Actual case studies with award-winning results...   BUSINESS BEAT NEWS TIP SHEET - "BEST CORP. COMMUNICATIONS," Said PRSA "Best Corporate Communications, Nonprofit " “The Business Beat News Tip Sheet™” Objectives: The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) asked MAYO Communications to design a corporate communications program that would foster a better understanding and awareness of the LAEDC as a whole. The ongoing program would educate the media and the media would in turn educate its target audience. Another objective was to help attract new corporations to join the 501 (c) nonprofit organization, whose mission is to attract and retain jobs and businesses in Southern California. Target Audiences: Our primary audience was the business print, TV and radio media in Southern California. Our secondary audience was the public and any business and nonprofit organizations that could benefit from LAEDC’s membership services. Implementation: MAYO first designed a template and masthead for a new electronic newsletter called The Business Beat News Tip Sheet™ (BB), which would be edited and distributed by MAYO Communications monthly – and more often when needed – to the media only. Due to the business supported and bureaucratic structure of LAEDC, we composed and produced the BB’s vision and mission as well as media story guidelines so there would be no misunderstanding amongst senior management, staff and membership. We knew it would be a struggle internally, because something of this nature had never been tried before; it was a big risk to membership and we would face the challenges of some micro-management. We first sought approval from top management and when we made our presentation to senior staff we were already a hit due to our innovative ideas and past successful media programs. Everyone bought into the concept and agreed to follow the guidelines of the BB. One way we ensured the new communications vehicle would move forward without impediment was by having one or two top managers, namely Chief Economist Jack Kyser or Wally Baker, review and sign off on the BB to meet media deadline pressures. To improve corporate communications internally we worked with each regional manager to encourage them to provide story ideas from their five regions that included Long Beach, San Bernardino, San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Orange County and Downtown Los Angeles. We also persuaded the World Trade Center Association of Long Beach and Los Angeles to contribute stories of regional business interest. The vision was to make the BB corporate communications vehicle a first stop resource for economic information, public policy and business news in Southern California. The mission was that the BB would be an external e-newsletter provided to all media outlets, not intended as a member’s communications resource. It would contain a one-page menu of interesting news tips for the media about LAEDC, its business partners, consulting projects, studies, member stories, events, promotions and special resources provided by LAEDC. We came up with several designs and used colorful graphics to match the LAEDC logos, letterhead, business cards and even parts of their website. In fact, some links accessed continually updated information on the LAEDC website, so even though the e-newsletter was published at least monthly, the information links were updated more frequently. The BB was hosted on an outside Internet server by a company in Texas that charged about $200 a month to host and allowed MAYO to manage and monitor the hits, readership and subscriptions. The service also offered live interactive polls so if we wanted to take a quick survey of a topical issue we could do it at a moment’s notice with instant results online. The BB’s template also included a subscription box for writers, freelancers and journalists, including the broadcast media in California. For subscribers, the BB would be converted to html, text or AOL formats so it would arrive in a writer’s or reporter’s inbox fully formatted within the body of the email immediately upon the BB’s publication. We were instantly notified whenever a reporter or writer subscribed or unsubscribed to the BB so we could track interest in LAEDC. Budget: The budget for the entire campaign was $40,000 for 11 months, which included phone calls, faxes, printing and news advisories and news releases announcing the Business Beat News Tip Sheet™. It also included follow-up media calls and interviews after stories were published. Results: At first there was some resistance from top to bottom within LAEDC and information from regional managers only trickled in slowly each month. But after we began attending the regional managers meetings religiously each month to build confidence and credibility in the Business Beat, regional managers started calling with story ideas, some at the same time, with successful story angles the media had not covered. Releasing media tips in the BB got us to try a couple new media relations tactics that worked – after calling business editors in a specific region and asking them if they would be interested in a story, not only did they start working on the story that afternoon, but they also subscribed to the BB and asked