Year: 2012

What does a PR Agency Do? Case Study for Real Estate PR

Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Marketing, Public Relations, , , , , , ,

People commonly ask us what a PR agency does. We thought the best way to answer that question would be to share case studies from our work that was recently recognized at the North Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (NCPRSA) InSpire Awards. Clairemont won 14 InSpire Awards, and we hope that this “Award Winning Wednesday” blog series will inspire you, too!

EMS station dedication ceremony

Client: LStar Management

Situation Analysis: When the original developer of Edenmoor went bankrupt, it left behind an unfinished master-planned community. With 68 families living there, but no developer to finish the construction or maintain what had been built, roads began to collapse, the clubhouse was vandalized and residents grew concerned about the increasing safety hazards.

The demise of Edenmoor was widely reported in local media. The extent of the negative coverage was reason for concern when new developer, LStar Management, purchased the community. Could LStar overcome the stigmas associated with the neighborhood brought on by its predecessor, convince media that the company had the expertise and financial backing to turn around this failed community and attract builders to start constructing homes again? With the new ownership going into effect in October, LStar turned to Clairemont for help in securing neutral to positive media coverage and improving the perception of the community by the end of the year, allowing for less than three months to make progress.

Objectives: Based on extensive primary and secondary research and a timeframe of less than three months, our objectives were very straightforward, as follows:

  1. Build an arsenal of communications materials prior to the property acquisition announcement.
  2. Secure at least five neutral or positive news articles by year’s end.
  3. Establish a social media presence prior to a mid-December ribbon-cutting ceremony.
  4. Recruit 10 homebuilders interested in buying and building on lots in the community.

Execution:

Communications Materials: Clairemont conducted a messaging session with the community development team in order to devise a message board to guide all communications. We also crafted a fact sheet, a Q&A document and backgrounders, as well as event and pitch-specific media kits.

Acquisition Closing Announcement: While there had been media speculation about LStar’s acquisition of Edenmoor, Clairemont advised LStar to wait until the deal closed before publicly disclosing details. Skeptical about how reporters might respond given the negative coverage we uncovered during the media audit, our pitches directly addressed their previously reported concerns. Our goal was to receive neutral and unbiased coverage. We were pleasantly surprised at the reporters’ positive reactions. Headlines told the story of the community getting a “facelift” and a “second chance” from the new owners. Our client’s favorite story referred to LStar as the white horse.

EMS Dedication + Name Change: Following on the success of our first announcement, six weeks later Clairemont helped LStar host a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony for a new EMS station that the developer donated to the county. Once at the event, residents and media were surprised with even more news, as we unveiled the new name, Walnut Creek, and brand identity to go along with all of the improvements being made in the community. The response was overwhelmingly positive with media coverage continuing along with a transformation and renewal theme, and LStar receiving accolades at the event from residents, county officials and media for the impressive amount of progress it had made in improving the community in a short period of time.

Social Media: In order to keep residents, potential homebuyers, builders, real estate brokers and media informed about Walnut Creek, Clairemont established a Walnut Creek Facebook page and Twitter feed. We devised a blog strategy and editorial calendar, to start in 2012.

Evaluation:

Our results directly correlate to our objectives, as follows:

1. Build an arsenal of communications materials prior to the property acquisition announcement.

  • Clairemont created key messages, a fact sheet, backgrounders and other materials to support LStar, delivered on time prior to the closing announcement.

2. Secure at least five neutral or positive news articles by year’s end.

  • Clairemont secured 14 positive news stories between Oct. 31 and the end of 2011. By issuing our media releases on BusinessWire, the two announcements also received 1,272 online views.

3. Establish a social media presence prior to a mid-December ribbon-cutting ceremony.

  • Per our client-approved timeline, Clairemont set up and launched Facebook and Twitter for Walnut Creek in conjunction with the event.  A new blog was launched in January.

4. Recruit 10 homebuilders interested in buying and building on lots in the community.

  • As a result of the positive news coverage, LStar has been contacted by several builders interested in constructing new homes in Walnut Creek. One builder has already started construction, and 14 more are undergoing LStar’s stringent homebuilder application process.

