Amidst upheavals and uncertainties in the crypto world, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange EXMO.com, opted to find a way to stand out from the crowded global marketplace. The company partnered with The Pollack Group to develop a strategic earned media relations program that would propel the company to its next level of prominence.
The Pollack Group developed a strategic framework to extend EXMO’s media relations efforts, leveraging thought leadership to present the company as a global crypto trading and investment leader. By strategically announcing EXMO’s news, creating targeted news pitches, and providing crypto market commentary and expert POVs, the agency bolstered EXMO’s visibility and credibility, securing dozens of placements in trade and top-tier outlets, including American Banker, Axios, Benzinga, Business Insider, Forbes, MarketWatch, MSN, TechCrunch, Yahoo, Yahoo Finance, Coindesk, and Cointelegraph.
The agency saw great success launching and running the social media and digital presence for the ClubCorp Classic, a first-year celebrity and professional golf tournament near Dallas, Texas. Running a 3-month campaign with a 28-day ramp-up period leading up to and during the 3-day tournament in April 2022, the agency generated over 23 million social media impressions, 2 million video views, and 200% follower growth in just four weeks.
The Pollack Group’s social media team tactics included content ideation and calendaring, designing a tournament brand aesthetic and color palette, utilizing copywriting to establish a clear, sharp, fun, and concise brand voice for the event, leveraging social media growth techniques to build an audience of DFW-area golf fans aligning with the tournament’s target demographics, and building a social media presence to help augment ClubCorp’s overall social and digital presence.
Working in conjunction with the client, the agency team established a cadence for social channel content that, when combined with content from celebrities, fans, influencers, ClubCorp members, sponsors, and other parties, created a strong buzz and excitement around the event.
In cooperation with event host Mike Flaskey Entertainment and event title sponsor CMR Construction & Roofing (CMR), The Pollack Group coordinated marketing and public relations efforts for the Ragin Country Crawl, a one-night-only benefit concert with proceeds benefitting Hurricane Relief efforts across Louisiana. Headlined by country music star Lee Brice, and taking place at the CAJUNDOME in Lafayette, Louisiana, the event brought together country music fans from Louisiana to raise money for charity, bring awareness to hurricane recovery efforts, and have an evening of country music for diehards and new fans alike. All ticket sales revenues went directly to six local organizations working to support hurricane efforts following Hurricane Ida and other recent natural disasters in Louisiana.
The agency handled event marketing and public relations across numerous channels to drive event and sponsor awareness within the Lafayette market, as well as markets across Louisiana. This included coordinated social media marketing (organic and paid), radio, community outreach, content creation, branding, and website development efforts for the event. Additionally, the agency teamed with Worldcom Public Relations Group partner Deveney in New Orleans, Louisiana, to coordinate in-market media relations efforts, securing important television and radio placements for Lee Brice, CMR, and Mike Flaskey Entertainment’s senior leadership.
A seven-weeks campaign resulted in a memorable concert, featuring Brice and fellow country stars Randy Houser and Colt Ford. From event inception to the concert, the agency helped drive ticket sales and event attendance through grassroots tactics including local market tailgate and football game ticket voucher giveaways, working with the artists’ teams to create curated social media content promotions, coordinating with local first responder and veterans’ groups for ticket giveaways, and integrating the event’s website, social media, TV, radio, and public relations together into a promotional campaign for an important charitable cause.
When Tin Drum, the world’s leading Mixed Reality studio, reached out to the agency, it faced an all-too-common problem. It employed some of the world’s most talented artists, designers, and technologists to produce content for wearable/mixed reality devices – but no one knew who they were.
Led by visionary founder Todd Eckert, Tin Drum produces Mixed Reality content, a similar experience to what Augmented Reality delivers, but through an emerging class of see-through display devices, blending a uniquely dimensional form with the real world. The audience member dons a headset to view content that is presented seamlessly in their space. Tin Drum performances connect people and stories in ways that go beyond anything that has ever been possible in traditional mediums, enabling richer and more profound experiences.
By fall 2021, live events, performances, and art exhibits had slowly started coming back. Notably, the famed annual London Design Festival (LDF) announced its plans to return in September as well. Tin Drum seized on the opportunity to announce it would debut a groundbreaking new installation, Medusa, in The Raphael Court at the Victoria & Albert Museum, as part of the LDF. Produced in collaboration with acclaimed Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, Medusa is an eminent visualization of architecture in a Mixed Reality medium, examining the interrelation of nature and art.
