In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, international supply chain technology company RPM faced a critical turning point. Known for its strong customer and carrier relationships, RPM aimed to transition from startup to industry leader. The challenge? Efficiently conveying its value and expertise to a broader audience while expanding its business model and reach.
To tackle this, RPM partnered with The Pollack Group (TPG) to position RPM as a beacon amidst today's supply chain challenges. TPG devised a comprehensive media relations and thought leadership platform, setting RPM apart from competitors and highlighting its innovative technology and expertise.
Collaborating with RPM's senior leaders, TPG revamped RPM’s messaging platform to identify industry pain points and emphasize RPM’s unique value. TPG crafted targeted news pitches and leveraged supply chain trends to present RPM's executives as the go-to sources for innovation insights. In Q4 2022 alone, TPG amplified RPM's media footprint, amassing over 870 million paid and organic PR impressions, equivalent to $1,397,532 in advertising value. Among the agency’s notable accomplishments was securing coverage for RPM's CEO alongside Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume and President Joe Biden in The Hill. TPG further supported RPM with various communications initiatives, including corporate social responsibility plans, event and award outreach, and industry news monitoring.
Ultimately, RPM successfully navigated the post-COVID-19 landscape, emerging as a true industry leader. The refined messaging strategy and increased media presence effectively communicated RPM's unique value and expertise, distinguished it from competitors, and paved the way for an expanded business model and geographic reach.
Since INDIEV, the Los Angeles-based electric vehicle startup company, introduced its INDI ONE prototype in 2021, it’s become one of the industry’s most highly anticipated debuts. The heart of the vehicle is the Vehicle Integrated Computer (VIC). Its advanced software allows riders (not drivers) to play the latest generation games; capture content while the vehicle is in motion thanks to interior and exterior cameras; live stream videos; and even shoot, edit, and upload content to the cloud – all from inside the vehicle. However, the company was reeling from unflattering media coverage because it lacked clear, strategic messaging.
The Pollack Group developed new messaging and a strategic media relations strategy, leveraging major events like the New York International Auto Show and the new Electrify Expo to attract reporters to test the car’s incredible features in person. By repositioning INDIEV in the automotive landscape, the agency secured feature coverage across major national and global consumer, tech, automotive, and national news outlets naming the INDI ONE as one of the most anticipated new electric vehicles on the market. The agency also managed the grand opening events for INDIEV’s flagship Brand Experience Center in Beverly Hill’s famed Golden Triangle shopping district highlighting its state-of-the-art showroom, its influencer-friendly film studio and creators’ space, to civic and community leaders as well as to consumer EV car enthusiasts showcasing a new type of car-buying experience. The ultimate sign of success? TechCrunch naming INDIEV as one of the top threats to Tesla’s EV vehicle dominance.
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.
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.
In January 2019, Carnival Cruise Line made its debut in the Tournament of Roses Parade and nearly broke the internet when it unveiled its float: a recreation of its upcoming ship, the Carnival Panorama, that would feature the first-ever Sky Zone indoor trampoline park at sea.
Almost exactly one year later, the agency partnered with Carnival Cruise Line to celebrate the debut of its new ship in Long Beach, California. This was the cruise line’s first new ship on the West Coast in 20 years, so it kicked off the celebration with a full schedule of events for two days. Notable guests in attendance included celebrity chefs Guy Fieri, Emeril Lagasse, Rudi Sodamin and Panorama’s godmother, Vanna White. With a focus on broadcast news stations, the agency secured Los Angeles market coverage on KTLA, KCBS, KABC and KNBC, and managed a brand integration on KTTV’s (FOX) “Good Day LA” morning show.
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.
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.
When Mitchell International, Inc., a leading provider of technology, connectivity and information solutions to the property & casualty claims and collision repair industries, planned the debut of its newly developed solutions at its Program Freedom Experience, in Palm Springs, we did advance work to build enthusiasm for the demonstrations (including this dedicated site) and were on hand to make sure influencers got the full experience. The key message: Mitchell’s cloud-based imaging, estimating, scanning and repair solutions are based on openly shared data—in sharp contrast to its competition, which was charging fees for joining its closed network as well as for each packet of data exchanged. The attendees included top trade press and customers, who all came away understanding that Mitchell’s solutions benefit the industry at large. The result: the competition was forced to change its game and try to catch up.
