Litigation Case Study – News Media Coverage Early Can Help Define Case

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Taking Leadership of the Story in High Profile Litigation

The Situation

A well-known local organization needed a communications campaign for a lawsuit they were about to file. This legal case would draw the attention of the news media locally and statewide. The SolutionPR was called in early for strategy, support, creation and implementation of a communications plan before, during, and after legal filings were made. Our support continued during phases of the lawsuit as it progressed through the court system.

The goal was to utilize the news media to take the lead early to educate the public, key community leaders and elected officials and cultivate support for a somewhat complex issue.

The Strategy

We met with the organization and its legal team before the lawsuit was filed to discuss our strategy.  We identified key audiences and important third parties that could validate the complaint publicly, if necessary.

After several sessions with the client, we successfully created:

  • A key message
  • Compelling talking points for several constituencies
  • Press list of appropriate media/reporters for distribution of communications
  • Press release and backgrounder for the media
  • Media training for designated spokespeople
  • Internal communications plan and talking points
  • Rapid Response Plan
  • Social Media Strategy
  • Media timeline and strategy for lawsuit filing prior, day of, and going forward

The Results

Having a strong strategy and implementation prior to the filing of the lawsuit, enabled our client to not only have the element of surprise, but also to take leadership of the story. Almost every local Denver print, radio and television outlet ran a story. Social media monitoring showed active support being voiced as well. One of the greatest testaments to our success was the level of understanding of this complex issue by the news media and public. Our client’s key message was repeated by the media and the public as fact.

Contact The SolutionPR to discuss a communications strategy before you embark on a high-profile matter. Contact us today to start a conversation with one of The SolutionPR’s principals to learn more.

Crisis Management Case Study

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Strategy, Agility and Media Relations Success

The Issue

When the owner of the Gold King Mine, in Silverton, Colorado called us at 9pm on an August evening, we jumped into action. While he was traveling, his mine experienced a blowout caused by the EPA and millions of gallons of bright orange metal/mineral water was pouring into the Animas River as we spoke. Media calls were coming in fast and furious and the public was getting anxious.

The Strategy

We quickly assessed the details of the situation and immediately put in place an organized process for media inquiries. In less than 24 hours later, we had reviewed all past coverage and fleshed out critical details that were being missed by the media. We met with the owner and principals and devised a comprehensive media strategy, developed compelling messaging, conducted media training, and began to set up interviews with national and local reporters and producers. We created a targeted national and local news media list, identified key government officials that our client needed to meet with, and began setting up those meetings immediately.

The Results

Over the next 3 days, we utilized a multi-prong approach that resulted in news media coverage in print, on TV and radio, and in internet articles and conversations nationwide. Utilizing our deep relationships with news media all over the country, we immediately arranged interviews and received coverage in:

  • Wall Street Journal
  • Los Angeles Times
  • ABC National News
  • Time Magazine
  • CNN
  • Fox News Neil Caputo
  • Guardian (London)
  • NBC National
  • Associated Press
  • USA Today
  • Local Print, TV and radio exclusive feature stories telling our client’s story.

We successfully managed this crisis by implementing a quick, aggressive media strategy with a strong, compelling message.  The result was an educated media and public that understood our client was not responsible for the blow out. Our work changed the conversation to focus on the real causes of the disaster and potential solutions.

Contact The SolutionPR today and learn what your options are before you face a PR nightmare.

Showcase Practice Group Strength

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Communications Planning Success Story

The Issue

We worked with a law firm whose goal was attract key audiences to its Labor & Employment practice group. We worked with attorneys regularly to maximize their expertise in breaking news matters. For example, we seized on the opportunity for comment to the media when the Department of Labor (DOL) finalized their overtime rule.

The Strategy

A few days prior to the new rule announcement by DOL, we worked with an attorney at a large national law firm to create compelling comments on the significance and impact for employers. We then reached out to our local, national, international, and trade industry news media contacts covering labor and employment issues.

Over the course of that week and over the next two months, we received numerous interview requests for this attorney as well as interest in penned articles. We managed a constant stream of media requests and made sure that our client was prepped and confident and had the skills needed for his interviews with print and broadcast reporters.

