Case Studies

Our clients include corporations, associations, NGOs, not-for-profit organizations, the media and law firms. Our scope of work – all focusing on the power and influence of timely online news – has included international issues advocacy, crisis management and recalibrating the competitive brand of a publicly traded corporation.

Our scope of practice includes:

  • Executive level strategic communications planning.
  • Alignment of communications strategies with corporate/organizational objectives.
  • Identifying competitive opportunities through the mainstream and online news media.
  • Executive consultation on the latest interview techniques.
  • Augment and enhance existing PR and marketing initiatives.
  • Development of media talking points, story angles and timely messages.
  • Skillful implementation of online news services.
  • Guidance on evolving social media best practices.

Recent examples:

Crisis and brand-image management: Imperial Sugar Company

Situation:

ISCNewsroom.com

When an explosion and resulting fires temporarily closed Imperial Sugar Company’s large sugar refinery at Port Wentworth, Ga., in 2008, many news stories and images of the incident appeared in mainstream and online media, including at Google and other search engines. Those reports about fire, death and tragedy continued to show up on the first pages of search engines for months even though much of the information was outdated. After traditional public relations efforts failed to improve the company’s brand image, CEO John Sheptor called on David Henderson, owner of News Strategies™, to create an innovative approach for the company to tell its own stories and manage its own news online.

Objectives:

      • Positively expand awareness of Imperial Sugar online, and enhance search engine positioning.
      • Enhance the relevance and value of Imperial Sugar to its audiences with daily original news stories on ISCNewsroom.com.
      • Provide inspiration and acknowledgement of employees, communities, and those with whom Imperial has working relationships.
      • Present a more balanced and accurate point of view about the company than what is reported in the more sensationally oriented mainstream media.
      • Reposition the image and reputation of the company to move forward.

Solution:

News Strategies™ developed a groundbreaking online news site for Imperial Sugar. ISCNewsroom.com was up and loaded with stories within two weeks. The site emphasized balance, openness and transparency with timely news of the company and the global sugar industry.

Elements of the news site:

      • Human-interest feature stories about people and activities at the company’s plants and locations.
      • News-photography essays to bring added dimension to stories.
      • Continued focus on the rebuilding of manufacturing plants and the ISC brand through stories of industry leadership in plant safety and food safety.
      • Stories illustrating the proactive and positive relationships the company has with customers
      • Hard-edged business-development features, highlighting acquisitions and growth.
      • Events, including coverage of the company’s philanthropic activities.
      • Regular opinion pieces by third-party experts to influence thought-leaders within the industry.
      • Online links to other news coverage via live newsfeed with the global sugar industry.
      • Daily updates

Results:

      • ISCNewsroom.com, from its first day of going live, has accurately reflected the company’s steps toward rebuilding, its support of communities, and important news of the sugar industry worldwide.
      • The news site has become a coveted forum for regular commentary by industry experts and analysts.
      • Promotion of the site was done organically through aggressive word-of-mouth among company leaders and associates with vendors, business partners, the financial community and friends, together with powerful search engine optimization.
      • Online ratings soared, and ISCNewsroom.com became the world’s most popular news source in the sugar industry in less than three months, beating out the consumer websites of larger competitors.
      • The news site regularly ranks in the top 100,000 most popular websites in the United States (in a country with an estimated 30 millions sites), as measured by Alexa.com.
      • The news site has been credited by CEO John Sheptor with attracting new customers, building greater morale among employees and contributing to a steady increase in the company’s stock performance.

 

Crisis and brand-image management: Louisiana Seafood Industry

Situation:

The April 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an overnight environmental disaster of epic proportions in America’s most fertile seafood waters. Commercial fishing operations immediately came to a halt, putting the 22,000 people involved in Louisiana’s seafood industry — and a billion-dollar industry — in financial peril just as many were emerging from the hardships of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

LouisianaSeafoodNews.com

The Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board, representing the industry, turned to News Strategies™ to get the world news media’s attention over the plight of people in the seafood industry who might otherwise not have their voices heard, and to reinforce trust in the quality of Louisiana seafood. The method was a special news site, LouisianaSeafoodNews.com, developed and filled with editorial content by News Strategies™ in less than two weeks.