For The Pollack Group, this presented a wonderful opportunity to reposition Tin Drum through strategic messaging and media relations. As with all companies seeking to become a brand and amplify their values, they first had to identify their value proposition. The agency also had to consider audience biases and mainstream consumers’ misunderstandings of the difference between Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality.
In partnership with our London-based Worldcom Public Relations Group partner, JBP, we executed a media relations campaign that not only brought global attention to Tin Drum’s transcendent performance at the LDF, but strategically rebranded and repositioned them across earned and social media.
Chess legend Garry Kasparov had a vision to bring chess to the masses so that anyone, no matter their skill level, can create a legacy of their own. He worked with media conglomerate Vivendi to bring his vision to fruition. A community-first platform was developed, where chess lovers of all skill levels can play, learn, and become immersed in the chess experience, complete with matches documentaries, lessons, and a masterclass with Kasparov himself.
The agency kicked off Kasparovchess by building a groundswell of interest in the chess community, targeting influencers and chess masters. Subsequently, the agency brought in the mainstream media to have that sector break the news of Kasparov’s involvement with the new platform. Following, it cycled the news through many tech, gaming, business and lifestyle verticals.
With Kasparov at the center of the media strategy, providing personal insights on the importance of chess and the community, Kasparovchess’ launch story was pushed through many global top tier media outlets including TechCrunch, Forbes, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Yahoo Finance, VentureBeat, Cheddar, The Drum, The Guardian, PC Gamer, as well as the major chess and gaming outlets. In a 60-day launch window over 45 individual articles ran, with over 4.5 billion impressions.
Mobile entertainment studio Jam City leads mobile app stores and puts out the highest quality games in the marketplace, utilizing some of the industry's best creative talent. We worked to use Jam City as a vanguard of the new mobile trend cresting into the mainstream with game properties that are raking in just as much money as Hollywood movies.
The agency’s work with Jam City positioned them as a leader in the space by promoting their high-profile entertainment licenses with companies like Disney and Warner Brothers while lifting their executives' voices as significant innovators in the space, marrying big data and high tech with high-quality production.
Jam City was featured in significant mainstream and entertainment outlets like ScreenRant and The Hollywood Reporter and business press from outlets like Forbes and VentureBeat. The agency helped promote Jam City's corporate values by organizing and promoting Jam City's HQ as a voting center, bringing in dozens of broadcast, online, and print media to cover the event.
As the agency of record for Diamond Resorts’ CEO, Mike Flaskey, the agency attended the 2020 Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Orlando, Florida to assist with on-site social media content production. This included capturing photo and video content from the tournament, the first event of the 2020 LPGA season. The tournament also featured celebrity golfers competing alongside LPGA pros, including former Bachelor Ben Higgins, comedian, Larry The Cable Guy, NFL star Larry Fitzgerald, actor Michael Pena, actor Alfonso Ribeiro, Diamond Resorts CEO Mike Flaskey, and eventual winner, and MLB Hall of Fame pitcher, John Smoltz. The agency was especially focused on content supporting Flaskey, all aimed at boosting his social media impressions, reach, cadence, and follower growth leading up to, and during, the week of the tournament. Results included Flaskey’s four best-performing Instagram posts to date, over 17,500 video views on Flaskey’s Twitter posts, and high engagement on posts around Flaskey’s new branded apparel line, which donates all net proceeds to charitable causes.
For more than 90 years, Barco Uniforms, a leader of design innovation in the premium professional apparel industry, has been true to its mission -- to honor and serve those who serve others.
Barco initially retained the agency to increase its earned media coverage. However, our relationship has evolved into a true partnership. We have been instrumental in developing consumer and influencer campaigns to increase brand awareness – specifically, for Barco’s popular “Grey’s Anatomy” and Barco One sub-brands – and tell the company’s story in a compelling way. The agency also filmed and produced a video series to highlight Barco’s partnership with The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens. And most recently, in the age of COVID-19, we launched a media relations campaign to promote Barco’s scrub donation program, in which the company pledged to donate 10,000 scrubs for each month of the pandemic. The agency’s efforts have resulted in more than 3.6 billion media impressions worldwide.