their supporting staff to do the same. Every month we would contact new business writers and ask them how we could improve the news tip sheet – what they liked and disliked. We received very few complaints, but many comments along the lines of “I like the short menu and story sheet idea.” The first month we had about a dozen subscribers. The second month the e-newsletter and tip sheet grew to 50 business editors, writers and freelance reporters. Each month subscriptions jumped. Nearly one year later subscriptions for the Business Beat News Tip Sheet™ increased to a whopping 801 subscribed writers, reporters, producers and editors of the print and broadcast media in California alone. In 11 months only a half dozen writers unsubscribed, but it was because they were editors of their own competing nonprofit internal or external newsletters. Media calls according to LAEDC increased 50 percent to 1,700 calls for media interviews in 11 months. Membership grew seven percent during a sluggish economy in 2003, however throughout that same period a majority of the members, both new and old, complimented the LAEDC on its Business Beat program and the media placements that followed. Often the BB would be sent to executive board members after its distribution to the media, and they would see first hand the next day or within the week that an article directly resulted from a news story placed in the BB. At least one and sometimes three stories would consistently be covered in the Los Angeles Times Business section, Los Angeles Daily News or the Los Angeles Business Journal. According to the Texas service where the BB is hosted, the communication program was the only one of its kind in the nation among the 33,000 newsletters hosted on its servers. MAYO Communications was asked if the company could use the BB as a good example of corporate communications online. At the annual membership board meeting LAEDC CEO & President Lee Harrington said it was the most profitable year for LAEDC and its membership rolls. He also spotlighted MAYO Communications for boosting awareness and media calls. LAEDC renewed its contract with MAYO Communications for another year with a much larger budget for PR.      Leslie Appleton-Young, V. P.  Chief Economist California Assn. of Realtors Media Placement - Print   "Recapturing The Dream For The LA Region" Overview:   The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) was set to release the 2005-2006 LAEDC Economic Forecast for the LA region at the end of January, and they worried that the media frenzy around Michael Jackson’s pretrial hearings and stories would bury the forecast. They also worry about constant breaking news with the War in Iraq and other high profile region stories.     This year’s forecast and event was different, because LAEDC had broken down the study in two phases. “Recapturing The Dream-A winning strategy for the LA Region” and the “2005-2006 LAEDC Economic Forecast.”    Objectives:   Our client wanted a double media punch for both studies, but combine in the same month. The idea and objective was to get advanced media coverage for the first phase, and tease the second phase with an event one week later, analyzing everything from Tourism, Housing and the Economy with an economic panel discussing the forecast on the day of the event somewhere downtown. Their objective was to get the media to obtain the results of both phases of the study at the same time and cover both events individually, including the event on day of the release, which was Wednesday, January 19th, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. and the Forecast would be released one week later, January 26. The event was held at the Colburn School of Performing Arts Auditorium in the heart of the business district in downtown L.A.    Target Audiences:   Our primary audience was the print, TV and radio media in Southern California and the local public. Our secondary audience was the business community, Southern California regional political officials, especially the mayor of Los Angeles, and other communities and business organizations.     Implementation:   Acting on recommendations from MAYO Communications staff, LAEDC agreed to set up advanced interviews and perform interviews for two hours at the LAEDC office on the day of the release of the first phase of the study that talks about what LA business and political community needs to do to keep business thriving in the LA Region. We narrow the subjects to hot button issues such as housing, transportation, runaway movie production, Aerospace, International Trade and Tourism.     MAYO knew that Michael Jackson was in an out of court for hearings and there were several other national stories dominating the news, so our timing had to be perfect. Due to the lateness and availability of Joel Kotkin, co-author of the winning strategy phase I study, we dropped the idea of a news conference to allow radio media to do telephone interviews, and print and TV to come by and interview at their convenience since all media were under drive time afternoon deadline pressure, and breaking news always prevails. To entice the media we put refreshments would be served and even used it in our pitches over the phone: “If you got time drop by and pick up a copy of the study, and grab a doughnut, juice, snack and cup of coffee at our conference.” We’ll probably have a few sandwich’s leftover, too.”   