9's First Case

I launched a new start-up a few months ago and so far, things have been going pretty well. 9 does two things: consulting and content, the majority of which is the digital kind. It includes helping others do things on the web, such as build community or launch sites or blogs, as well as producing and creating content (editorial, TV, etc.). It seemed to make better sense, especially since everything was pointing to a downturn and possibly, a recession - two potentially damaging factors for any start up, but particularly for young web companies that are ad-based.

One of 9’s first clients came to us in a bit of a bind. They wanted to host a special event at NY Fashion Week and planned to rent a bar for $3k on one of the week’s biggest nights to help bring together their top users. The problem was, their existing PR firm hadn’t appeared to be having much success. With less than ten days to spare, they signed us to try to come up with a solution to fix it. We thought long and hard about whether or not we could make it happen with such short notice, and in the end, decided we could. First, we cancelled the event and planned a group dinner instead, as a smaller, more intimate affair was probably the better bet given the tight timeframe. We then got their crew into a few cool parties, including scoring entry to the hotly anticipated Budgetfashionista party and coveted American Express suite, which overlooks the runway, for a top designer’s show. To top it off, we snagged a bunch of free products for the dinner’s goody bags. In the end, we reduced their cost for the gathering to about $1500 - and everybody left happy. All with less than a week to spare!

The funny thing is, I did alot of it with a broken ankle, waiting to go to the emergency room until I could absolutely confirm with AMEX. People ask me what 9 does all the time. Here’s the answer.