SITUATION

Increasing unemployment and corporate greed turned business as usual (corporate meetings, events and hospitality) into a virtual crime in 2009 & 10. As a result, companies cancelled meetings in record numbers and resorts like Pinehurst had to battle a perception of excess.

OBJECTIVE

Our job was to convince C-level executives and meeting planners that Pinehurst Resort was not a golf boondoggle, but a business value – with eight golf courses as an extra perk.

SOLUTION

As America’s Home of Golf, Pinehurst can’t deny its golf-centric heritage. So we incorporated that tradition (with a wink and a nod) into a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-down-to-business message. These ran as full-page ads in Fortune Magazine as well as consecutive fractional ads in regional business publications. The resort manage to weather the recession and group business saw a strong rebound by year’s end.