Case History: American Forests Historic Trees
   
• Initiated a partnership with Primedia Publishing, joint-venturing sales of historic trees through their 9-magazine History Division (America’s Civil War, World War II, etc.) and negotiated dozens of free full-page color ads in nationally-distributed publications. These created ongoing sales of historic seedling trees every month, and thousands of new customers in the database.
   
 
 
 
 
Download sample Primedia/Historic Trees ad (216K)
         
    • Negotiated an agreement with MBNA Bank for an affinity credit card for American Forests, to take advantage of the over 50,000 new subscriber database. The card was projected to generate $96,000 in annual revenues for the organization, based on MBNA historical data and personal experience.  
             
    • Created displays and represented the organization at trade shows such as the Gift Fair in NYC, the Johnny Appleseed Festival, the 140th Anniversary of Gettysburg, the Shot Show, and at media events dedicating newly-recognized historic trees. Through careful and thorough PR, these generated "community pride" articles that were often front page or center spreads in local publications... further driving sales for the Nursery.  
    Newt Gingrich shows off Historic Gettysburg Address Honeylocust at the 140th reenactment of the battle. Official Dedication of one of the last remaining Indian Marker Trees in Southport, SC.  
               
   

 

• Secured commitments from 196 (of 205) public television stations across the country, all part of American Public Television, for the group’s Telly Award-winning Silent Witnesses special and 13-episode TreeStories series. In some markets these are still being run today, continuing to create market interest, new leads and customers for the organization.
 

Telly Award-Winning Silent Witnesses and the TreeStories series continue to be shown on public television stations during fundraising events.

View TreeStories video clips from the TreeStories PBS website

     
• Near the end of his contract, Emerson took over negotiations with Walt Disney World, creating a first-ever joint venture with Epcot. He worked onsite with Epcot staff for six weeks to showcase 37 of "America’s Timeless Trees" during the 2003 Flower & Garden Festival. 		     
         
       
   
     

The agreement with Epcot to display America's "Timeless Trees" exposed an estimated 2 million visitors to American Forests' programs. This was the first joint-venture agreement of its kind between Disney and the national non-profit. Disney shared a percentage of all sales with American Forests.

   
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