CASE STUDY
Weinstein Company
The Challenge
After disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein was ousted from his company, Maria Contreras-Sweet, a former Cabinet Official and head of the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama, assembled a majority-female team of Hollywood heavyweights to make a bid for The Weinstein Company and rebrand it as a place that was welcoming to and supportive of women. TASC was brought on to generate excitement around and cultivate support for the deal.
Our Strategy
TASC capitalized on the momentum of the Time’s Up and reignited Me Too movements, and made Maria and her team a symbol of hope and progress in the industry’s treatment of women. TASC managed a huge volume of media requests for Ms. Sweet, and strategically released information on the deal to garner community interest and support from key decision- makers. Several other groups were also in the running to secure a deal, and many details of negotiations could not be made public, so we worked to ensure outlets were accurately reporting on the details of Maria’s deal, the only one to save jobs, create a female-majority board of directors and create a $90 million compensation fund for Weinstein’s victims.
Results
Our work generated hundreds of media placements in national outlets including Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, ABC News, CNBC, Yahoo! Finance, CNN Money, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Refinery29 and dozens more, which turned the tide in Maria’s favor with The Weinstein Company’s board of directors. Although the deal was ultimately not completed, our work helped Maria enter into exclusive negotiations with the company, and proved that women could have a seat at the table at a crucial time in history. Our work also elevated Maria as a thought leader on women in the workplace, and coverage of her bid inspired women around the globe to believe change is happening.
MEDIA COVERAGE