Heart disease has become the #1 cause of death for women. It takes a village to raise awareness that early detection screenings can save lives. Everyone Has A Heart Foundation’s “village” included partnerships with a major health institution, a cardiologist spokesperson, health care networks, local community clinics, women’s groups, religious institutions, and the collaboration of civic, business and community leaders to spread the word within their own spheres of influence. We created a Women’s Heart Day Health Fair, which offered free screenings and educational seminars. Notably, we partnering with the LA Unified School District to distribute more than 450,000 Valentine cards for children to bring home to their mothers, urging them to get heart screened. Shortly after, LA Metro came on board as a marketing partner.
An Earned Media Relations Campaign That Paid Off The Community Water and Power Community Credit Union (WPCCU), originally established for employees of a utility company, needed enhanced community brand awareness and visibility in order to expand its customer base. We conceptualized and executed creative experiential events: “Moolah Madness” was timed around tax day on April 15, and contestants could win all the cash they could catch in a minute inside a money machine; “Cold Hard Cash” was timed around the hottest days in the San Fernando Valley – Labor Day weekend – and contestants had to melt ice sculptures with their hands to find the cash frozen inside. And because new members can include those who need an adult co-signer, we also organized job fairs for high school students scheduled around graduation and “Homeruns-4-College,” a Little League home run derby that awarded scholarship money for 21 local students.
The Writer consultancy enjoyed a heavy media presence in the UK, but had no brand visibility stateside. With its first US office opening in New York, the mission was to establish thought leadership in brand language writing and training as well as generate media coverage. Tying The Writer’s services to the current conversation about impactful content marketing, we targeted influencers in key industry silos in need of a content makeover. Our media outreach campaign aimed to shift “content” to “conversation” marketing to showcase The Writer’s unique value proposition that focused on the importance of a differentiated “brand voice.” We also secured a webinar with PR Daily and a session at the Advanced Learning Institute’s 2015 Strategic Internal Communications Conference that opened up additional speaking platforms.
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 American public has a love affair with speed. We leveraged that “love” to engage consumers, and spark interest and demand for the one-of-a-kind speed measurement device Pocket Radar: the world’s only palm-sized, full-performance speed radar device. When it launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the dual messaging platform that we created had to resonate with two sets of audiences — professionals and everyday consumers. Pre-show, we sent creative media mailers to pique curiosity and generate word-of-mouth buzz. The product’s innovative technology, a break-through Doppler radar sensing and processing system, earned it a CES Innovations Honoree award, which was highlighted and leveraged to secure one-on-one interviews and post-show product reviews. The resulting coverage totaled 202,722,673 media impressions.
Frequently overshadowed by its more renowned neighbors up north, namely Sonoma County and Napa Valley, The Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association (SBCVA) needed to find an identifiable brand for the region that would resonate with both wine connoisseurs and regional tourists. They asked the agency to unify the Association’s 62 vintners and wineries into a cohesive branding effort that included all collateral material, messaging and positioning that emphasized the region’s attributes. Additionally, targeted food, wine, lifestyle and tourism media were invited on familiarization trips and to SBCVA festivals and tasting events to explore the region’s offerings. The Santa Barbara wine region was put on the media radar map and noted by Decanter Magazine, Wine Spectator and Gourmet Magazine as well as national news and travel outlets.
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 people looking to express themselves through functional fashion choices, Ritmo Mvndo came to the agency to capture international attention of its accessible luxury brand. Leveraging the trend of coupling affordability and luxury, the agency utilized an international media relations campaign across trade, fashion, lifestyle and entertainment outlets to position Ritmo Mvndo as a trendsetter. Capitalizing on Ritmo Mvndo’s extensive celebrity clientele, unique price point and myriad of styles, the agency positioned the brand as an elite fashion accessory of the stars, yet accessible to the general public. Following the product launch media blitz and representation for two consecutive years at the world’s largest watch trade show, BaselWorld in Basel, Switzerland, the watches were seen as the hottest accessory emanating from Hollywood.
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.