LStar recognizes that the first three months of community and public interaction under its new ownership were critical to its rebranding and reputation management efforts and attribute the early success to Clairemont. As a result, Clairemont has been retained as the agency of record for Walnut Creek in 2012.

What did you think of this public relations case study? Was it helpful? We’re here to answer any questions you may have!

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How to Write Convincing Calls-to-Action Copy

Josephine ButlerBlog, Marketing, Public Relations, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Like we’ve mentioned before, one of the ways that Clairemont team members work on professional development is by reading. We’re constantly seeking the latest and greatest when it comes to social media and public relations. Without further ado, here’s a review of our most recent find: an e-book from Hubspot entitled, “Mastering the Design and Copy of Calls-to-Action.”

When it comes to click-through rates, lead conversions and sales, good writing practices are important. Public relations professionals must master the art of calls-to-action (CTAs), a website’s request for a visitor to take action (think of the copy that precedes a “Like us”).

While we’d really love to write the copy for you (seriously, contact us!), we’d also like to share a few tips on how to write your own compelling CTAs. They are:

  • Start with subjects and verbs. It helps readers to quickly understand the meaning of the sentence and what you’re asking them to do. Never forget to include a verb – if you do, you aren’t prompting any action!
  • Include numbers. This way, you can be specific about what you’re offering. Research proves that CTAs with numerical data have high view rates.
  • Use adverbs sparingly. They have no fixed position in a sentence and are the part of speech that gets the fewest number of shares on Twitter.
  • Keep your CTA between 90-150 characters. In true Twitter fashion, your CTAs should also stay within the 140-character limit. It’s always better to be short, concise and to the point!
  • Stay away from technical lingo. If you had to look it up, your reader probably will have to do the same. Instead, use words like “insights,” “analysis,” “answers,” etc. These words suggest that your content can help improve your reader in some way.
  • Be specific. Instead of the vague “click here” or “submit” button, try being more upfront about what it is that you want your reader to do (i.e. “browse,” “compare,” or “grab”).

We hope you found these tips helpful. Stay tuned as we continue to share more best practices in the weeks to come. In the meantime, be sure to share your questions and comments. We’d love to help!

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What Does A PR Agency Do? Event Marketing, Media Relations, Social Media

Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, , , , , , , , , ,

People commonly ask us what a PR agency does. We thought the best way to answer that question would be to share case studies from our work that was recently recognized at the North Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (NCPRSA) InSpire Awards. Clairemont won 14 InSpire Awards, and we hope that this “Award Winning Wednesday” blog series will inspire you, too!

Jonathan Bloom, author of “American Wasteland,” speaks to a group of Earth Day attendees.

Client: Briar Chapel

Situation Analysis: Opened in 2008, Briar Chapel is the largest master-planned green community in North Carolina and a division of Newland Communities, the country’s most prominent privately held residential real estate developer. In 2011, approximately 200 families called Briar Chapel home, leaving more than 2,100 lots available before the community reaches capacity. To embrace the interests of existing residents and potential homebuyers, as well as to honor the company’s commitment to support the larger communities around its developments, Briar Chapel relied on Clairemont Communications to help implement a community relations program as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Objectives: Based on extensive primary and secondary research, Clairemont devised a plan to focus on three main community relations events for the year, designed to engage area residents with known topics of interest while benefiting The Abundance Foundation, a local charity that supports sustainable foods and fuels. Objectives included the following:

  • Demonstrate Briar Chapel’s continued commitment to supporting the larger community, predominately in the areas of education, health/wellness and environmental protection by: a) increasing attendance at Briar Chapel’s annual Earth Day Celebration by 50 percent, b) adding an initiative to Earth Day to recruit area chefs to improve school lunches in the county and achieve a 10 percent increase in participation of the lunch program and c) creating and hosting a new signature event to bring at least 500 people on property to see newly opened areas of the community, while raising an additional $2,500 for charity.
  • Raise market awareness of Briar Chapel and its attributes that relate to the identified community interests by securing at least five local news stories about the community relations events.
  • Continue consistent social media outreach to support events and media relations.