The #1 Social Casino game, Slotomania, chose to celebrate the 170th Anniversary of the California Gold Rush with a bus tour of its own throughout California. The bus tour was a creative way of bringing attention to Slotomania and tie it in with a milestone of note. The tour included special events, prize giveaways, VIP dinners, and a “gold rush” scavenger hunt where the well-known Twitter account @HiddenCash hid $2,000 in Fresno, Los Angeles, and San Diego for the public to find. The agency worked in coordination with Slotomania’s parent company, Playtika, to facilitate a week-long radio promotion campaign in the three markets, inviting listeners to download the app and participate in the scavenger hunt. As the bus passed through each city, the agency reached out to local media to garner further attention and coverage for the bus tour. The overall marketing effort brought out hundreds of eager participants in three different California markets and secured almost 100 million impressions across traditional media outlets including radio broadcasts, television broadcasts, and print publications.
To attract new game players to the world’s favorite social gaming app Bingo Blitz and its in-game feature, Blitzy’s Trattoria, the agency conceived and created a large-scale online recipe contest to unleash the “buzz.” We built a website with a fully-functional bingo game where visitors could participate and receive a random selection of ingredients for a submitted recipe. Subsequently, to trigger a lead generation push, we produced a Facebook Live event video, using sophisticated visual effects that called out random ingredients from a Bingo machine. To drive contest participation, we added digital and social media marketing and public relations components and produced a video with celebrity chef Ludo Lefebvre in his award-winning restaurant, cooking the recipes of the three selected finalists and selecting a grand prize winner. Campaign results? 175,000+ page views; 342,464 people reached through a call for entries video; 82,997 new engagements; 13,407 bingo players and 4,378 recipe submissions received. The chef's video alone reached 663,383 and raked in 88,025 engagements.
The world’s favorite social gaming app, Bingo Blitz, needed to attract new game players and increase the excitement of existing players for its in-game feature, Blitzy’s Trattoria with a recipe contest. The agency conceived and implemented a large-scale recipe contest to deploy online to generate buzz about the game and also to attract new players through a variety of lead generation tactics. PPMG built a website from scratch with a fully-functional bingo game, where visitors could then play to get a random selection of ingredients. PPMG planned, produced, and edited a Facebook Live video using sophisticated visual effects to call out random ingredients from a Bingo machine. The Bingo call video reached 342,464 people and collected 82,997 engagements. Following that, participants were invited to submit recipes with those random ingredients. We collected and managed recipe submissions and participant communication through a robust lead-generation CRM that we modified, customized and implemented specifically for the program. Finally, we produced a video with celebrity L.A. Chef Ludo in his award-winning restaurant who cooked the recipes from three finalists and chose a grand prize winner. The chef's video raked in 88,025 engagements with a reach of 663,383. We used a variety of digital marketing, social media marketing, and public relations tactics to drive participation in the contest resulting in 177,396 pageviews, 13,407 bingo players, and 4,378 recipe submissions. The winner? A beautiful freshly-grilled salmon.
The Pollack Group (TPG) was brought on by Oceanic Society to support the organization’s 5 x 50 campaign, which highlights Oceanic’s 50-year commitment to environmental conservation education. In addition to managing relationships with those influencers who joined Oceanic’s conservation trips, the agency promoted the organization’s message, partnerships and key conservation issues.
When news broke out about a young whale found dead with nearly 90 pounds of plastic in its stomach, TPG moved quickly to leverage the news cycle. The agency developed a quick POV and secured interviews for Oceanic Society’s spokesperson, Lindsay Mosher, with the Washington Post and Live Science, among other media outlets. The interviews focused on ways individuals can reduce their plastic consumption and embrace “blue habits”to mitigate the plastic pollution epidemic. TPG caught the wave of news, which resulted 73 secured articles that netted 911,784,270 impressions within 48 hours.
The campaign efforts resulted in a 350% growth of Oceanic Society’s social media audiences across platforms.
Global hospitality lifestyle company Selina creates unique artistic experiences and work spaces for digital nomads so that they can have the freedom to work and play wherever in the world they want. When scouting for ideal locations in Southern California, Selina needed to put their brand, values, and goals on the radar of future investors and property owners looking to lease unique urban spaces. The agency organized an in-depth investor-focused story about Selina, their innovations in hospitality, and how that will affect Southern California. With a focus on the business and real estate, outlets like Globest, Bisnow, and The RealDeal published in-depth coverage that sparked initial interest in Selina’s business development efforts.