Earned Media Placement Results:

The earned media from our efforts resulted in more than 305 individual media placements.
Some of the media included:

  • The Washington Post
  • The New York Times
  • CNBC
  • The Associated Press
  • McClatchy Newspapers
  • Fox News
  • CFO Magazine
  • The Miami Herald
  • The Seattle Times
  • ABC News
  • SHRM Online
  • Canadian Press
  • US News & World Report
  • NBC News
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Chicago Tribune
  • Denver Post
  • Minneapolis Star Tribune
  • Colorado Springs Gazette
  • Yahoo News
  • Fort Worth Business
  • Ottawa Citizen
  • Employment Law Daily
  • Canadian Business
  • San Francisco Chronicle
  • Westlaw Journal Employment (penned article)

Are you interested in developing a communication strategy plan? Then contact us today to start a conversation with one of The SolutionPR’s principals.

Taking Advantage of Breaking News: Hitting the Ground Running for our Clients

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CASE EXAMPLE – SUPREME COURT DECISION – EEOC v. ABERCROMBIE & FINCH STORES INC.

When news breaks, The SolutionPR has a proven track record hitting the ground running, generating attention in mainstream and online media that connects our clients to their target audience.  We work with attorneys to develop comments quickly for significant court decisions, and we are tremendously successful getting the news media interested in interviewing and quoting them. We give our clients the competitive edge they need to get in front of reporters quickly and get above the din of others clamoring for comment.

THE ISSUE –

The high profile U. S. Supreme Court decision on EEOC v. Abercrombie & Finch Stores Inc. offered us the opportunity to highlight the expertise of a prominent labor and employment attorney at a national law firm. The Court ruled against Abercrombie & Fitch saying that the company’s failure to accommodate a job applicant who wore a hijab violated civil rights law.

THE STRATEGY –

We monitored the Abercrombie case regularly so when the decision came out, we were poised to quickly get comments from the client to reporters writing on real-time deadlines. Because we frequently work with Supreme Court reporters, as well as key labor and employment news media, we were able to get in front of them immediately and set up interviews with our client.

We worked with our client, managing and scheduling coveted media interviews throughout the day. We made sure he was media prepped adequately for each interview.

MEDIA PLACEMENT RESULTS

Because of our speed, agility and strategic efforts we were able to succeed in getting our client interviewed and quoted in:

  • The Wall Street Journal
  • Newsweek
  • The Los Angeles Times
  • National Law Journal
  • Chicago Tribune
  • CFO Magazine
  • Law 360
  • Global Post
  • Minneapolis Star Tribune

And penned article requests or quotes as well in key Labor & Employment publications such as:

  • Business Management Daily
  • Workforce
  • Talent Management
  • SHRM
  • HRE Daily

Are you interested in turning your attorneys into sought-after national thought leaders? Then contact us today to start a conversation with one of The SolutionPR’s principals.

 

Building Media Relationships = Exposure Strength

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CASE EXAMPLE – Introducing Attorney Expertise to the News Media

A strength of The SolutionPR is the depth and breadth of our media relationships.  Not only does our work ensure an enormous amount of news coverage for our law firm clients and medical organizations, but we help create long-term relationships with the media.  We introduce our clients to important national and international reporters, editors/producers and guide them in cultivating these relationships, which pays off in increased news coverage time and again.  In turn, reporters and producers are grateful for the leads and trust our news instincts.

An example:

Recently, we worked with an attorney who had specific U.S./China investment expertise. We reached out to reporters nationally and internationally to discuss the trends he was seeing and tout his broad expertise.  Our pitch to reporters included those in China and Hong Kong.  Therefore, we began getting interview requests at all times of the day.  Working across many time zones, we set-up over a dozen discussions for our client with major news media in the United Satates and Asia.

MEETING RESULTS:

  • Wall Street Journal – 4 interview/meetings with 4 separate reporters at the Wall Street Journal, 1 in the Hong Kong bureau and 3 in Beijing
  • New York Times – Set up discussions with a New York Times reporter
  • Reuters – 2 meetings with Reuters reporters, 1 in Hong Kong, and one in Washington D.C.
  • Forbes – 1 meeting with Forbes reporter in NY
  • Quartz – Set up several discussions with the Asia bureau chief of Quartz.  This resulted in an authored article published as well as quotes in a front-page story.
  • Bloomberg – 2 meetings with separate Bloomberg reporters, one from print and one from TV,
  • Meeting with MergerMarket/Deal reporter
  • CFO Magazine requested an authored article

At The SolutionPR, we make a commitment to our clients:  we will work around the clock to get you the news coverage you deserve.

