STRATFORSTRATFOR’S MARKETING & PUBLICITY PLAN FOR THE NEXT DECADE100 YEARS

We have 3 goals:

1st Day Goal -- to pop the book onto the Amazon Top 50 on the release date

1stWeek Goal -- to hit the New York Times bestseller list.

1stMonth Goal -- to sustain sales and keep it on NYT bestseller list.

Our Capabilities:

Our capabilities

StratforSTRATFOR has been involved in marketing and selling two previous books by George Friedmanits executives: Fred Burton’s Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, (Random House, June 2008) and George Friedman’sAmerica’s Secret War (Doubleday, 2004) and The Next 100 Years (Doubleday 2008). Since 2004 we have greatly increased the sophistication of our marketing to our members and expect to have greatly enhanced sales results.

For To date Stratfor has presold through online direct marketing 1,048 copies of The Next 100 Years (TN100YTND) STRATFOR sold 4,000 copies through marketing campaigns to our readers. These were sold earlier in 2008 with very little marketing. Our target for pre-publication advance orders is 5,000 copies. (Our prepub orders for Ghost were 1,100.)

Our plans, OctoberSeptember 201008 – January 201109

  • Beginning November 1, StratforSTRATFOR will launch multiple email campaigns and special offers promoting TND100Y to its 135135,000 members.
  • By November 1, StratforSTRATFOR will have established a TND100Y microsite on with links running to it from randomhouse.com, doubleday.com and to all online bookstores.Amazon.
  • The TND100Y microsite will include:

i.blog by George Friedman on topics addressed in the book (forecasts relating to energy policy, population trends, global military developments etc.)

  1. a video of the author discussing why he wrote the book and its major points
  2. table of contents and selected book content, including color maps and graphics not found in the book
  3. Links to Amazon, B&N, Borders etc for purchasing the book.

iv. Links to Amazon and B&N for purchasing the book

v.

  • Beginning on November 1, TN100YTND will be featured on the StratforSTRATFORHomepageBookshelf at This site is open to the public and will therefore reach an even wider audience than the direct email campaigns.
  • StratforSTRATFOR will send bound galleys and early finished books to major “big mouths” and influential StratforSTRATFOR members in the business, finance and media communities to create buzz.
  • StratforSTRATFOR will develop search engine optimization (SEO) for TN100YTND.
  • StratforSTRATFOR will orient George Friedman’s most significant personal appearances and speeches in the months surrounding the publication date to promote TN100YTND. These high-profile events include: (need to add these)
  1. February 7, 2011 – NMS Management – Phoenix, AZ

i.Keynote speaker at General-Re New England Asset Management, 2008 Client Appreciation Event, (parent company owned by Warren Buffet and the largest reinsurer in the world) , Las Vegas (September 25, 2008)

ii.Keynote speaker at Board of Directors Meeting of Valero, a Fortune 20 energy company, Greenbriar, WV – 30 senior executives and board members. (October 15, 2008)

iii.Dinner speaker for Board of Directors of BMC, a Fortune 1000 software company, Greenbriar, WV (October 24, 2008)

iv.Real Estate Council of America, Austin, TX (October 29, 2008)

v.American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, speech, Austin, TX (November 11, 2008)

vi.Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida (December 2008). Topic: “Strategic Environments Twenty Years from Now.” Audience – military and civilian employees in engineering and science fields.

vii.Naples Council on World Affairs (speaker series, January 5, 2009)

viii.World Affairs Council, Palm Springs, CA (Feb 15, 2009)

ix.St. David’s Forum, Austin, TX (March 26, 2009)

  • StratforSTRATFOR will book additional speaking opportunities and conferences for George Friedman, including:
  • Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, DC)
  • Council on Foreign RelationsWorld Affairs Council, New YorkDallas
  • Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)World Affairs Council, Oregon
  • World Affairs Council, Charlotte

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

  • TV and radio: StratforSTRATFOR has good relationships and works closely with many major TV and radio hosts and producers. We will notify major contacts prior to book launch, such as Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, George Stephanopolous, Bill O’Reilly, and more than 500 members of the media who subscribe to our service, including producers from CNN, Fox News, ABC News, NPR, BBC World Service, CBS network, Dennis Prager and many others.
  • Print and online journalists: StratforSTRATFOR has good contacts at the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Marketwatch, Reuters, AP, Forbes, Fortune, and Barron’s among others. We will approach our contacts in collaboration with Doubleday to secure feature and news coverage linked to TN100YTND.
  • We will mail copies of the book to bloggers and pundits we know, such as Jules Crittenden and John Mauldin, and encourage them to take a personal interest in the book.