With a focus on teaching students safe decision-making choices regarding drugs and alcohol, D.A.R.E. America, a non-profit organization, introduced a new, prevention curricula for grades K-12 classrooms, that confronts the opioid and prescription drug abuse crisis. In kicking off the curricula, the agency worked closely with individual D.A.R.E. officers, training them to become spokespeople for the program and working with them to become informed speakers as they interfaced with their local media. Additionally, they were tasked with publishing articles in trades, as well as OpEds in their local media, which always focused on the urgency of the problem and the need to educate on prevention. The agency created a national Public Service Announcement for television and radio, distributed to the many markets all over the country that were most impacted by the opioid crisis.
In anticipation of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA Triathlon became the first sport to begin preparations and training for the Games. As such, the team sought out the agency to build enthusiasm for their first Los Angeles-area race, the Legacy Triathlon. The agency promoted USA Triathlon’s news that it will launch a series of annual races in Long Beach on the very site of the future Olympic course – where the next generation of Olympians will be presented.
The agency facilitated several partners and supporters, including the City of Los Angeles and the City of Long Beach, and brought local, national and international media attention to the unveiling of the Legacy Triathlon, while also streaming to an online audience through Facebook Live.
As LAX and the City of Los Angeles began work on a massive multi-year capital renovation project, it was uncertain what would become of the Bob Hope USO LAX center. Servicing more than 100,000 members of the military a year, the center has become a flagship of Bob Hope USO and an important place for service members to rest and eat while traveling.
Working on behalf of Bob Hope USO, the agency initiated a long-term community-awareness campaign to build grassroots support for the center and to attract volunteers to help with its 24-7 operation. The agency coordinated media days around news cycles that focus on the military, such as Veteran’s Day, Military Appreciation Week, and Memorial Day with in-depth feature broadcasts touring the facility and driving interest in volunteering for the center.
When a 7,000-square-foot axe-throwing venue, Kick Axe, opened to the public in the New York Metro, the agency was retained to highlight the venue’s experiential entertainment edge. In a lodge-like lumberjack-themed bar atmosphere, guests can experience what it’s like to throw hatchets at a wooden bullseye -- as entertainment, of course -- complete with beer, wine and malt beverages, plus a photo area. To garner media attention, the team challenged journalists to come and throw the hatchets for themselves and partake in the fun ambiance. For those that hesitated, the team basically offered a demonstration in-studio. The media outreach to local and national press netted more than 723 million media impressions, including The New York Times, Time Out New York, Metro, Mashable, Patch, and BKLYNER.
Before tattoo-brightening beauty product Tatul tapped Kickstarter to crowdfund the innovative new skincare tool, they needed third-party endorsements and testimonials from their target audience: Millennial women. Since evaluating a product means trial, we created a special vetting process to identify the best possible online beauty and cosmetic influencers who would spread the word about Tatul. The criteria designed to vet participants was by influence, ranking, size of social networks and views. Some of the most influential tattooed Millennials on the web landed on our influencer list. We then invited hundreds to participate and create social media posts, videos, tweets and blogs about their experience using the product. Armed with several high-quality placements from influencers in their target demographic, we were able to re-purpose them to help add credibility to their Kickstarter campaign.
The City of Santa Monica needed to better understand the community for more informed policies and community initiatives, but realized that it lacked the right type of data. So it set out to do something that had never been done before: integrate the science of wellbeing into the foundation of the local government. The core of the Wellbeing Project, the city’s winning entry in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor’s Challenge, is a comprehensive index of analysis developed in partnership with renowned research firm RAND Corporation and New Economics Foundation. The agency worked closely with the project to distill and communicate the data for public consumption, consulted on website development and to assist in strategically implementing change within the city based upon findings. The launch of the index solidified the city’s thought leadership platform in sustainability and health and wellness.
The Santa Monica Pier, the West Coast’s last remaining pleasure pier, turned 100 years old. Its rich history conjured up nostalgia of a bygone era. When called upon to awaken memories, our agency brought it all back by engaging the surrounding community as well as national and international tourists as part of the celebration. We launched a nationwide online and offline media blitz focusing on the iconic pier’s legacy and its value for future generations, as well on a series of celebratory events such as the SideShow at the Pier, Schools Out!, La Monica Ballroom Redux and Centennial Day, to gain exposure and get a myriad of stories out about the pier. Social media outreach alone netted an estimated 3 million impressions plus 400 million media impressions.