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 face of advertising fundamentally shifted with the success of native advertising, but not without kickback from the industry. Native advertising pioneer, MGID, although globally successful, needed better access to the competitive US marketplace. MGID had to first deliver the message that it drives authentic traffic to websites, ethically. The agency introduced them to the trade group IAB, where they worked with industry leaders on developing ethical and technical standards for native advertising. Subsequently, we placed op-eds and articles in high profile advertising trades, to persistently combat negative stigma as well as position MGID as an expert on profitable advertising. We also leveraged MGID published data and survey results that keyed into entertainment trends for placements in that industry trades. MGID has grown to be a force of influence in the advertising marketplace and a thought leader on native advertising for advertisers, publishers, and consumers.
Developing a media relations campaign for The Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy at USC came with unique challenges. Keston’s research and educational outreach activity was complex and far from palatable for mainstream media relations. We were tasked with positioning this non-partisan center as a thought leader in the advancement of knowledge, research and public policy advocacy for California and the nation’s public finance and infrastructure challenges. We identified timely and relevant infrastructure challenges and drew upon key learnings from the Institute’s forums, which often represented top players in state and municipal agencies, corporate executives and academic thought leaders. Keston has been featured on national broadcast news and public affairs radio shows across the country and become a much sought-after resource to local and state governments.
Recognizing that in today’s marketplace, a global reach in sales, marketing and distribution is essential for any property’s success and growth. L.E. Hotels, a hospitality brand that represents a “limited edition” collection of independently owned and operated properties, reached out to the agency to create a program that would link all of its properties across 18 countries through a global marketing program, and support each individual property’s particular needs and challenges. The program included quarterly regional promotions, trade and local media relations, blogs, newsletters brimming with company and member news and travel/tourism trade shows, as well as social media and native advertising. We also sought out Millennial-focused media outlets and scheduled editorial desk side briefings as a way of maximizing the individual property’s visibility.
When LegalShield, a leading provider of affordable legal services and identity theft solutions retained the agency, the client directed it to establish a thought leadership platform for its senior executives and drive media attention to its suite of products, including IDShield, an identity theft monitoring and restoration service. In capitalizing on the news of the high-profile data breaches at Equifax and Facebook, the agency established LegalShield as a much sought-out cybersecurity expert to address identity theft safety. In addition to multi-year PR and marketing campaigns, the agency established the LegalShield Law Index and the Legal Advisory Council, netting additional media attention and increasing the conversion rate by 200,000 new members. Eight billion offline/online media impressions were garnered, as well as profiles in The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN.com, Associated Press, Investor’s Business Daily, and more.
Making a film for a green cause requires an imagination…and talent. Long before it became common practice to crowdsource for talent online, we tapped social media to invite filmmakers around the world to enter Rain Bird’s Intelligent Use Of Water competition for the best short films that would portray the urgency of the global water scarcity issue. The experiential campaign included a microsite and digital communications to engage Millennials on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. We tapped into online forums for filmmakers. Grassroots efforts included street teams sent to 40 schools nationally to promote the competition to students, film professors, and with the American Film Institute and American Cinema Foundation. We received 87 film entries in three months, showed finalist films at a guest-only LA event and awarded monetary prizes for top winners.
For an upcoming trade show in Las Vegas, America’s Incentive Business Travel and Meetings (AIBTM) expo needed to create compelling brand content and generate market interest to ensure its stakeholders would also attend its show in Chicago. Tying into a trend of mining the voice of the customer, we executed a strategy to engage stakeholders to actually become a part of the show rather than just attend. Using crowdsourcing as the show’s value promise, we developed a buzzworthy theme, “Defining the Future of Meetings…Together” to generate attendee enthusiasm. A conference keynote speaker focused on audience response technology to gather real-time input on the future of the industry. The results: a 165 percent increase in corporate buyers, a 33 percent increase in hosted buyer acceptance and a 51 percent spike in new attendance at the renamed IBTM.
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.
When the nation’s leading supplier of massage chairs looked to us for a strategy to showcase the company’s newly re-branded consumer product division, we started by maximizing visibility of Human Touch and its award-winning HT-7450 Zero-Gravity Massage Chair at key technology and design trade shows that focused on wellness, design and technology. At CES and Las Vegas Market, we played into the weariness of trade show participants and attending media, and engaged national broadcast media outlets to take a moment to “experience” the H-7450 massage chair themselves. Our national public relations campaign completely re-focused media perception of the product category itself — massage chairs — from just “simple comfort/luxury indulgence” to essential lifestyle,health and wellness.
