Case Studies

A New York City dentist describes the challenges of re-opening during the pandemic

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In June 2020, Mediator worked with fellow PR agency AMWPR to generate publicity for New York City dentist Dr. Todd Bertman. In the phone interview we subsequently scheduled, Dr. Bertman explained how his Greenwich Village office was coping with the Coronavirus pandemic. His office was at twenty-five percent capacity, he said, and would be at reduced capacity for another year. Bertman described how some patients were “scared to death” to come in, and detailed strategies to keep the office sterile and safe. He also talked about the struggle to secure adequate amounts of PPE for his patients and staff.

We used what he learned from the interview to write four pitches. Each pitch contained four to five of Dr. Bertman’s quotes. We sent the pitch to about 1,200 journalists from major publications and outlets. Maria Cramer, a New York Times reporter, emailed us back, inquiring about interviewing Dr. Bertman and his patients.

Cramer’s New York Times story ran a week later. In the print edition, it took up nearly a full-page, and included multiple photographs of Dr. Bertman’s office.

A real estate broker’s pandemic stories echo across the world

In March 2020, Mediator worked with AMWPR again to secure media coverage for Eddie Shapiro, the CEO of real estate agency Nest Seekers International. During the interview, Shapiro said that Nest Seekers’ broker Dylan Eckardt could offer better insight into rental trends during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Shapiro was right. Eckardt shared with us multiple stories of wealthy New Yorkers calling him to ask for Hamptons’ mansion rentals. They wanted to escape New York City, the pandemic epicenter, he said.

Eckardt said in the past few weeks Nest Seekers had processed millions of dollars in transactions. He detailed stories of “CEO's and major Fortune 500 business people” calling about expensive Hamptons homes that could be sterilized before arrival. “I'm on my way to the Hamptons,” Eckardt recalled the son of a diplomat telling him. “I've got a tractor-trailer. I need a house with 9 bedrooms. I've got a blank check. Make it happen. I'm on my way.”

We typed everything Eckardt told us, quickly turned it into a pitch, and emailed Amy Gamerman, a Wall Street Journal reporter he had contacted earlier that week.

Gamerman asked to interview Eckardt. A week later, she wrote about Eckardt’s tales in an article titled “Diplomats, CEOs’ Flee to the Hamptons as Coronavirus Cases Surge in NYC”. You can read the article here.

The stories Eckardt told us got picked up by other outlets too, including Crain’s, MarketWatch, Business Insider (twice), Daily Mail (twice) and The Real Deal.

An ex-cop analyzes police brutality on cable and network TV in the wake of George Floyd’s murder

After Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin brutally murdered George Floyd in late May 2020, AMWPR asked Mediator to pitch Joe Ested, an ex-police officer client who had written a book about police brutality, to the media. Ested texted us his analysis of the Floyd’s killing, which we turned into a pitch that he emailed to reporters and cable TV producers.

Our initial pitch was ignored, but a follow-up email got the attention of an MSNBC producer, who booked Ested for three segments in one June weekend; he was booked on MSNBC again a short time later.

Over the next couple months, we interviewed Ested about other topics related to police violence, which we turned into more pitches that he distributed to the media. As a result of those pitches, we were able to repeatedly book Joe on CNN and OAN, as well as on NBC Nightly News and Cheddar. After Ested appeared on MSNBC, AMWPR booked him on Fox News Channel; his Fox interviews, in which he debated former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik, were covered by Talking Points Memo and Media Matters. We also booked an interview for Ested with a Washington Post writer, who quoted him in an article.