With media reporting frequently on the economic impact of retail and real estate, RKF, the nation’s largest independent retail real estate firm, wanted to increase its presence in the media. They needed a PR agency with an excellent track record of media relations in a variety of industries, especially in hyper-competitive urban markets that are notoriously cynical about food, fashion and retail positioning in emerging submarkets. We positioned the firm’s senior leadership and national brokers as experts in their industry who can speak to “big picture” topics impacting the nation and local markets. We worked closely with them to determine long-term trends in key urban retail markets, and developed specific relationships with major trade publications in real estate, luxury/lifestyle, fashion, food, technology and business. As a result, RKF has significantly increased its presence in national mainstream news and trade media.
Before the global water scarcity and drought crisis reached its present fever pitch, the 75-year-old irrigation manufacturer understood that it faced a potential environmental crisis perception — simply for being an irrigation company, which carried an implication of wasting water. The agency positioned the company as a thought leader in water conservation as it relates to the lawn and garden industry, and created a new campaign coined “The Intelligent Use of Water.” We developed a roadmap for a sustainable, multi-pronged program with multiple touch points that included industry white papers, bi-annual Intelligent Use of Water global summits, film competitions, awards programs, partnerships, grade school curriculums, Tournament of Roses Parade participation and more. Its position as an industry leader in landscape water conservation insights, was solidified.
Perhaps the most storied romantic road in American history, Historic Route 66 had an official start in Chicago, but no official end; rather, numerous disputed ends. Multiple organizations, including the Route 66 Alliance, the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corporation and the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau, asked the agency to organize a campaign and event to finally give recognition that the official end of Route 66 belonged to the iconic Santa Monica Pier. The Pier and Route 66 used history to their advantage as a way to engage local community members to rally for the preservation of these landmarks. A parade of 66 vintage cars drove down the Pier, where dignitaries unveiled a replica Route 66 sign, marking the official end of the route.
Punto 2012, a Mexico City-based company with years of experience in online marketing and SEO for restaurants, quickly realized that the .com space was too crowded; the search for restaurants was too difficult if they had long, complicated domain names. They saw a need for food-related businesses to form their own Internet “neighborhood” and from there, bought the .REST and .BAR domain names; .REST is the abbreviation for “restaurant” in more than 30 languages and more than 50 countries. We developed and executed an aggressive media relations strategy and thought leadership platform, coordinated with the agency’s Worldcom partners in six countries. Additionally, all partner agencies sought strategic partnerships with influencers, such as food bloggers and TV hosts, and restaurant associations across the United States.
PowToon, a software that puts the power of animation into anyone’s hands, took its latest interface deep into the Hadza region of Tanzania to see if people who have never been introduced to technology can create cartoons. They found animation to be a universal language and a strong tool of communication. The resulting two-minute video, released on PowToon’s blog and social media channels was geared to influence the influencers about the power of animation. It chronicled their journey, which began with a desire to test the software’s ease of use with the world’s most isolated tribe platform, and evolved into an exploration of the human spirit and the unifying power of communication through art. Of note, the PowToon explorers learned about Hadza’s serious healthcare issues facing the region and were able to connect them with local doctors who previously had been unable to reach them. The agency counseled PowToon on the release of a video and used it to raise awareness for the power of animation and how technology can bring people together.
Promoting the new book, “Why Coolidge Matters,” was a call for public attention to the national trade association that serves 4.8 million notaries nationwide and the oft-overlooked legacy of Calvin Coolidge. We sought out and enlisted Christopher Coolidge Jeter, the former U.S. president’s great-grandson, to participate in a satellite media tour. Our campaign also partnered with the Library of Congress to host a launch event on the anniversary of President Coolidge’s inauguration, and secured Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Governor Jim Douglas (R-VT) as key spokespeople on a thought leadership platform. The agency secured a full hour-long discussion on President Coolidge in the context of the book’s themes on The Glenn Beck Show, and was added to the host’s “must read” book list.
The Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the USC Marshall School of Business is comprised of international scholars and experts that had remained largely un-recognized or unknown outside academia. In order for Greif to raise its visibility among major business schools’ rankings and list position, we needed to bring the attention to its stellar faculty. We launched a media outreach campaign to re-introduce Greif through its faculty’s accomplishments. We targeted individual judges who influence national university rankings and a developed a comprehensive informational campaign to reach them, and placed bylined op-eds in major local and national business publications. After garnering national coverage, Greif was ranked by Success Magazine as the number one program for entrepreneurial studies in the country.
