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Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.

From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

Sweet Victory: Key Takeaways From a Fan-Favorite Marketing Campaign

Last year, I had the opportunity to fly to New York City and meet with industry professionals on the cutting edge of PR. One of our stops was to Weber Shandwick. During my visit at the firm, I heard from Chris Kooluris, who shared several campaigns he’d worked on over the years spanning from VitaminWater’s $100,000 challenge to give up your smartphone to Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse cruise with Royal Caribbean. It was like sitting at the feet of marketing royalty. And for a senior in college, hungry for experience in the field, I was on the edge of my seat.

He then pulled up a photo of a blue and orange fridge wrapped in a chain and padlocked. Dozens of images of the fridge flashed across my memory – I had seen this fridge everywhere on social media mere months before. We’d even discussed it in one of my public relations classes at school. For someone who doesn’t watch football or drink beer, my fascination with Bud Light’s Victory Fridge campaign is baffling even for me. Perhaps it’s the simplicity at the heart of it all that has secured its place as my favorite campaign to date.

If you’re unsure of what a Victory Fridge is, look no further as I revisit below Bud Light’s simple yet innovative marketing campaign and highlight key takeaways that can be applied to any PR push.

In January 2017, Bud Light sales were stuck in a rut. Despite the smash success of its “Dilly Dilly” campaign, the nation’s biggest beer brand suffered its largest annual volume decline ever in 2017, dropping 5.7 percent. With one of Bud Light’s highest-profile marketing assets (the NFL) approaching its annual climax (the Super Bowl), Bud Light was hopeful its sales would turn around. However, not even being dubbed the official beer of the NFL was saving them. Bud Light knew it needed to try something different.

Enter the Cleveland Browns.

In 2018, Bud Light (in partnership with its PR, marketing and advertising firms) decided that it would give away free beer in Cleveland, but only if the Browns won. It’s important to note that the Cleveland Browns had been the worst team in the NFL for years, at the time only winning one game in the previous two years. Any victory would’ve been monumental to long-suffering Browns fans.

To make the potential win a little sweeter, Bud Light installed “Victory Fridges” in 10 Cleveland-area bars and FirstEnergy Stadium. The fridges were to unlock simultaneously when the Browns won, allowing fans to celebrate with 200 free beers per venue.

News of the fridges spread like wildfire.

Everyone from Forbes to USA Today to Sports Illustrated covered the fridges. #VictoryFridge trended on Twitter. Fans posted the fridges on social media, garnering mass amounts of free, earned media coverage.

Then, after a 635-day losing streak, the Browns beat the Jets. Sweet victory.

Victory Fridges across Cleveland opened, and Browns fans celebrated together by drinking the free Bud Light their team had earned. While there are multiple ways to measure the value of Bud Light’s press coverage, speculation on Twitter from ESPN’s Darren Rovell said the night of the Browns’ victory alone was worth nearly $7 million in publicity, according to one third-party source. Weber Shandwick estimates over 2 billion impressions resulted from the campaign.

Key takeaways:

  • Join cultural moments
  • Create and magnify relationships
  • Let your audience do the talking
  • Place your product, client or message at the center
  • Keep it simple

Of the campaign, Miles Ritenour, communications manager at Bud Light said, “We felt really good about the idea because of its simplicity and authenticity. The Browns’ record was already a major topic of conversation going into the season, and no brand had really seized the opportunity. The Victory Fridge did just that with a simple execution—fridges that unlocked when the Browns got their first win. It was easy to understand, built on a cultural insight, gave the people a role, and our product was at the center of it all.”

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Three Tips for Maintaining Long-lasting Client Relationships

I recently came across an article in Harvard Business Review titled, “The Loyalty Economy,” in which the author describes the importance of customer value and explains why customer loyalty is in the best interest of shareholders and management. It’s well known that maintaining a healthy, loyal customer base is significantly less costly and time-intensive than finding and securing new customers. However, as we fixate on growth and obtaining new customers, it can be easy to lose sight of existing business and its value.

This article reminded me of a statistic our team was shown in a recent review of our performance in 2019. When reviewing our list of clients, we also looked at the span of our relationships with each business. The numbers impressed me. Most of our clients have been with the firm for four or five years and one that has even been with Communiqué PR since its founding 15 years ago.

Clients with compelling and impactful stories are what lead to our success. Positive relationships are a key element to our ability to deliver excellent work. When you’ve worked with a client for years you tend to find a rhythm that makes the relationship easy, but it’s important to continue to find ways to invest in these partnerships and demonstrate a client’s value.

