It was also the tipping point that convinced the committee members, the congregation —and Father George— that I might actually have some idea of what I was doing, even though it looked like I was making it all up as I went along. Up until the publication of that full-page color photo on the cover of Courier-Express' Sunday Magazine, Father George and his committee members had been putting tremendous pressure on me to "do something," and they were becoming extremely nervous at not seeing any results.

As the new, young priest embarking on a daring new venture, Father George was under pressure by the church leaders to make good on his promise to deliver a successful festival. He, in turn, was relying on me —a young, but unproven, alleged advertising whiz— to get the word out so that people would show up. And I was constantly trying to calm him down by telling him that everything was being timed to be a media blitz that would be concentrated within the last two weeks, because I didn't think the public could plan ahead much further than that. Besides, we couldn't afford to sustain a long media campaign anyway.

I remember him telling me: "I never trusted a man so much in my whole life."

As a former paperboy for the Courier-Express, I knew that (in an age when black-and-white photos were the standard), the big color photo on the cover of the Sunday Magazine was the most anticipated, most noticed page of the entire newspaper week. Everyone saw that page, and they would read the internal articles associated with that photo.

Based on that intuition, I had developed a campaign that was timed to go into full force during the two weeks immediately prior to the festival weekend. Fortunately, I was right! As the committee member responsible for coordinating the Taverna, the informal night club and restaurant we were presenting in the Church, later told me, the day that Courier Express article was published, their phone started to ring off the hook, so much so that another phone line had to be put in to handle all the dinner reservations.

When the festival finally began, the crowd of people eager to attend was larger than we expected. There were long lines circling the church all day long, just waiting to get in. About 5,000 people came on the first day alone —creating a situation in which we would have run out of food. But the community rallied together. At the end of the first day, the women of the congregation were pressed into "emergency" service to bake more bread and pastries. By the time it was over, newspaper accounts reported that over 20,000 people had attended the festival. Since dinner reservations for the Taverna had been completely sold out for the entire weekend, many visitors made their Taverna reservations for next year's event before they even left the church.

I can still remember a media personality coming up to Father George and congratulating him on delivering such a successful festival to the community. She specifically asked him who had done the public relations. With a big, beaming smile, he pointed to me. She then congratulated me on doing a great job, saying: "You had to blind, deaf, and dumb not to know that there was a Greek Festival going on in Buffalo this weekend."

She then asked me what my plans were, if I was now going to open up my own public relations agency in Buffalo on the strength of my success. No, I told her, because I was going to use the money I earned to buy a van and head to California to seek a career as a scriptwriter and film maker. At the end of the summer, that is precisely what I did.

It was with great sadness that I learned two years later of the senseless murder of Father George by thieves who came upon him as they were stealing church icons during a robbery. Father George had given me his trust: I loved and respected him. Thanks to Father George's inspiration, the Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation —and western New York— has an annual, fun-filled, Greek festival to look forward to. And I still take satisfaction in knowing that I —by now "an honorary Greek"— helped to successfully launch the very first Greek festival that made it all happen.

Go to the chronologically formatted resume, at the place where this job is described.