For the second phase and staged event at the downtown auditorium, we had to work harder to get the media to come. We convinced one cable station Channel 34 to video tape the whole event and sell the video to various participants, including the LAEDC.  They liked the idea, made arrangements and we offered to have video b-roll from the event for TV stations that could make it. We also put out an advisory for the event, and as guests were confirmed we would update it and send it out again to the SoCal regional media. Again, even in the written and verbal pitches we teased the fact that we would have a great continental breakfast at the Colburn Performing Arts Center, and there would be audio and video hookups for TV and radio crews. We also pitched the idea of doing advanced interviews right before the event and during breaks.      We knew is important to have a Spanish speaking media person at both events: news availability and at the auditorium downtown. Aida Mayo, president of our company pitched and handled media interviews with Univision, Telemundo and LA Opinion, Hoy, and other Hispanic media outlets, because neither Joel Kotkin nor Chief Economist Jack Kyser, who wrote the 2005-2006 Economic Forecast could speak Spanish. We knew if we pitched that extra person it was draw the Hispanic media outlets. We also found it effective to summarize both thick studies into a two page news release for the media. For the Entertainment media such as Variety or The Hollywood Reporter We would only pitched the “Runaway movie production issues and updates” to them.    Budget:   The budget for the entire campaign was $3,600, which included phone calls, faxes, printing, media kits, news advisories and news releases. It also included follow-up media calls, Internet news website postings and interviews after the news conference. There was no budget for clipping services.   Results:   Despite the competing media coverage of rainstorms, mudslides, largest Iraq soldier toll, and the worst fatal train wreck in the country that left 200 injured and 11 dead, MAYO Communications earned more than a million dollars in media coverage and exposure for The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation’s two-phase studies in less than a two week period. In less than one week both studies in two different stories appeared on the front page of Los Angeles Daily News.     Three days before the first phase for news vailability talking about winning strategy in anticipation of the actual forecast and event we had only a few people sign up for interviews. We called and reminded everyone we had pitched especially the print media. One day before the phone rang off the hook from mostly print media wanting advance copies of the studies and to line up interviews either in person or on the phone with both Joel Kotkin and Jack Kyser. The “winning strategy” was broadcast on all major news radio and public radio stations and several TV stations carried the story. CNN radio network carried both study results, and ran the story globally on the day of the release of the study.    The second phase or actual Forecast event started as a disaster, because it was the first rain a long time (drizzle is big news in LA) and a half hour before our event a METROLINK train crash head-on with a loaded Burlington-Northern freight train, derailing injuring several hundred and left some dead. Most of the TV stations bolted for the nation’s worst commuter train crash. We still have TV coverage and some stations came after event to do interviews. The biggest surprise was from the LA Times, which RSVP 12 reporters, including the editorial board, mostly senior writers for the first and second wave of coverage assigning individual reporters on housing, economy, tourism and movie production. The second wave of coverage was bigger than the first, because part of the story was only one week old, and reporters were able to find the first phase study results on Internet news sites, a precursor to the Forecast and event downtown. They also downloaded the Forecast in advanced and used our two page news release to bounce off questions over the phone or in person. LA times covered various aspects of the studies and event, and even the Op-Ed wrote comments into their columns.       The story was carried by most of the news wire services including City News Services, Associated Press, UPI and even Voice of America attended the event. MAYO Communications exceeded the LAEDC’s expectations in less than two weeks time to pitch both complicated studies using tactics on the Internet and traditional old fashion media relations work, picking up the phone and calling rechecking to be sure the media knew about and made everything accessible and easy to cover. We also provided images and video b-roll for stations that dropped by late, which several crews appreciated. The Forecast was covered throughout California and was picked up by hundreds of newspapers nationally after the stories rolled on the AP Newspaper wire. The stories were published in places as far away as Boston, NY to Chicago and globally on CNN and Voice of