Constantly Win the Business

While getting in a rhythm with your clients can lead to efficiency, it can also lead to complacency. It’s important to remember to think creatively and suggest ideas that evolve with their business. As businesses grow and objectives mature, adapt the PR plan and make new recommendations. Clients are not obligated to stay, so it is important to continue to impress them with new ideas that excite them and demonstrate value.

Ask for Feedback

Feedback isn’t always easy to hear. But it isn’t always bad. The fact is, you’ll never know where you stand if you don’t ask. This doesn’t have to be a formal review of all the work ever done on their behalf but make it a point to ask how the client feels about the results of a specific project. However, you can make it a point to request feedback on your performance and their satisfaction with the firm. Not only will this highlight areas the account team can improve, it’ll also demonstrate commitment to providing the best service possible.

Find Time to Invest

This can mean a lot of things. And it will likely be different depending on the client. Taking time to invest in relationships, outside of email updates and talking shop, can demonstrate the client’s value to you and the firm. Investing in the relationship can mean taking the client out for drinks, sending over a congratulatory gift when a big milestone is achieved, or simply taking the time to get to know them and showing genuine interest in them as an individual. Small acts can go a long way in fostering a relationship.

Getting caught up in deadlines and day-to-day activity can make it easy to forget to dedicate the right attention to clients and our relationships with them. Not every day needs to be filled with grand gestures or over-the-top ideas, but make sure to set time aside to consider how to continuously add value to the client as well as demonstrate their value to the firm. Investing in this will be the key to long-lasting relationships.

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Overcoming the Psychological Barriers to Collaboration

Many of us work in environments that strive to promote collaboration, but have you ever stopped to think about the skills that collaboration demands?

This was the focus of Harvard Professor Francesca Gino’s recent work where she shares her findings in the article titled, “Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration: Six new tools for training people to work better together.” It can be found in the November-December 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review.

When building collaboration skills, she first recommends teaching people to listen. This is excellent advice and can help not only when collaborating with co-workers, but also with clients, vendors and partners.

One of my favorite business books is “Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone,” written by Mark Goulston. Over the years I’ve used it repeatedly. In addition to providing insight into the persuasion cycle and how listening impacts it, Goulston also includes a variety of questions that can be asked to overcome conflict, deepen relationships and improve empathy with others.

Speaking of empathy, the next suggestion from Gino is that to improve collaboration you must also “train people to practice empathy.” This often begins with self-examination or awareness of your mindset. She explains that when you’re working with others, if you’re judging them, you may begin to arrive at conclusions that can undermine collaboration.

For instance, you may think to yourself, this person isn’t very helpful or caring. Once you start down this path, communication can break down. Instead of judging, seek to understand the other person’s behavior, attitude or beliefs. In the full article, you’ll find ideas on how to do this.

The third tip surrounds feedback. For some of us, this is a loaded term, associated with shortcomings or things that need to be improved. However, according to Gino, “Good collaboration involves giving and receiving feedback well – and from a position of influence rather than authority.” She then goes on to describe the methods for improving feedback loops.

Fourth, to improve collaboration, you may want to “teach people to lead and follow.” As a leader, this can be challenging. When you have lots of experience or want something done a particular way, it can be difficult to cede control to others. However, while initially it might be uncomfortable, relinquishing control allows others to take ownership and share ideas that may not have otherwise surfaced.

The final tips involve the ability to speak with clarity and how to train people to have win-win interactions. Clearly, it’s much harder to collaborate if the other party doesn’t understand what you’re trying to say or why it’s important.

If interactions aren’t win-win, they often fail. In sales, it’s well known that if you want long-term success, deals need to be win-win. When achieved, this means satisfied customers, long-term relationships, repeat business and good referrals. To achieve win-win outcomes you often need to approach interactions or negotiations as partners and not adversaries. Gino reminds us that by investigating each other’s needs often the best outcome can be achieved.

If you want to learn more about these tips, how they’re mutually supportive and interdependent, I highly recommend reading Gino’s article. For more on her work, please check out my other blog: “Rebel with a Cause or Just Good Leadership.”

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Email Signatures – What do They Say About You?

When I first came across this New York Times (NYT) article, What Your Email Signature Says About You, I immediately categorized it as a clickbait story. Upon further review I discovered there was much more behind it.

While I personally refrain from adding quotes, jokes, scriptures, social media links or other items – and quite frankly discount lengthy and promotional email signatures that take up valuable space – I discovered I may be overlooking an opportunity to build rapport, display personality and promote myself, within reason.