Are you interested in having your attorneys meet the top reporters and editors who cover their issues?  Contact us today to start a conversation with one of The SolutionPR’s principals.

Creating Thought Leaders through Penned Article Placement

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THE ISSUE

A number of anti-dumping orders had been placed on a wide variety of raw materials imported from China.  A client was concerned that U.S. import companies, not Chinese producers/exporters were actually going to bear the brunt of that exorbitant cost due to these orders.

THE STRATEGY

Because the metals in question were used by a variety of industries we were able to reach out to editors at multiple targeted publications all over the United States. We tweaked and catered our pitch to underscore our client’s expertise to fit multiple industries. We also took this opportunity to contact print and online reporters at top-tier business publications to highlight his thought-leadership on this timely topic to generate interview interest.

OUR RESULTS

We heard from editors all over the country at an array of publications.  They all asked for penned articles from our client. Because the industries were all different, he was able to write a variety of versions of his article based on each publications’ audience. The publications interested were:

  • ICIS Chemical Business,
  • BreakBulk Magazine,
  • Risk Management Magazine,
  • Industry Week,
  • Recycling Today,
  • Transport Topics,
  • Electronics Supply and Manufacturing,
  • Furniture World, Air Cargo World,
  • Waterways Journal,
  • Business Excellence Online Magazine,
  • Business Excellence,
  • New York Law Journal.

Additionally, we set-up interviews for individual stories with Information Week, and Supply Chain Brain.  He continues to be seen as the foremost expert and thought-leader in his area of law.

CREATING THOUGHT LEADERS!

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Labor Department Finalizes New Overtime Rule CASE STUDY

More American workers were going to be eligible for overtime pay under a rule finalized in May 2016 by the Department of Labor. The rule said anyone who makes less than $47,476 per year must receive time-and-a-half pay if they work more than 40 hours a week, doubling the previous threshold of $23,660.

We worked with a Labor and Employment attorney who was following this issue closely. A few days prior to the rule being finalized, we had him draft comments about what the new rule would mean for employers. We pitched those comments out to our national, international, state, and trade industry news media contacts covering labor and employment issues. Below are the comments that reporters and editors received:

COMMENTS TO MEDIA

“All companies realize that many more workers will have to track their time worked than before, and that raises the possibility of claims by workers that they are not being paid for all the time worked. This may lead to more wage hour claims by workers, which are a major concern for employers because of double damages provisions and attorney’s fees awards,” he says.

“Keeping track of hours worked is sometimes harder than it might appear. Punching a time clock is not required, yet employers are required to keep accurate records. How do you track the time required to read and respond to emails sent at all hours, or to answer calls outside of normal work hours? The answer, it appears, is very carefully, or you should expect to be sued,” he says.

” He also identifies at least five options for companies to consider for those workers who are currently exempt but whose salary falls below the new minimum:

  • Increase salary level to maintain the exemption (and not worry about overtime).
  • Divide current salary by 40 hours and switch to hourly (and worry about overtime).
  • Convert from salaried to hourly based on actual hours worked, so the net cost is the same (requires reliable information about hours worked and final pay will vary with hours worked).
  • Convert from salaried exempt to salaried non-exempt, and pay overtime for excess hours.
  • Fluctuating Work Week: Salary is for all hours worked, including overtime (special rules apply),” he says.

Over the course of that week and the next two months, we received numerous interview requests for this attorney as well as penned article requests. We spent time media training the attorney for print and broadcast interviews before he spoke with reporters, helped him fine tune articles, and managed media requests. The week that the rule was finalized some reporters were on such a tight deadline that they simply lifted his comments from our first pitch to save time.

The earned media from this pitch resulted in more than 305 media placements.