America. "Best Public Education" said PRSA “Wal-Mart Supercenters – The Economic Impact” Objectives: The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) was planning to release an economic impact study on a move to allow Wal-Mart Inc. to open 40 “Supercenters” – upsized stores that sell the retailer's general offerings alongside a full-service grocery operation – in Southern California. The company said it could save consumers money and create new jobs in the region. LAEDC needed to educate the public about this issue that could potentially affect every community in California, especially Southern California. Wal-Mart, which paid for the $65,000 study, felt it would be less biased and more fairly reported if public education campaign and media distribution was handled by LAEDC’s agency of record, MAYO Communications. Wal-Mart’s decision to release the study was based on the fact that its results had more pros than cons as far as the economic impact on California’s economy was concerned. Previously the communities were not well informed on the issues and much of the media coverage was unbalanced and negative toward Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, LAEDC and MAYO agreed that there was a better chance of getting out a balanced perspective on the true impacts of Supercenters coming to California if LAEDC and MAYO educated the public through the media. Target Audiences: Our primary audience was the print, TV and radio media in Southern California and the local public. Our secondary audience was the skeptical labor groups, California mayors, especially the mayor of Los Angeles, and other community and anti-Wal-Mart groups. Implementation: “Wal-Mart” had already become an emotional word in the media and public, accused of eliminating jobs and busting unions with lower wages. On our recommendation, after LAEDC completed the study, Wal-Mart decided that LAEDC’s PR firm, MAYO Communications, should release the study findings as the firm always does with the corporation’s other studies. LAEDC has a reputation of being neutral, credible and consistently delivering accurate and useful data to the media and public. Additionally, Chief Economist and Vice President Jack Kyser, LAEDC, has a good image and reputation with the media. Director (now Vice President) Greg Freeman, Public Policy, LAEDC, who authored the Wal-Mart study with a team of economists, including Kyser, went over it with a fine-toothed comb. We pounded out Wal-Mart talking points and counseled them on the media. MAYO received word that the labor unions were trying to get a hold of the study to hold their own news conference criticizing it before its release. MAYO decided to work out of the box – instead of going the usual route of allowing the media to review the 42-page study in advance, we decided to release it the morning of January 27, 2004, at a news conference at LAEDC headquarters in order to control message points and minimize the affects of any negative predispositions against Wal-Mart. To allow the media access to Greg Freeman and any of the team of economists, we held a news conference and remained available to answer questions and provide Wal-Mart contact information should questions about the company itself arise. Our strategy team agreed that we would only respond to questions surrounding our client’s study results, keeping news conference focused on the economic impact data and away from any anti Wal-Mart sentiment. As a further protective measure, we limited the news conference to credentialed media who RSVP’d for the event. This allowed us to eliminate the possibility of protestors or anti Wal-Mart hecklers. At the news conference we announced that there would be a short statement from study author Greg Freeman followed by a question and answer time, after which the media could sign up for one-on-one interviews with Freeman and other economists on hand. Due to so many high profile stories occurring locally and nationally, not to mention the War on Terrorism and Iraq War, we decided to hire freelance photographer Rena Macure, who worked part time for the Associated Press, to help get images out to newspapers that could not attend but wanted a high resolution image. We were also competing with an ongoing grocery strike in Southern California, an issue that some might attempt to use negatively toward Wal-Mart since the company was also trying to sell groceries in their new Supercenters. We made sure that the media knew that the study was launched about a month before the labor dispute and strike even began. Also, we informed them that the study found that for every job lost due to a Supercenter’s arrival in a city, it created seven new ones and it could literally save each resident in California $500 a year in groceries because of its lower prices. Budget: The budget for the entire campaign was $10,000, which included phone calls, faxes, printing, media kits, news advisories and news releases. It also included follow-up media calls and interviews after the news conference. We were under budget and there were no surprises or financial challenges. Results: Only a handful of media called to reserve a spot at the news conference the night before, but by the time the news conference started we ran out of media