Actor Gary Sinise is perhaps best known for his role as Lt. Dan Taylor in the iconic movie “Forrest Gump” but also spends significant time serving and honoring our nation’s defenders, veterans and their families through his non-profit organization, the Gary Sinise Foundation (GSF). Operating in a highly competitive arena of supporting veterans and their families, our goal was to raise awareness of the GSF brand and generate market visibility. The focus was on the highly emotional topic of the widening care gap for returning war veterans. A media and thought leadership campaign propelled GSF into being a leading voice in providing tangible solutions to address this issue. A summit was held in partnership with the University of Southern California, resulting in concrete recommendations for solutions, sent to government, business and academic influencers, nationally.
When then-startup company, Equipois, launched the x-AR, the world’s first exoskeletal arm using zeroG technology best known from the Steadicam camera, we knew this could be revolutionary. It allowed users to maneuver heavy equipment as if weightless, thus minimizing workers’ fatigue and reducing injuries. At the Applied Ergonomics Conference, we positioned the Equipois brand as a leader in American innovation alongside established companies such as IBM and its superhuman computer “Watson.” We engaged media with real-world examples where the x-Ar would boost efficiency and productivity, such as surgeons who would operate for hours without experiencing arm weakness; assembly workers in manufacturing plants who could speed up the process; and women who would now challenge muscular men in the handling of heavy tools with ease.
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.
Shopping for healthy food products at the grocery store can be challenging, due to the overwhelming choices and often conflicting nutritional information. With the introduction of Eaturna’s chef-created, prepared food products, the agency was challenged to cut through the clutter of the competition, and create rapid brand awareness for Eaturna foods in one neighborhood as a trial. The “Eaturnalize your Neighborhood” experiential product launch focused on word-of-mouth marketing, signed pledges committing to healthy eating habits, “Partnership for Healthy Neighborhoods” street teams driving consumer trial, family-focused community events and partnerships where Eaturna food got tasted. Within 60 days, the entire neighborhood had been reached one-on-one and pledged to eating healthy.
Considering that most individuals today spend more time on digital entertainment than on family conversations, the agency developed a kid-focused family lifestyle campaign to ignite renewed interest in backyard astronomy as a “well-spent family pastime.” With the launch of Celestron’s innovative SkyScout Personal Planetarium at CES, instead of just sending media new product pitches, we keyed into the mystique of the age-old question “what is that object in the sky?” while noting that this product could take the “mystery” out of the sky. The agency also leveraged national celestial events to generate curiosity in astronomy, as well as a Boy Scouts of America partnership to attract that particular demographic.
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 the city of Beverly Hills, renowned for its special glitz worldwide, turned 100 in 2014, it wanted to celebrate in a big way. A block party was staged on Rodeo Drive, creating a family-focused experiential event replete with a commissioned birthday cake by agency client Luxe Rodeo Drive Hotel, created in partnership with famed pastry chef Donald Wressell of the Guittard Chocolate Company. The staggering 4,000-pound chocolate cake that depicted Beverly Hills City Hall and Rodeo Drive served 15,000 people, which generated hundreds of millions of earned media impressions as well as social media mentions. To build up momentum to that day, we “seeded” media stories, planned mini events, held a cake-tasting preview for media, showed off with a 3-D model of the cake design and shot a video of the “making-of-the-cake” — a time-lapse video that wowed viewers around the world when released.
The Brita Water Filter System, a portable water filter system from The Clorox Company, is a household name today. But back when it first entered the market, public confidence in tap water was at an all time low. Clorox retained the agency to pilot test the product in Southern California, with the goal of changing the behavior of bottled-water-obsessed consumers. Through an experiential sampling program and a specially designed “Brita Water Cart,” managed by a “Brita Water Patrol” that showed up where bottled waters did — at sports events, marathons, home shows, trade shows, etc. — coupled with our national media campaign focused on health and wellness, sales increased by 26 percent in nine months. Our product launch campaign had unleashed the powerful “word-of-mouth” tool.
The saying “no news is good news” did not apply to Axiotron, an award-winning, authorized Apple Proprietary Solution provider that built its reputation by adapting consumer technologies to innovative new products. After the company suffered product delays, it faced stern customer backlash from the online community. Complaints stemmed from the company’s lack of news and unresponsiveness when questioned about product availability, and its reputation suffered. We were tasked with generating media and consumer interest, as well as lifestyle engagement, in the product launch of the Mac® Axiotron Modbook, an innovative pen-sensitive LCD tablet—particularly within the design industry. Immediately, we increased online community engagement and fed Axiotron news particularly around key event/trade shows. We partnered with artists and designers to present their art work in the booth at the Macworld show, which focused on design and digital art and earned wide attention.
