VAULT · PR Strategy

Window: Month -12 through Month +6 Owner: Tia Dunn, Marketing Director Founder as narrator: Taj Hines Category and franchise voice: Trill Walker, CSO

Strategic Thesis

VAULT has four stories to tell, and each one lands in a different room.

1. The founder story. Taj Hines built this. That is a Cultured, Departures, and Vogue Business story.
2. The category story. Luxury vertical wellness is a category being created, not entered. That is a Vogue Business, WSJ Off Duty, GQ, and Business North Carolina story.
3. The IP story. VAULT INVITATIONAL is a traveling championship produced by TWG. That is a Hot 97, Complex, and GQ story with legs.
4. The franchise story. Charlotte is the first city. That is a WSJ, Bloomberg, and Fast Company story once we have proof.

We pitch each story to the right room, in the right sequence, with a clear ask. We do not blast press releases. We do not chase reviews.

Target Press List

Charlotte and regional

National lifestyle and business

Fitness, wellness, and health

Hip hop and culture

Story Arcs and Placement

Arc 1 · Founder (Taj Hines)

Angle: The founder built a five-floor private club in Charlotte with a specific thesis about who wellness is for. She is a woman, a mother, a widow, a builder. She is not from the fitness industry. That is the story.

Primary placements (in order of ambition): 1. Cultured Magazine cover feature, Month -6, embargoed to Month -3. 2. Departures long-form profile, Month -3. 3. Vogue Business founder interview, Month -2. 4. Harper’s Bazaar or Elle single-page feature, Month +2.

Pitch structure: - Lead paragraph: the building, one specific detail. - Second paragraph: Taj, one specific line from her. - Third paragraph: the category she is creating. - Fourth paragraph: what makes this different.

What we do not lead with: grief, motherhood, or personal loss. If those come up in the interview, they come up on her terms.

Arc 2 · Category (Luxury Vertical Wellness)

Angle: Wellness has been sold as sprawl. A destination spa, a chain of studios, a app subscription. Nobody has taken the club model, gone vertical, gone private, and built it in a city that is not New York or LA. Charlotte is the point.

Primary placements: 1. Vogue Business trend feature, Month -5. 2. WSJ Off Duty category story, Month -4. 3. Bloomberg Businessweek deep dive, Month +3 (post-open, with proof). 4. Fast Company innovation feature, Month +4.

Pitch structure: - Category thesis: five floors, one philosophy. - Comparative frame: Equinox is a chain. VAULT is a club. Aman is a destination. VAULT is a residency. - Proof of demand: waitlist size, founding cohort composition (not names, categories). - Franchise thesis: Charlotte first, then second city announced Month +6.

Arc 3 · IP (VAULT INVITATIONAL)

Angle: VAULT owns a traveling championship, produced by TWG. Year One is Charlotte, 2028. Athletes across strength, movement, and combat, curated across categories that have never shared a stage.

Primary placements: 1. Hot 97 exclusive announcement, Month -3. 2. Complex feature, Month -2. 3. GQ athlete profile roster, Month -1. 4. XXL cultural crossover angle, Month -1. 5. ESPN or Bleacher Report athlete roster, Month +2 (post-Y1 announcement).

Pitch structure: - Format: what the INVITATIONAL is (three days, curated cohort, no purse chase). - Athletes: named cohort with Trill’s introduction letter. - Charlotte: why the city, and what Y2 city speculation looks like. - Sponsor: Team Hennessy involvement if confirmed.

Arc 4 · Franchise (Charlotte is the first city)

Angle: VAULT is a franchise thesis. Charlotte is the first city because it is the largest US metro without a peer club. Atlanta and Nashville are next. Miami is not (too crowded).

Primary placements: - Not pitched until Month +3, and only after Y1 metrics support the story. - Bloomberg Businessweek is the target. - Fast Company as secondary. - WSJ Real Estate section as tertiary.

Sequenced Placement Calendar

PR Agency Evaluation

We should retain an agency for national placement in Month -8. Three finalists.

Small Girls PR

Fit: Strong founder-led women brands. Editorial, warm, not shouty. Good with Cultured and Departures. Retainer: $10K to $12K per month. Consideration: Their sweet spot. If they take the account, they will overdeliver. Risk: Smaller shop. If they lose a senior lead, we feel it.

HL Group

Fit: Hospitality, luxury lifestyle, resort openings, restaurant launches. They know the club vocabulary. Retainer: $15K per month. Consideration: They open buildings for a living. That is what we are doing. Risk: More corporate feel. May over-produce.

Alison Brod Marketing and Communications

Fit: Broad lifestyle, beauty, fashion. Strong ins at Vogue, Harper’s, Elle. Retainer: $12K to $15K per month. Consideration: Deep women’s lifestyle Rolodex. Would land Elle and Harper’s cleanly. Risk: Less category-creation muscle. Better at proven categories.

Recommendation for consideration: Start conversations with all three in Month -9. Retain by Month -7. Preference is HL Group for hospitality vocabulary, backed by Alison Brod as secondary for lifestyle placements. Small Girls kept in mind for a founder-story-only micro-engagement if we prefer to keep the retainer smaller.

Retainer budget: $10K to $15K per month, Month -7 through Month +3. Total range: $100K to $150K.

In-House vs Agency Split

Tia is in-house. She owns: - All strategy and pitch angles - All embargo negotiation - All Charlotte and regional press directly - All hip hop and culture press directly (Hot 97, Complex, XXL, VIBE, Shade Room) - All social announcement coordination - All internal review of what the agency pitches

The agency owns: - National long-lead pitching (Cultured, Departures, Vogue Business, WSJ, Bloomberg, Fast Company) - National fitness and wellness pitching (Well+Good, Vogue, Harper’s, Elle) - Press day logistics and credentialing - Embargo tracking - Clip reporting

This split is deliberate. Charlotte and hip hop are relationship worlds. Tia has the relationships (Nomad Society network, Trill’s world). Agencies do not. National editorial is a Rolodex game. Agencies have the Rolodex.

Message Discipline

Words we use: - Club, member, application, founding, category, practice, floor, vertical, private.

Words we do not use: - Gym, workout, class pass, wellness journey, transformation, community (as marketing), best-in-class, world-class, luxury (except when others use it about us).

How we describe VAULT: > A private club for the vertical practice. Five floors, uptown Charlotte. Membership by application.

How we describe Taj: > Founder and creative director. Charlotte-based. Built the club from the studs.

How we describe Trill: > Chief strategy officer. Founder of The Walker Group. Producer of the VAULT INVITATIONAL.

How we describe Tia: > Marketing director. On record only for logistics and confirmations. Never as spokesperson.

Escalation and Approvals

• Any interview with Taj: 48-hour prep call minimum, Tia present.
• Any national placement over 2,000 words: Trill reviews for category positioning.
• Any INVITATIONAL story: Trill approves quotes.
• Any Charlotte civic story: Taj approves the last two paragraphs.
• Any correction request: routed through Tia, resolved within 24 hours.

What Success Looks Like

By Month +6, VAULT has landed: - One Cultured or Departures founder feature. - One Vogue Business category feature. - One Bloomberg or Fast Company category-plus-franchise feature. - One Hot 97 broadcast segment. - One Complex, GQ, or XXL INVITATIONAL feature. - Consistent Charlotte press presence (three or more Charlotte Magazine or Observer stories).

We measure this in quality of placement, not clip volume. Ten stories in the right rooms beat one hundred in the wrong ones.