Post-launch efforts

  • StratforSTRATFOR will provide our news industry contacts with a steady stream of relevant information, analysis and forecasts linked to the book by cross-referencing relevant book content to current events as they occur.
  • We will maintain marketing and sales efforts directly to our 135,000 subscribers through coordinated announcements about the book and George Friedman’s media bookings and personal appearances.
  • We will maintain a prominent link to the TN100YTND microsite through StratforSTRATFOR’s public home page and its members-only portal as well.

Questions for Doubleday

1.How can Doubleday help us develop the microsite? (For America’s Secret War, Doubleday produced a compelling introductory video.)

2.Can George be the featured author at for the week of the release date?

3.How do we fulfill advance orders and future quantity purchases so they count towards the NYT list?

4.On front cover, can we use a graphic of the Stratfor logo with the tag, “Founder of Stratfor”? We feel the use of our well-known logo there will catch readers’ attention and help sales.

BOOK COVER QUOTES AND ABOUT STRATFORSTRATFOR

(We will provide more – these are two recent quotes. Do we want to use any that were on ASW cover?)

“One of the country’s leading strategic affairs experts, founder and chairman of StratforSTRATFOR, George Friedman.” —Lou Dobbs, CNN, August 20, 2008

“Barron's consistently has found StratforSTRATFOR’s insights informative and largely on the money -- as has the company;’s large client base, which ranges from corporations to media outlets and government agencies. —Barron’s, August 4, 2008.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

George Friedman is the founder and CEO of STRATOR, the world’s leading private intelligence and forecasting company. In his previous book The Next 100 Years, Friedman took a macro look at the global forces that were influencing the future century. Now, with THE NEXT DECADE, he zooms in and focuses on a short span of time and the crucial situations and imminent decisions that the American President will face in the coming ten years. As Friedman says “A century is about events. A decade is about people.”

Friedman employs his critically acclaimed insight and analyzes the complex chess game on the near horizon. First THE NEXT DECADE examines what makes a President great like Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan—deep moral intentions followed by ruthless, unprincipled pursuits of those convictions. He then applies those necessary qualities to near future conditions and judgments.

The next ten years will be a time of massive transition. THE NEXT DECADE makes the following predictions:

  • The wars in the Islamic world will be subsiding, and terrorism will become something we learn to live with.
  • The United States will move toward accommodation with Iran to help stabilize the area.
  • A possible alliance between Germany and Russia will have to be carefully monitored by the United States. Poland will become increasingly important to the U.S. as it faces a renewed Russia. The European Union will also come under massive internal strains.
  • China will be encountering its own crisis. And, Turkey and Japan will be charting independent courses.
  • America must find the path out of the current economic problems not only for itself but also for the world. However, we will also be shifting from a time when financial crises dominate the world to a time when labor shortages will begin to dominate.

THE NEXT DECADE is a clearly explained, riveting look at the history that led us to this point and the situations, conflicts, opportunities, and events that will unfurl in the next decade.

George Friedman, the founder of Stratfor, is a leading expert in geopolitical forecasting, sought after for his thoughtful assessments of current trends and predictions of near-future events. In THE NEXT 100 YEARS, Friedman turns his eye on the global trends that will shape America’s destiny in the next century. Exploring the structure of global power and geopolitical patterns dating back hundreds of years, Friedman shows that the United States is now, for the first time in half a millennium, at the dawn of a new historical era in which its power and influence will reach new heights.
• The U.S.-jihadist war will conclude—replaced by a second confrontation with Russia.
• China will undergo a major extended internal crisis, and Mexico will emerge as an important world power.
• A new global war will unfold toward the middle of the century between the United States and an unexpected coalition, but armies will be much smaller and wars less deadly.
• Technology will focus on space—both for major military uses and for a dramatic new energy resource.
Grounded in Friedman’s unmatched grasp of both historical and contemporary trends, THE NEXT 100 YEARS is a compelling, realistic, and eye-opening portrait of the future.

Supplemental material and updates are available at