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.
Strict regulations, required compliance and data security concerns have kept financial services technology in the stone age, for innovation is very risky and costly. Docupace’s turn-key Straight-Through Processing product eliminates those challenges. The company needed to raise awareness with a very niche audience and tapped the agency to develop a long-term comprehensive public relations and digital marketing strategy that would rebrand it as a cyber secure and compliant financial tech firm. We redesigned and implemented a new website, coordinated an advertising campaign, built content marketing, including strategic native advertising, and launched a thought leadership platform — all targeting the C-suite of financial services. Docupace entered the marketplace en force and saw strong growth in the marketplace. Docupace became a trusted FinTech leader for financial services firms.
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.
Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Greater Los Angeles (MAWLA) needed to reconnect with its community and foster new marketing relationships and asked the agency for new concepts. We launched a 60-day campaign, entitled A Season of Wishes™, with experiential and visual elements, called “Wish It Blue,” (the Foundation’s signature color). We did a city-wide alert of the “blue” with a flip of a “virtual” switch turning major Los Angeles landmarks “blue”, including the famed Pacific Ferris Wheel, the Santa Monica Pier, the Queen Mary and the Vincent Thomas Bridge. We created an “influencers” group, the Circle of Wishes, to expand the campaign. MAWLA’s individual heart-wrenching kid-wish stories were spread across the media, with reporters interacting with the children and their families, capturing the stories live on local broadcasting.
The Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau (SMCVB) wanted to brand its city’s as California’s quintessential beach city as well as a world-class travel destination. Moreover, it wanted to entice worldwide tourists to visit Santa Monica, and have them increase their visitors’ stay, thereby promoting expenditures and supporting local establishments. Specific programming for specific audiences was created, such as the “Fun in the Sun” and the “Endless Summer” as travel and tourism promotions; “Sandy Monica” Mannequin promotion, in support of the new Santa Monica Place opening; the “Surfing Santas” promotion in support of the holiday season; a “Blogger Beach Contest,” as well as group FAM Trips for culinary media, bloggers, among others. A media outreach blitz triggered 400 million national and international.
When iconic toymaker WHAM-O, inventor of the “Hula-Hoop” and “Frisbee,” saw that it was losing customers to video games and technology, it enlisted the agency to find creative ways to re-capture the age-old excitement for its new outdoor summer and winter product lineups. To attract parents, the agency banked on triggering positive memories of their own childhood toys, which in turn, could translate into purchases for their children. In countering kids’ increasingly sedentary lifestyles, a summer multi-media campaign “Get The Kids Outdoors” and a winter one targeting “winter” states was pitched to the top 100 U.S. media markets. In just four months, WHAM-O generated more than 260 million print impressions and appeared on The Today Show, GMA, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, PBS and CNN.
The challenge for Luxe Hotels was to design an experiential and lifestyle synchronized communications platform that was workable for both Luxe Hotels (branded properties) and L.E. Hotels, a collection of premier independent hotel properties worldwide, across 31 countries. Multi-channel digital communications streams had to work in concert with each other regarding overall positioning and messaging, and needed to be dynamic by design, addressing different audiences from various angles. The programming was designed to be foundational and sustainable, as the brand expanded. We implemented an overarching brand platform and specific programming per business unit, that included a Brand Share of Voice and Consumer Engagement as well as Partnerships and Quarterly Engagement, Influencer Marketing and Special Promotion programming that would be tied to seasonal happenings, news cycle or opportunistic events.
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.
Digital marketing expert and customer service guru, Jay Baer, tapped the agency for media exposure and thought leadership strategies to increase coverage of his new book Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers. Written as a response to the rise in online complaints, Hug Your Haters argues that the mindset to “pick and choose” when to respond to criticism is an incredibly costly mistake for many businesses. By leveraging the breaking news cycle of high-profile business blunders together with available data points from Jay’s research, we created a whirlwind of interest, which led to byline opportunities and the positioning of Baer as a sought-after resource to the media through his ongoing expert commentary on specific statistics within the food, hospitality, travel, retail, and airline industries.
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