Launching a holiday campaign for toys can be challenging as the gift-buying season is often congested with dozens of new product launches, all fighting for a spot under the proverbial Christmas tree. We needed to help position the Fuzion Electron, a four-wheel sports scooter from NextSport, as one of the must-have items of the season. By targeting both potential riders (children under age 7 and under 135 pounds) and those with the purchasing power (parents), we pitched Fuzion Electron to kids as the “it” product for the next generation of scooters. For parents, the agency emphasized the product as a safer lifestyle alternative to two-wheel scooters, with a less expensive price point than most traditional “big item” holiday gifts for children.
In an era where small main street banks had fallen into the shadows, one family bank, Farmers and Merchant’s Bank (F&M) with 23 branches in Southern California, passionately preserved its traditional focus on community values and conservative approaches. However, F&M recognized its need for greater external exposure to retain its leadership position in the communities it serves. It tapped the agency to garner media attention for its community sponsored events, as well as to position its executives as thought leaders on subjects such as lending and regional banking. The stories that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, American Banker and the Los Angeles Business Journal, supported the bank’s goal of reaching deep into the communities and being recognized as banking leaders upon which the communities could continue to depend.
More than 40,000 commuters drive through Century City every day, causing tremendous traffic congestion in Los Angeles. The Century City Transportation Management Organization (CCTMO) was organized by area business leaders looking to increase awareness of the benefits of alternative transportation.
We created a commuter’s resource platform, Commute 90067, and launched an awareness campaign about the benefits of alternative transportation for commuting. The platform efficiently charted out bus routes, paired carpoolers and organized vanpools.
The Commute 90067 campaign included traditional and digital advertising, transit and street pole advertising, street team marketing, incentives, and events. Additionally, we developed partnerships with commercial real estate companies and their business tenets to communicate Commute 90067 to their staff through meetings and incentive programs. The extensive awareness program enabled CCTMO to reach its goal of reducing traffic into and out of Century City by 12,000 cars.
When Altra Biofuels, an ethanol and biofuel startup, began operating in this crowded sector, its founders and backers knew that it had to gain credibility and build a positive reputation quickly to secure a leadership position in this space. We focused on Altra’s senior executives, positioning them as credible sources for commentary and predictions about the alternative energy sector—as well as about legislative news that affected the industry. We targeted national media outlets to drive coverage of Altra’s achievements, including its acquisition of existing biofuel production facilities, ground-breaking at new facilities, expanded production for energy plants, and the achievement of other notable benchmarks. Altra has been prominently featured in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg and Business Week, among others.
Re-branding is never a simple matter, especially when it involves more than 70 individual storeowners — all entrepreneurs, and franchisees of a 60-year old established brand – Baskin-Robbins. So when our partner, Schneider Associates, asked our firm to support Baskin-Robbins’ “new retail look” in Southern California, it fell to the agency to manage each individual store’s grassroots efforts, as well as its engagement in experiential programming. The overall marketing effort extended to creative educational programs and special local events such as a “31-cent scoop night” at 31 Baskin-Robbins stores.
National Public Gardens Day was all about fostering public programs, resources and educational initiatives to instill the importance of environmental preservation and landscape water conservation. In partnership with American Public Gardens Association (APGA), the agency created an annual National Public Gardens Day to inform of the vital role of APGA’s more than 500 gardens and arboreta in promoting environmental stewardship, plant and water conservation and education. On-the-ground agency partners were tapped in five markets to stimulate local interest and support a national media outreach program. On the pre-celebration day a Satellite Media Tour was launched together with a government outreach program and an expansive social media component. The result was a staggering. The 782 million media impressions promoted ecosystem management and the efficient use of water.
With more than 2.5 million men and women serving in the armed forces and more than 4 million family members, the troops and their families depend upon the USO for critical programs and support. While the USO thrives through donations from major corporations and strategic partners, the agency, as their agency of record, saw an opportunity to tap an under-represented source of income through grassroots individual fundraising. Events such as Barbecue for the Troops, (leveraging the quintessential summer backyard barbecue), and Dance for the Troops, targeting school dances and New Year’s galas, were designed to mobilize individuals into throwing fundraisers in their local communities. Each campaign was supported with media relations, strategic partnerships, and organizational outreach.
