Low-budget campaigns make huge splash through blogging

Experienced PR pros turn to corporate blogging to launch their latest venture

When you commit to a PR program that makes heavy use of blogging, it can change the way you approach communications tasks, says Amy Bohutinsky, director of communication for Zillow, the online real estate valuation service that has become wildly popular in recent months. With a very small PR budget—and with a commitment to using blogs to launch the service—Bohutinsky and her PR team made a huge splash, without a lot of cash.

The strategy discussions for Zillow’s launch started in summer of 2005, when Bohutinsky joined the Seattle-based company from travel Web site Hotwire. “At the time, we had a product that wasn’t really ready to be launched yet, and we didn’t have venture capital funding,” Bohutinsky explains. Zillow’s founders, who had come from online travel company Expedia, were keen to go beyond traditional PR tactics to build buzz for the service. (Zillow provides home buyers and sellers with tools to help value residential real estate.)