MEDIA PLACEMENTS

  • The Washington Post
  • The New York Times
  • CNBC Online
  • The Associated Press
  • McClatchy Newspapers
  • Fox News
  • CFO Online (penned article)
  • Westlaw Journal Employment (penned article)
  • The Miami Herald
  • The Seattle Times
  • ABC News
  • SHRM Online
  • Canadian Press
  • US News & World Report
  • NBC News Online
  • Denver Post
  • Minneapolis Star Tribune
  • Colorado Springs Gazette
  • Yahoo News
  • Fort Worth Business
  • Ottawa Citizen
  • Employment Law Daily
  • Canadian Business
  • SFGate

Creating Thought Leaders and Sought-After Experts Case Study

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Executive Order to Review Clean Water Act

The morning President Trump signed an Executive Order to review the Clean Water Act we contacted an attorney who specializes in environmental issues involving water. He agreed to compose brief comments about the order and the impact it could have on regulations.

The client was able to get those comments to us within a half hour of the Executive Order being issued. We sent those comments to media covering the White House, environment, and other industry reporters across the United States. Below are the comments that reporters and editors received:

COMMENTS TO MEDIA

“The Executive Order itself acknowledges that the Administration cannot, by mere action of the President, roll back the WOTUS rule. Rather, the only procedural method for rescinding or revising the rule is through notice and comment rulemaking under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, which could take years. In addition, unless a court invalidates the WOTUS rule first, an attempt by the Trump Administration to rescind or revise the rule will require EPA and Corps to justify its decisions. And if the Trump Administration rescinds the existing WOTUS and promulgates a replacement, that action will be subject to a challenge in the courts,” he said.

“To act more quickly, the Trump Administration could use the budget process to block the WOTUS rule’s implementation. For example, if the courts lift the WOTUS rule stay or uphold the rule, the Administration’s budget for EPA and the Corps could propose to withhold funds for implementation. If Congress agrees, the budget could effectively prevent federal agencies from implementing the WOTUS rule while the Administration undertakes the lengthy effort to rescind or revise the rule,” he said.

Shortly after sending the pitch, we received calls from reporters looking to set up interviews with our client immediately because they were on tight deadlines. Additionally, we received a request from The Hill for our client to write an op-ed on the issue that would be published later that week. We spent the day setting up and scheduling interviews between our client and reporters as well as answering follow-up questions. We also worked with our client on the op-ed request helping him format the article correctly for the publication. In addition, other media outlets simply picked up his comments and ran them because they were on tight deadlines. The following day, we continued to receive interview requests from reporters working on stories that would explore the issue in more detail.

The earned media from this pitch resulted in more than 167 media placements.

MEDIA PLACEMENTS

  • The Associated Press
  • The Washington Post
  • The Hill (requested an op-ed)
  • Seattle Post Intelligencer
  • Pittburgh Post Gazette
  • Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  • St. Louis Post Dispatch
  • Salt Lake Tribune
  • Colorado Springs Gazette
  • Ottawa Citizen
  • Boston Herald
  • Yahoo Finance
  • New Zealand Herald
  • Bismarck Tribune
  • AP Financial News
  • Law360
  • Lincoln Journal Star
  • Yahoo! Voices
  • Storm Water Solutions
  • Water and Waste Digest
  • Water Quality Products

TURNING OUR CLIENTS INTO THOUGHT LEADERS AND SOUGHT AFTER EXPERTS

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Publishing Penned Articles – Case Study

We have a 98% rate of getting our clients published in key publications for their prospect audiences. We work with editors to interest them in publishing written articles by our attorney clients, oftentimes, resulting in more than one publications interested in an article. Clients enjoy the increased SEO presence from their published articles which also often get republished in blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter. Their articles underscore their expertise to the media and are helpful to internal Marcomm teams reaching out to prospects.

As an example, we were working with an attorney that specializes in antidumping. He had noticed that a number of antidumping orders had been placed on numerous raw materials coming out of China including specialty metals. These metals are used by a variety of industries so we were able to contact editors regarding an article abstract at multiple targeted publications across several industries. He received requests to write the article from editors at several different industry publications. Because of this, he was able to write different versions of the article based on the publications’ audience. The media interest he received from this ONE article abstract pitch is listed below.

MEDIA INTEREST IN ARTICLE

  • ICIS Chemical Business
  • BreakBulk Magazine
  • Risk Management Magazine
  • Industry Week Online
  • Recycling Today
  • Transport Topics
  • Electronics Supply and Manufacturing
  • Furniture World
  • Air Cargo World
  • Waterways Journal
  • Business Excellence Online Magazine

Building Media Relationships

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coming soon