kits for the standing room only crowd. The media, including Lou Dobbs, CNN, and Jeff Daniels, producer of CNBC, each wanted one-on-one interviews with study author Greg Freeman after the news conference. It was so busy that the other economists who reviewed and contributed to the study also did media interviews; sometimes there were three or four separate media interviews happening simultaneously in offices and suites throughout the building. The media interviews went longer than the one hour news conference. Upon returning to the office numerous reporters and writers from publications all over California and the nation had called saying they wanted the study and an interview. Days after the event radio stations, including KCRW and KPCC, asked to have Greg Freeman on live to debate the issue of Wal-Mart developing in other cities throughout Southern California. Then when the first Supercenter opened in the Palm Springs, CA area, again the phone rang off the hook for reaction and comment. Media interest mushroomed and continued to have legs through May and June. The LAEDC study results continued to pop up nationally in other states when Wal-Mart pros and cons were debated, with study results being used in stories from the Wall Street Journal to Time Magazine. Writers who covered the story found that most of the pros outweighed the cons in having 40 Supercenters locate in California. While Wal-Mart worried that labor union representatives and Wal-Mart opposition leaders would question and criticize the study, the only negative media comment came from the Los Angeles Times, which sent two reporters and was upset that they did not receive the study in advance. Our response was that Wal-Mart chose not to give the media an advance copy. MAYO created such a positive statewide buzz with the campaign that it caught a lot of politicians, the opposition and the media off guard. The reason was that we chose not to hype the report, stating only that the Wal-Mart study was ready to be disclosed and there would be a news conference announcing its results. Six months later, MAYO continued to receive calls from the media asking for a copy of the study and Greg Freeman’s availability to comment on Wal-Mart issues in other cities, not only in California, but nationwide. Even though the LA Times was critical at first, the paper reported fairly in two more stories, covering both sides of the issue – which did not happen before. Its major competition, the Los Angeles Daily News, profiled our story on the front page of its business section. Wal-Mart was so pleased with the results, they’ve asked LAEDC to do another study, but this time studying the economic impact on surrounding businesses in Southern California. Stay tuned.       "Best Media Placement,Print" said PRSA  “Terror On The Tracks – Homeland Security” Objectives: To produce a news release, media kit and campaign that would help create a media buzz surrounding the release of the Orange North-American Trade Rail Access Corridor (OnTrac) Homeland Security Study on threats to our rail system. The study was commissioned and published in cooperation with OnTrac and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), both MAYO Communications clients. The study was completed as part of the environmental review process for the Alameda Corridor East strategic rail system that passes through Placentia, California. It was reviewed by Rand Corporation with contributions from Counterterrorism Expert Elsa Lee. Our clients wanted to send word to the White House that the LA basin rail corridor for the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports to the East Coast are vulnerable to terrorist attacks and more security is needed to guard the $250 billion route. Another objective was to inform and pique the interest of Congress on the national significance of rail system protection and its importance when it comes to homeland security. We needed to show how critical it is to allocate more federal funds to secure our rail system. And our final objective was to show Congress, the media and the public the economic impact the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports have on every congressional district in the country. Target Audiences: Our primary audience was the print, TV and radio media in Orange County where OnTrac is based, Southern California and the rest of the country. Our secondary audience was the public, California legislature, Congress and committee members overseeing transportation funds in Sacramento and Washington DC. Another audience would also be the large and small businesses economically impacted by Homeland Security rail threats. Implementation: Several weeks before the two-year anniversary of 9/11, MAYO Communications was called by its client, Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) to get the message out about the relationship between rail corridors, ports, the economy and the nation’s first Homeland Security study involving threats to the rail system. MAYO produced a press release, media kit and full campaign to communicate OnTrac’s, the Rand Corporation’s, Counterterrorism Expert Elsa Lee’s and LAEDC’s position to Congress and federal transportation officials, hoping to influence the transportation decision-making