However, when it comes to professional emails I tend to draw a more conservative line. Perhaps I could learn to live a little more by way of my email signature but I certainly do not agree with overloading the reader with unnecessary information or links that take away from the intent of the message, including emojis, awards, links to books or anything else you’re selling other than your ideas.

Regardless of preference, David Austern, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at N.Y.U. Langone Health, affirms that it’s normal to be nervous about writing emails and the potential misperception of the intended tone. Austern reminds us of the nature of our approach, in that we quickly craft emails from behind our laptops and mobile screens, distracted by myriad things happening around us. All the while, these messages have high stakes.

The article summarizes Austern’s guidance and likens our internal thought process to the following: “We want or need something; we’re creating a digital footprint we hope will stand in for the real thing — ourselves. So how do you do it better? (And if someone hates your signature, do they hate you, too?).”

Considering that so much of business and personal communications are happening by way of emails, and other digital platforms, and that most people refrain from showing too much personality over email by risk of it being perceived inaccurately, myself included, it makes it difficult to get a sense of the person on the other side.

Like most things in life, balance is key. The NYT article illustrates a few different takes on how you can use your signature to benefit your career. One of the most common, and nonintrusive, approaches is the “sent from my iPhone” disclaimer. Research shows people are more forgiving of typos when this is included. Some of the clever plays on this generic message mentioned in the article include, “Sent from the road on a tiny robot,” and “Sent from an undisclosed location.”

To embrace this new frontier of opportunity, the one approach I saw in the article that I considered entertaining is connected to personal values. I am a firm believer of work-life balance, and I am very fortunate to work for a company that recognizes the value in this. This is why the example in the article about TV producer Shonda Rhimes resonates with me: “Please Note: I will not engage in work emails after 7 p.m. or on weekends. IF I AM YOUR BOSS, MAY I SUGGEST: PUT DOWN YOUR PHONE.”

It’s incredibly powerful. As Samantha Ettus, founder and CEO of Park Place Payments, reflected, “She’s setting the tone for work-life balance in her organization. It’s an opportunity to say, ‘This is how I manage my busy life, and you can do it, too.’”

Let us all take a page out of Rhimes’ book and embrace the idea of expressing more personality in our emails – you never know what doors it could open. Or at least, dip your toe in the water and try one of the ideas included in the NYT article.

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5 Tips for Achieving Your PR Goals in 2020

Ah, the New Year: a clean slate of 12 months that are full of promise and potential for what the coming year will hold. It’s a popular time for reflection, resolutions and goal setting. Of course, many of us set resolutions that we have absolutely no hope of achieving. Not because we don’t want to, but often because our resolutions are ambitious and require discipline, and we neglect to put a plan in place to ensure we reach these goals.

The world of PR is no different when it comes to approaching goals. Need to boost your brand’s image? Aiming to increase revenue by 12 percent? Looking to reach a new, larger audience? All of these are possible but require strict focus and actionable steps to successfully achieve.

Below, we run through five ways to help PR professionals with lofty ambitions meet their goals.

1: Make a list – and then prioritize

First things first: Identify what you want to achieve and write it down. This is the first step toward making any goal a reality, as you’re transferring the abstract from your thoughts to a tangible list. Suddenly, there’s your goal staring back at you.

Take a page from Warren Buffet, who when it comes to goal setting, recommends listing your top 25 goals and then circling the five that are most important. This will help sharpen your focus on the goals that matter most to you.

Goals are generally supposed to be large and ambitious to push you and give you something to work toward. However, to help ensure that you are successful, be specific with the goals you want to achieve and make sure they are realistic for you to progress toward. Ultimately, you want to set yourself up for success.

2: Establish objectives and set deadlines

As the old saying goes, one must learn to walk before they can run. Break your goal into smaller, actionable objectives you can accomplish that will ultimately help you achieve your goal, and set deadlines for when you’ll meet these objectives. This will establish a plan and create a clear path to success. The deadlines will push you toward making progress and keep you from letting important tasks fall by the wayside. You can visualize where you currently are with your goal, where you need to go next, and where you ultimately hope to land.

For example, say you want to run a marathon. Ultimately, you want to complete a 26-mile race, with race day being your final deadline. This will require a significant amount of training and endurance building leading up to the race. You’ll pick a training program where you schedule four or five runs a week. As you begin training, you’ll start small and gradually increase the lengths of your runs each week. You’ll monitor your pace throughout and eventually build yourself up to doing a trial 20-mile run. Throughout the process, you can evaluate the progress you’ve made and how close you are to accomplishing your goal.