Execution:

Event Marketing: With Briar Chapel’s designation as the largest green community in North Carolina, hosting an Earth Day event for the third year in a row was a natural fit. With existing community support and local media awareness of the event, we focused on new elements of Briar Chapel’s Earth Day Celebration. In order to generate excitement in advance of the event and to shed light on nutritional challenges school cafeterias face, the Chatham County Chef Challenge was born.

Building on the area’s growing interest in locally grown and healthy foods, the Chef Challenge was designed to debunk the myth about bad school lunches and educate the public about healthier choices. Local award-winning chefs created special recipes using only ingredients and cafeteria equipment available to the schools, while following USDA guidelines. They also held culinary workshops for the schools’ cafeteria staff so the recipes could become regular school lunch menu items budgeted at $1 per student and full of fruits and vegetables. The response from students was overwhelmingly positive with more than 85 percent voting to add the chefs’ recipes to their menus.

At Briar Chapel’s Earth Day Celebration, guests sampled the dishes made for the schools. Also new in 2011, Hunt for the Green engaged visitors in a smart phone QR code scavenger hunt through the model homes that hosted the chefs and the amenities of the property. Hunt for the Green educated guests and residents about sustainability. Back by popular demand, the Earth Day 5k Race attracted 130 runners, up from 100 in 2010. Designed to promote Briar Chapel’s focus on health and wellness and to feature its outdoor amenities, the race showcased Briar Chapel’s protected open spaces and extensive nature trails.

With the success of the Earth Day Celebration in the spring and a desire to create a fall signature event, Clairemont conceptualized OktoberBEST, a day of old-fashioned fun at Briar Chapel. Prizes were awarded throughout the day to backyard athletes, armchair athletes and canine athletes who came out to “give it their best” by participating in games that were staged in newly opened areas of the community. To maximize participation, we strategically scheduled and promoted OktoberBEST as the pre-event leading up to the Fourth Annual Pittsboro Pepper Festival, which was held in Briar Chapel’s newly opened Briar Commons Park later that afternoon. Both events benefited The Abundance Foundation.

Media Relations: With local media coverage being the most relevant to Briar Chapel, creative pitching and relying on our established relationships were a must since most media outlets feel like they have covered Briar Chapel as a community. We combated this challenge by crafting pitches around the events, and when possible, we focused on the students, the charity or participants in our events so that our pitches had more feature appeal. We pitched by phone, email and social media. We also submitted community calendar listings on media outlet websites to promote our events.

Social Media: Briar Chapel relied on Clairemont for social media strategy, training and support. We developed a 2011 editorial calendar for Briar Chapel’s blog, conducted research on post topics, prepared questions for blog interviewees and edited content. Additionally, we provided content direction for Briar Chapel’s Facebook page and Twitter stream, and helped develop a smart phone QR code scavenger hunt. Much of the content throughout the year focused on Briar Chapel’s community relations initiatives.

Evaluation: In direct correlation with our stated objectives above, our results were as follows:

  • We exceeded our goals by achieving a 100 percent Earth Day attendance increase (100 guests in 2010; 200 in 2011), boosting the school lunch participation program by 22 percent, attracting nearly 1,200 people to OktoberBEST and Pepper Festival, and increasing The Abundance Foundation donation by more than $3,500.
  • We surpassed our goal of five local news features by securing more than 10 stories in priority outlets such as News & Observer, Chapel Hill News, Triangle Business Journal, WUNC public TV and WCHL, as well as garnering coverage on several community-focused blogs.
  • We continued to leverage social media to support our primary objectives and increased the frequency of Briar Chapel’s blog posts from 45 in 2010 to 55 in 2011. Approximately 65 percent of those posts, as well as Briar Chapel’s Facebook updates and tweets, supported community relations initiatives. We also added a smart phone QR code contest to one of our events.

What did you think of this public relations case study? Was it helpful? We’re here to answer any questions you may have!

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What I Learned from Interning at a Raleigh PR Agency

Josephine ButlerBlog, Marketing, Professional Development, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, The Clairemont Team, , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments on What I Learned from Interning at a Raleigh PR Agency

Today was our ambitious high school (yes, you did read that correctly) graduate’s last day as a Clairemont intern. Before she leaves us, though, she wanted to share a few things that she learned during her internship here. Without further ado, Miss Erica Amatori…

Be sure to wish Erica luck as she leaves for the College of William & Mary on a track/cross country scholarship!