Objectives:

      • Deliver a continuous flow of human-interest stories to catch the interest of mainstream media and be repeated. In other words, a primary and legitimate news resource at a time when mainstream media appreciates a helping hand due to cutbacks.
      • Generate significant awareness of suffering within the seafood industry to get a sizable financial settlement from BP and other responsible parties.
      • Underscore a favorable brand image and trust in Louisiana seafood.
      • Position Louisiana politically as one of America’s most important resources for fresh seafood.

Elements of the news site:

      • Human-interest feature stories about individual fishermen, underscoring how whole communities along coastal Louisiana felt the financial impact of the oil spill.
      • Broadcast-quality HD news b-roll video and interviews made available to TV news.
      • Highly effective search engine optimization (SEO) to dominate major search engines.
      • A team of six News Strategies™ professional journalists and news photographers working to generate content.
      • Original, timely and fresh news stories updated daily.

Results:

      • Heightened media attention. Major news organizations — including CNN, BBC, CBS News, NBC News and PBS NewsHour — have used story content from the site and were guided in editorial tone and direction, often referencing information on the news site.
      • Most major television news organizations have downloaded and used broadcast-quality HD news video produced by News Strategies™ for the news site.
      • More than 3,000 people worldwide visit the news site each day.
      • The news site regularly ranks in the top 70,000 most popular websites in the United States, as measured by Alexa.com.
      • BP offered the Louisiana Seafood Board an initial $30-million dollar settlement, citing awareness generated by the news site.

 

Issues Advocacy: First Generation Initiative

Situation:

Screenshot: FirstGenerationStories.org

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona, MN, may be not be one of the largest centers of higher education but the university is a creative powerhouse of exciting, ground-breaking programs that have far-reaching impact and value.

Best known, perhaps, is Fred de Sam Lazaro’s Under-Told Stories Project at St. Mary’s, a program that combines international journalism and teaching. His remarkable stories air regularly on PBS NewsHour.

Thus, when News Strategies LLC contacted by Lasallian Brother Ed Siderewicz to help enhance awareness for a new program using the approach of brand journalism, we immediately agreed.

Brother Ed – as he prefers to be called – is one of the visionary leaders of the pioneering First Generation Initiative (FGI) at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. It is a special program developed to help and empower youth who are financially disadvantaged with a chance at higher education. The program’s focus is to provide the academic support and mentoring they need to help make their dreams come true.

Saint Mary’s FGI is one of the nation’s most comprehensive solutions for first-generation students. What makes FGI unique – compared to other programs for economically disadvantaged learners – is that the program partners with multiple middle and high schools in low-income communities to create a seamless education from middle school to high school to college.

“The reality and potential is that it has a transformational effect on the families and communities that surround these children in the urban communities from which they come. We have watched it,” Brother Ed says.

A few of the First Generation Initiative scholars ham it up.

Through discussion with Brother Ed and Dr. Jane Anderson, the distinguished academic director of the program, we developed consensus that a storytelling brand journalism website was the best direction. Not hard news stories but rather stories, openly and transparently told, about personal value and importance.

In order to achieve the program’s outreach objectives as quickly as possible, we would bring alive the core value and purpose of First Generation Initiative through the faces, voices and stories of students who benefit from the program.

FirstGenerationStories.org has become our platform for the stories.

Strategy:

It was a contrarian journalistic approach to quickly building awareness and appealing. Rather than the typical, boring (and somewhat narcissistic) style of talking “about” a program, we asked students to share their personal stories – hardships, challenges, achievements and dreams. This credible approach … first-person storytelling … has catapulted awareness and interest for First Generation Initiative. Its value immediately shines.

Driven by the power of WordPress, using a custom theme by Solostream.com and design by TM Design, we built the site and published 12 stories within two weeks. What has happened since is pure magic – the site’s popularity and online ranking have taken off like a rocket!

          • U.S. online ranking of under 100,000, according to Alexa.com, within two weeks … and still climbing! That’s almost unheard-of.
          • Favorable and enhance nationwide funder support.
          • Greater awareness for First Generation Initiative before the media and among academic communities.

The lesson to be learned - if a variation on brand journalism works so effectively for this trend-setting university program, think how powerful it can be at other centers of higher education to underscore the critical importance of education in America.

 

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