When Sanyo Corporation tapped the agency to introduce their new Xacti Sound Recorder, we recognized that adoption without trial first would be near impossible; after all, the market was already flooded with recorders that claimed to be the best. So we targeted musical influencers to review the product and encouraged them to spread the word within their own networks to advocate for the product and brand organically. We reached out to musicians across all music genres, from rock to classical, music educators, songwriters and performers. After that, we engaged music fans and consumers through an agency-designed microsite and online contest. In just four months, 50 media outlets requested the unit for review well before the product even rolled out to market.
Fiesta Parade Floats (FPF), a 35 year-old builder of parade floats for the annual New Year’s Day Rose Parade, had kept a relatively low profile despite having assembled a team of world-renowned design and floral technology experts. We leveraged every opportunity to maximize media exposure by expanding the focus beyond the parade itself and on to the development of the floats from the float design and construction process through the final pre-parade flower decorating. Over five years of working with the local, regional and national media — the last week of the year, working from 4 am to almost midnight, daily — FPF was catapulted into the limelight by an enchanted media.
The company that first introduced drip irrigation technology to the world over 50 years ago, needed to expand its presence in both traditional and new crop markets as farmers were increasingly faced with drought conditions and decreased access to water. Netafim looked to the agency not only to bolster its media relations and marketing programs, but also to pave the way for a transformation of the way the company positions itself and its product offerings. The agency has been instrumental in helping Netafim restructure its dealer incentive and marketing program, forge relationships with key agricultural and environmental influentials and academics, develop sales and marketing tools, as well as conceptualize and execute marketing and advertising campaigns for the landscape and agriculture divisions.
Bob Evans Farms (BEF), a leading producer and distributor of refrigerated breakfast and dinner convenience food items, retained The Pollack Group (TPG) in 2016, initially to leverage the brand's philanthropic "Our Farm Salutes" (OFS) campaign, which entailed providing meals and donations to programs that support the military, active-duty veterans, and their families. In addition, TPG secured a partnership with The Gary Sinise Foundation, producing a variety of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) featuring actor, activist, and director of the Foundation, Gary Sinise.
In support of OFS, TPG conceived the idea to paint the original Bob Evans Farms barn, an iconic symbol in Rio Grande, Ohio – purple, representing the color of all military branches. The purple barn visual, attracted significant media attention from regional news, military media, and food trade outlets. Results from data indicated an uptick in favorability perceptions for the BEF brand.
Following the media success of OFS, BEF expanded the program in 2021, utilizing TPG for its Heroes to CEOs (H2C) program. TPG focused on the H2C’s 2021 and 2022 winners to garner regional and national media relations. The agency booked The Today Show in November 2021, highlighting Ryan Onda, winner of H2C, among numerous podcast interviews, local segment appearances, and more. In addition, TPG penned a MAT release on how military service prepares veterans for leadership business roles, which resulted in over 180 million impressions.
The OFS program laid the groundwork for a broader FY22 Breakfast Innovations public relations campaign. TPG leveraged editorial media interviews to encourage Life Hackers and Young Achievers to try BEF new breakfast solutions and encourage repeat purchases of BEF grocery food items. Creative concepts were crafted and implemented for BEF news hook creation, disruptive event(s), and strategic influencer partnerships.
TPG also developed and implemented an “always on” PR plan that increased household penetration for BEF grocery items. To further engage with consumers interested in BEF refrigerated breakfast items, TPG conducted a survey that polled over 1,000 working Americans to better understand their breakfast preferences, before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings were favorable to BEF and the success of their heat-and-eat products were distributed in a MAT release, securing over one million impressions.
TPG arranged for BEF and the Gary Sinise Foundation to join forces again, released a series of new PSAs, and offered Gary Sinise as a source on various national news segments. Sinise detailed the hardships veterans have as they acclimatize back into civilian life after service, and how the Gary Sinise Foundation, as well as BEF, were working to improve their conditions upon returning home. In addition, Gary Sinise was invited to speak on top-tier media outlets such as FOX News, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Yahoo Finance, and KTLA.
TPG played an integral role in increasing BEF’s overall brand awareness and household penetration by leveraging elevated earned media impressions, resulting in an ROI of 2.40 for BEF’s Q1 and Q2 in 2022 alone, as well as a netted a $1.79 contribution per dollar spent on PR efforts.
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