process. Of the four agencies involved in the study, three were MAYO clients: LAEDC, OnTrac, and Advantage SCI (Elsa Lee, counterterrorism expert) of Redondo Beach, CA. We also posted everything on LAEDC’s and MAYO’s websites. We had to work fast because we knew much of the media attention and stories were already focusing on 9/11 anniversary stories in New York, taking most attention away from Los Angeles. A strong, intriguing news release was an essential ingredient to success. The OnTrac study was complex, chock full of statistics and, at least on the surface, didn’t have the make up for a very “sexy” media story. We pressed on, however, banking on the idea that the West Coast media might be looking for local 9/11 anniversary angles and that our first-time study on threats to the rail system could be the answer. We produced news release focused on homeland security and rail terrorism, backgrounders on OnTrac and an executive summary of the study for the media kits. In order to create interest surrounding the release of the study results, MAYO decided to break the study into hot button issues and attempt to reach our objectives through a terrorism-in-America approach. We posted all announcements on our clients’ and our own websites. MAYO first issued an advisory announcing the study’s coming availability and that it would be posted on our website. Then we released the Executive Summary of the Homeland Security study results two weeks in advance of the 9/11 anniversary to media that honored embargoes and set up interviews in advance of the release date to secure media placement and beat the competing stories of Michael Jackson, the Laci Peterson murder case, the California wildfires and other disaster stories in California. We also put the study results in an e-newsletter called The Business Beat News Tip Sheet™ that had a broad reach to nearly 1,000 business editors statewide. MAYO and LAEDC staff worked nonstop for two weeks putting out advisories and news releases announcing the study results’ eminent release. We were on the radio nearly every day. We learned from our client Counterrorism Expert Elsa Lee that the study was so true-to-form and “frightening” that MAYO and LAEDC should not post the entire study on the Internet, but only an executive summary. The media kits also did not contain the entire study. The fear of terrorism was brought more to light each time the newly formed US Department of Homeland Security’s terrorism threat advisory was raised to a higher security level. Budget: The budget for the entire campaign was $5,000, which included phone calls, faxes, printing media kits, news advisories and news releases. Because we had a lot materials already printed from previous campaigns, we were able to actually complete the campaign well under budget at $3,600. Results: What started out as a little media and public buzz in Orange County to communicate the significance of OnTrac’s Homeland Security Study and rail system project mushroomed into something much larger. Interest picked up right before September 11th. On the night before and the day of the embargoed study release the mellow buzz quickly spun into full-fledged media frenzy with great media placement. These results could be directly linked to how we capitalized on the high-profile events at the LA/Long Beach ports and localized a story that was considered mainly a New York story. The story continued to get legs again six months later when Spain experienced its deadliest terrorist attack ever with a train bomb injuring more than 1,000 people and killing 200. Again we used the news release and media kits from our original 9/11 release. The overwhelming results surprised everyone from the White House to lawmakers in California and even LA City Hall, where there was a move to draw attention to its newly formed Homeland Security Department. Not only did we receive inquiries from every major newspaper in California, but major publications nationwide such as the Washington Post, Journal Commerce, and Engineering News in Washington DC. Just days after the Spain bombings all eyes, including those of Congress, began to examine the vulnerability of America’s rail system. Our phones rang off the hook. The wire services and others distributed the story to newspapers nationwide. Copley News Service, Knight-Ridder and other media outlets generated expanded coverage. We were even able to capture the interest of President Bush and more members of Congress. LAEDC and OnTrac received positive calls from the legislature and California’s Congressional delegation saying the economic impact study was the talk of the town and had influenced several transportation decision makers to take a closer look at the OnTrac Homeland Security Study and review the significance of import/export relationships between rail corridors, ports and the economy. Much of the information in the study was used as a guide to write new legislation on Homeland Security. All were pleased that the news release brought incredible coverage and effectiveness of the news release and project, and proud of the fact that we were able to perform so successfully well under budget for our clients, which included LAEDC, OnTrac and Advantage SCI and Counterterrorism Expert Lee.