Multiyear PR campaign for Perillo Tours

See Cover Story in Family Business

See Feature in Travel Weekly

See Maxim Feature

Listen to the CBS News Radio Segment

When the third-generation owner of Perillo Tours, Steve Perillo, hired us to freshen the brand and ramp up results, it was the start of a long and beautiful partnership. Since 2017, Redpoint has continued to raise awareness of the Perillo Tours brand to reach new markets and uphold Steve’s leadership as the travel expert for Italy.

Each year, our multi-faceted, integrated PR program leverages a variety of tactics, including: media tours, visiting journalist programs, feature pitching, news bureau programs, social campaigns, media newsletters, satellite media tours, radio media tours, MAT releases, listicles, newsletters, sweepstakes, and more.

Throughout 2018 and 2019, we shepherded a strong, proactive media relations effort for Perillo. The key to success was courting media attention with imaginative story angles and inviting media to explore Italy in different ways, resulting in editorial coverage appearing in The Boston Globe, Discovery Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, SHAPE magazine, Fodor’s Travel, Johnny Jet, and more. Our PR hearts also sang with joy (and laughed hysterically) when Adam Sandler played Steve Perillo in a parody commercial for his Italy tours on Saturday Night Live.

In 2020, tourism to Italy was at an all-time high and Perillo was celebrating 75 successful years in business. But in late January 2020 when Italy declared a national emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic and locked down the country, tourism there (and soon… everywhere) ground to a halt. Then came our next PR challenge: how do you promote touring a destination when no one is traveling? You have to get REALLLYYY creative. Despite obvious obstacles, Redpoint didn’t miss a beat.

We focused on covering Perillo and Italy from creative angles that put owner Steve Perillo in the interview seat, talking about such topics as: his top 10 places to eat pizza in Italy, the current and future state of travel to Italy, how to experience Italy virtually, how to best “plan now, travel later” with flexible cancellation policies, and more. Media response to this campaign of targeted pitches was super strong and kept the Perillo Tours PR presence high during a critical phase of the pandemic. Some of our favorite features during this time were: Forbes, Kiplinger, Fox Business TV, Rick Steves Radio Interview, and Agent at Home.

Coming out of the pandemic, we’ve continued to refine our creative strategy to shine the media spotlight on the Perillo Tours brand. Through enrichment press trips, special deals, partnerships, broadcast interviews (including a live satellite media tour from the Tuscan countryside), and clever positioning, Steve Perillo’s authority as the travel expert to Italy has skyrocketed over the past few years. The resulting efforts have led to major coverage in key regional and national trade media (very important to Perillo’s business) and consumer travel publications. Some highlights include:

Oh, and don’t miss the Family Business and Travel Weekly cover stories linked at the top of the case study. We’re pretty sure that they’re on the refrigerator at Perillo HQ.

For more snapshots of our work, see how we keep the Woodstock Inn & Resort center-stage in the media spotlight year after year, consistently deliver PR results for Atlantic Canada, and expand awareness of Explore Worldwide in the North American market.  

Back to Case Studies