Midas secures widespread coverage for The 100 Trillion Dollar Wealth Transfer, positioning Ken Costa as the intergenerational voice on the future of capitalism
The Brief
Midas was appointed to drive an impactful and wide-reaching UK media campaign, and targeted US media, for The 100 Trillion Dollar Wealth Transfer by investment banker, thought leader, philanthropist and author Ken Costa, published by Bloomsbury Continuum on 28 September (UK) and 30 January (US).
Our objectives were to promote the book and launching Ken as a heavyweight non-fiction author in the thought leadership space; deliver national and sector-targeted media coverage for Ken Costa’s book that generates a buzz and encourages sales; position Ken Costa as a figurehead who can mediate between the needs of Boomers and Gen Z/Millennials; and support and coordinate with Bloomsbury Continuum’s marketing and sales strategy in the UK and US, to deliver an impactful PR campaign that gets people talking.
The Work
Over the course of our campaign, Midas secured a wide breadth of publicity for Ken’s book, across nationals, broadcast, podcasts, business and lifestyle magazines, religious outlets, speaking opportunities and events.
Following a kick-off meeting with Ken and reading the PDF of his book in full, we created an in-depth PR Plan for our campaign, including strategy, key messaging, target audiences and media, and timeline of activity. As the book addresses issues that speak to a wide range of audiences, from the very beginning we developed specific messaging and feature angles to target the relevant audience segments: Baby Boomers, Gen Z and Millennials, investors and venture capitalists, philanthropists, policymakers, event organisers, and the wider book trade.
Working closely with the Bloomsbury team was a priority to ensure we were an integral part of their wider marketing strategy. After an in-person meeting, we liaised regularly with the Bloomsbury UK team, keeping Ken’s editor and the publicity and marketing team regularly updated with our activity. For the US element of the campaign, we connected with the Bloomsbury US team to align with their publicity plans, divide up the media outreach and maximise the impact of our efforts in the US media landscape.
In collaboration with Bloomsbury, we supported securing, drafting, and signing off early endorsements for the book, with positive comments on the book coming from: Alec Marsh (Spear’s Magazine), Rick Warren, Linda Yueh, Paul Polman, Prof. Michael Mainelli, John C. Maxwell and Hugh Evans.
To secure early media interest, we organised a lunch with key journalists at Langan’s in July, with attendees from the Financial Times, City AM, Sky News, Millennial Money and The Humble Penny. The lunch was crucial in planting the seed for Ken’s important message across generations, engaging and understanding opinions from attendees and helped us to secure coverage further down the line.
In our media outreach, we positioned Ken as the ideal voice to speak to both Boomers and Gen Z/Millennials about the future of capitalism. Thanks to his experience as a veteran investment banker chairing major global investment institutions, as well as his years of working in close collaboration with Gen Z, we positioned him as the bridge between his generation and the next. Across all our pitches, we also ensured that the book’s key messaging (socially energised capitalism, CO, hindsight-insight-foresight) were highlighted to media as new insight to understand the future of capitalism.
By closely working with Ken to gain a stronger idea of his views and expertise, doing extensive and regular research of the media landscape to identify popular news stories and assess the best media targets, and creatively brainstorming topic ideas, we created tailored op-ed angles and pitched these to media. We successfully secured numerous op-ed opportunities in national newspapers, and current affairs, business, philanthropy and wealth management magazines. We drafted many of these articles with and for Ken, ensuring that the book’s messaging was consistent and at the forefront of the article, incorporating accurate and recent data found in our research, positioning Ken as a valuable and current thought-leader on the intergenerational wealth transfer as well as keeping true to Ken’s engaging tone-of-voice.
We monitored the news cycle for topical news stories every week mentioning The Great Wealth Transfer, inheritance taxes, Gen Z and capitalism. We kept a detailed list of emerging news stories and incorporated them into our media and events pitching, and into interviews and written op-eds. For example, we identified opportunities to highlight Ken to the media in light of the Telegraph acquisition and autumn statement, offering Ken for interview as an expert spokesperson.
For US-outreach, we ensured our pitches showed that Ken was not only knowledgeable in the UK’s business and economic sectors, but also at an international level. We specifically researched and identified topics of interest in recent US news, particularly the Bank of Grandma, inflation, and Gen Z investment, using these as hooks to reach out to US newspapers, TV, radio, magazines and podcasts.
The Results
We were delighted with the spread of national newspaper and broadcast coverage Ken and the book received, including an op-ed in the Mail on Sunday and This is Money, an interview in the Financial Times, with the book also picked among the month’s Best Economic Books, a review in the Sunday Times, and double page spread piece in the Sunday Telegraph, and a comment piece in The Independent. We also liaised with Times Radio, and Ken appeared on the Ed Vaizey show.
In business media, we secured blanket coverage for Ken, including: the front cover of Spear’s Magazine, with an in-depth interview with Ken; additional interviews and features in Thought Economics, Money Week, Business Leader, Financial News, Finance Digest, The Daily Upside, Business News, Philanthropy Impact Magazine, PWC Blog and more.
Within consumer media, we placed an op-ed by Ken about intergenerational finance in the Big Issue, running in print and online. We also secured an appearance on Premier Christian Radio and an op-ed published in Premier Christianity Magazine.
We had a great success with podcasts, securing interviews for Ken on Next Big Idea Club, Motley Fool Podcast, Money Life, Millennial Money, The Frugal Spender Podcast and Keen On Podcast. Still to run are interviews in The Art of Money and Comms, American Trends and Abeceder Quotation Conversation.
Furthermore, we received great reception from online bloggers, who posted positively about the book in individual reviews and round ups on their websites and social media. These included The Capital Spectator, Daily Kos, A Couple of Dorks and Eric Karl Anderson.
In terms of events and literary festivals, we secured the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival; an event at the How To Academy; a private members’ event at 5 Hertford Street; a virtual event with Aspen UK, with their Rising Leadership Fellows; a book launch in collaboration with Radix Big Tent, moderated by Guardian journalist Jess Elgot, also featuring Piers Birmingham and Timi Merriman-Johnson. An event with the RSA is planned for May, and a future conference with the Centre for Policy Studies.
