Location
U.S.A.
Skills
CEO Reputation Management, Media Relations, Positioning, Writing
SITUATION
Managing Director of a newly-founded academic research institute (“the Institute”) wanted to raise the Institute’s and their own visibility and credibility to build both brands. She said, “I want top-tier media coverage about the Institute. How do we secure interviews with journalists?”
COMPLICATION
The Institute was unknown. There were few journalists who covered education, and journalists who covered the consumer market viewed academic research as dull and unimportant and, as a result, were reluctant to invest time to interview the Managing Director.
ACTION
Positioned Managing Director as a careers expert who held insights and groundbreaking academic research that revealed the top five fastest-growing industries in the U.S., information critical to help Americans get jobs in an intractable recession.
Designed multi–pronged national media relations campaign to deliver a steady flow of information to both traditional and social media. This information included: ten media story ideas, four press releases, yearly predictions, and research from two books authored by the Managing Director presented as “Career tips” and “News you can use”.
RESULTS
Within 18 months, obtained 77 interviews, which resulted in news coverage in 42 feature stories about and 14 mentions of the Managing Director and the Institute. This news coverage was published in or aired on top-tier media including: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Christian Science Monitor, Forbes, Globe and Mail, San Francisco Business Times, The Star-Ledger, USA Today (print); KOST, KRON (radio), and Fox News, PBS’s Nightly Business Report, Univision (television).