3: Assess where you anticipate successes and difficulties

As you progress toward your goal, some parts of the process will naturally come easier while others will be downright challenging. Brace yourself for encountering hurdles, as you will undoubtedly meet resistance at one point or another, but don’t let this derail your progress.

One of the best ways to handle problems is to address them early on. You may be able to anticipate some of the difficulties you’ll encounter, which will allow you to plan how you’ll manage them.

Maybe you’re looking to boost annual revenue numbers but are aware of a couple calendar windows where business slows down. Explore potential campaigns or promotions you can launch during this timeframe to combat this, or look into getting a jumpstart on those periods where business runs hot and identify ways for extending that engagement further into the cool-down phase.

4: Implement a system for accountability …

Own your accountability – this can be arduous but it will make achieving your goal that much sweeter. Monitor daily how well you’re progressing toward your goal. This will help you determine if your method is working and what approaches need to be refined.

You can incorporate visual aids to maintain visibility on your progress. Using the revenue example, chart your monthly progress and assess how much work you still have ahead. Calendars and daily planners are incredibly useful for tracking deadlines. Also, enlist the help of an accountability partner who will sound off in case you’re neglecting meeting your objectives.

5: … and don’t forget a system for rewards

You’ve done the work, you deserve the spoils. Celebrate your victories big and small. Each checkpoint crossed means you’re one step closer to achieving your larger goal. Brought a new client into the fold? Secured placement in a national publication? Met your revenue numbers for the quarter? Those are all calls for celebration. A lot of planning and groundwork goes into achieving your goals. Appreciate your painstaking efforts in the journey toward your destination.

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2019 at a Glance: Delta-Q Technologies

2019 was an exciting year for our longstanding client, Delta-Q Technologies (Delta-Q). As a leading manufacturer of industrial battery chargers for electric vehicles and industrial equipment, Delta-Q has become a one-stop shop for equipment and battery manufacturers looking to electrify systems and employ safe and efficient charging practices.

This past year, we had the opportunity to raise awareness of Delta-Q’s move into mid-range charging, its high-frequency lithium battery chargers, its 20th anniversary, as well as the company’s presence at a number of industry trade shows. While the bulk of our media relations activities involve announcement and trade show outreach, we continue to work with industry press through proactive pitching to help decision makers in the construction, material handling and floor care – among other segments – to understand how to electrify their equipment systems.  

We are grateful for our partnership with Delta-Q and are looking forward to all 2020 has to offer. Below is a snapshot of some of our 2019 campaigns and the results we secured.

Proactive pitching and inbound inquires

Throughout the year, Delta-Q discussed the benefits of lithium-ion batteries and shared guidance around how to integrate these technologies into equipment and battery-charging systems.  

 OPE Magazine: Taking Charge – 2/20/19

ProMat 2019

In April 2019, Delta-Q showcased its high-frequency lithium ICL Series of battery chargers at ProMat 2019 in Chicago.

 Refrigerated and Frozen Foods: ProMat 2019 delivers thousands of manufacturing, supply chain solutions: Lithium Battery Chargers – 4/16/19

Stackable Charging Software

In September 2019, Delta-Q announced its entry into mid-range power charging through its new stackable charging software. The stackable charging software allows for manufacturers to connect two to six Delta-Q chargers together, providing manufacturers a modular and scalable solution that can be distributed across their vehicle or equipment and deliver up to 7.5kW.

Material Handling Wholesaler: Delta-Q Technologies releases new software capability to provide stackable charging solutions – 9/4/19

GIE+EXPO 2019

Delta-Q showcased its new stackable charging solution to golf and landscape professionals at GIE+EXPO in Louisville, Ky.

Vehicle Charge Interface Module (VCIM)

Complementing the stackable charging system, in December 2019, the company announced the launch of its new Vehicle Charge Interface Module (VCIM), expanding the company’s power charging capabilities to support electric vehicle charging stations. The VCIM is a hardware addition that expands the capabilities of Delta-Q chargers to include compatibility with standard charging stations or Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSEs).

 Electronic Products and Technology: Delta-Q expands power charging capabilities with VCIM – 12/24/19

As we kick off a new decade, we are excited to continue our partnership with Delta-Q and communicate the impact they are having on the industrial equipment industries.

To learn more about our work with Delta-Q and in the industrial equipment industries, check out the following blog posts:

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