I was frantic the first morning of my summer internship at Clairemont Communications. What should I wear? It was going to be an important day! I was nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. I knew it would be way different than my strategic marketing class I took in high school, that’s for sure. But after the first day of getting to know Josie and Margot, I immediately felt like part of the Clairemont team.

Learning marketing in a class is one thing, but applying it to real life situations is another. During my internship, I was able to experience first-hand what it’s like to work at a public relations agency and make real contributions to clients (and my portfolio!).

Here are some key points I learned that I’d like to share with you:

  • Know your client well. In order to satisfy what they expect to be accomplished, one has to put a lot of research into getting to know the company and gain knowledge on their customers.
  • Before reaching out to the media, prepare. When I was asked to create a media list for a project, I quickly realized how important research would be in finding the right contacts at each outlet – all of this before we ever even made one phone call!
  • Even the smallest of tasks can make the biggest difference. When you’re working in PR it’s important to have the bigger picture, but it’s all the little things that get you there. Taking things step by step is sometimes the best way to tackle big tasks.
  • Be the sponge. Absorb all the information you can and put it to good use. In the future, all of the information I learned about PR and social media will help me become a more skilled employee.
  • Ask questions – it’s how you learn! Don’t ever be afraid to ask questions. An internship is a learning-based environment!
  • Network! In what is actually a small world, connections are everything. Networking provides mentors and working relationships. Did I mention that my high school teacher is good friends with Josie, and that’s how I heard about Clairemont?

My advice to other hopefuls who are striving for an internship: only set one goal – to succeed! Be prepared to learn and open your mind to new experiences that can advance your knowledge. Even though today is my last day, I was still wondering what I should wear and was just as nervous this morning…but it was a different kind of nervous. The kind where you knew you had to say your goodbyes, but you don’t want to leave!

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CNN + Facebook Politics

Margot HorganBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , ,

With campaign season gearing up, our intern Emily delved into how social media will change the presidential election — again (a la 2008). Enjoy!

In today’s age of ever-growing digital collaborations, CNN and Facebook are the newest digital duo. The pair has announced a new partnership including a Facebook app that focuses on users’ political stances during the 2012 election.

The partnership will have Facebook monitoring what people are saying about the election, in addition to a much anticipated “I’m voting” Facebook app. According to CNN and Facebook, the app will “enable people who use Facebook to commit to voting and endorse specific candidates and issues. Commitments to vote will be displayed on people’s Facebook timeline, news feed and real-time ticker.”

So what does this mean for the election, users, PR and advertising? For years, analysts have stressed the importance and necessity of young voters. Combing two of the biggest media brands, Facebook and CNN, has the potential to change the outcome of the election. Facebook’s overwhelming popularity with Millennials is astronomical, and research consistently shows that information uploaded to social media sites can influence people within each other’s networks and beyond.

With the possibility of millions of young adults using this app, users will be consequently displaying their voting preferences to a huge network of friends. Friends will now be able to see when and where each person is voting along with their political opinions. Even more so, this information will be compiled for larger surveys that will give the nation and candidates an idea of what constituents are thinking. Insights will provide candidates with crucial information surrounding what they should change about their campaigns. And, most importantly, the chance of a positive influence and calls-to-action for young adults to go vote is definitely a possible effect.

The partnership is also changing the landscape of campaign advertising. By default, a user will become even more of a grassroots advocate for candidates by sharing personal voting preferences with his networks. This unprecedented reach far exceeds the traditional scope of word-of-mouth when conveying political views. It even blows traditional social media reach out of the water. Using this app will let the entire nation know what the Facebook community thinks and changes the democratic system by bringing candidates and voters closer together.

Nonetheless, people have voiced concerns about the continued unpopularity of Facebook apps. However, this is an unprecedented app involving one of the most important elections in history. But, only in the next few months will we be able to see the true potential and popularity of this new campaign. Despite the concerns, there is no question that the partnership has a lot of potential and is leaving many voters eager to participate.

Here’s to hoping that the newest launch will finally have young voters “rocking the vote.”

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