Rosica Made Famous Amos... A Client For 24 Years
Excerpted From PR Week

Rosica made Amos "famous". John Rosica was the national promotion director for RCA Records when he met Wally Amos, a former agent with William Morris, known for his homemade cookies. Rosica started working for Amos’ company (now owned by Keebler), and then launched his own agency. Cause-related marketing in conjunction with Literacy Volunteers of America helped make Amos an icon, recently featured on A&E’s Biography. But it’s the personal relationship with John Rosica and his son Chris (the firm’s president) that is paramount. “It’s a total trust thing,” Amos maintains. “If they left, I would not be here.”

A Personal Touch
Having a personal connection with the client can help ensure loyalty. Wally “Famous” Amos has known Chris Rosica, president of his PR firm Rosica Strategic Public Relations, since he was a baby. “I’ve kind of landed this role because Wally likes having me there,” Rosica says. “He’s my champion and he trusts us implicitly.” Amos says that the rapport he enjoys with John and Chris is pivotal. He trusts them to set up events without too much consultation from him. John Rosica was also responsible for bringing Amos and Literacy Volunteers of America together, a relationship that has proved hugely successful both to the cause of literacy, and to boosting Amos’ profile. John recalls their first meeting with LVA. “We were so different from anything they had seen before,” he says. “Wally came in with his hat and his cookie shirt on and I was wearing my corduroy jacket and pressed jeans. It was frightening for them.”

More terrifying for LVA than the hip clothing was the prospect that PR would damage the integrity of their product. Rosica had to work to reassure the organization that their intention was to reinforce the integrity of the organization. Literacy events related to Famous Amos have taken place in libraries across the country ever since.

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