By RCG Staff

On Sunday, January 19, RCG’s Danny Rubin put out a call to the Hampton Roads “paparazzi,” and it worked like a charm.

As part of the 2014 Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, the Beth Sholom Village (assisted living and nursing home) screened “Sturgeon Queens.” The hour-long documentary tells the story of Russ & Daughters, a lox and herring emporium in New York City that has stayed in business 100 years.

Outside the screening room, Rubin and film festival volunteers laid a 25-foot red carpet so moviegoers could walk (or, in many cases, roll) like celebrities.

Notice the “paparazzi” on the right. In addition to actual media, several others snapped pics too.

Everyone was a star on this day!

Rubin alerted the media ahead of the event — promising a fun story with terrific visuals — and sure enough, they turned out.

A reporter came from The Beacon, the Virginia Beach insert in The Virginian Pilot, as well as reporters from WTKR (CBS affiliate) and WAVY (NBC affiliate).

The WAVY reporter even interviewed Mark Robbins, a co-chair of the film festival, for the news later that night. (Click here to watch the interview).

The Public Relations Lesson

Rubin Communications Group created a unique, memorable event with great visuals. We sent the news media a press release the day before, called the media again on the morning of the event to check that they could still attend and then made sure reporters had what they needed at the movie screening itself.

The lesson: be different to capture the media’s interest and be determined to stay on task from start to finish.

The result in our case? More exposure for the festival, bonus goodwill for the Beth Sholom Village and another public relations job well done for Team RCG.

Want to see the lineup for the 2014 Virginia Festival of Jewish Film? Visit this page and see the schedule. Festival runs until Monday, January 27!