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Author: Josephine Butler

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

August 29, 2012January 31, 2023 Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Public Relations, Raleigh PR AgencyBlog, Briar Chapel, case studies, event marketing, Facebook, media relations, Newland Communities, Public Relations, Social Media, social networking, Twitter

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

August 22, 2012January 31, 2023 Josephine ButlerBlog, Marketing, Professional Development, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, The Clairemont Teamadvice, college, high school, how to get an internship, internship, Marketing, NC, NCSU, PR, Public Relations, Raleigh, Triangle, UNC, what I learned at my internship2 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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What Does A PR Agency Do? Videos for PR

August 15, 2012January 31, 2023 Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Furniture PR, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, Social Media + Influencer Engagementanalytics, Facebook videos, research, results, social media measurement, Thomasville Furniture, video production1 Comment on What Does A PR Agency Do? Videos for PR

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!

Client: Thomasville Furniture, established in 1904 and a leading name in the home furnishings industry.

Objective:  Create a series of videos to showcase Thomasville’s new furniture and upholstery at High Point Market, as well as demonstrate the versatility of the Reinventions collection, a multi-functional collection designed to maximize space in smaller homes, with the following goals:

  • Boost overall interactions on the Thomasville Facebook page, with special emphasis on increasing interactions among 18 to 34-year-olds by 5 percent.
  • Increase the number of likes on the page by 100 percent.

Execution: Commissioned research provided insights on media consumption preferences of Thomasville’s existing customers and younger target consumers. Focus groups revealed that younger consumers often see Thomasville’s furniture as special occasions furnishings, while they seek more of an everyday, comfortable look. Additionally, informal feedback from employees and customers indicated that previously produced videos weren’t necessarily viewed as targeting a younger demographic due to the fact that the on-camera talent didn’t match that desired age group.

To gain fans and keep them engaged, we provided creative content with quality videos focused on the following areas:

An Insider’s View to Furniture Market: The fact that furniture market isn’t open to the public didn’t stop us from sharing the collections that Thomasville debuted at market with its fans. A series of videos featured team members sharing information about new collections. To reinforce the idea that Thomasville’s furniture is so comfortable it makes you want to “kick up your feet,” each person was interviewed relaxing in her favorite vignette in the showroom, as she offered design tips or revealed sources of decorating inspiration. Collectively, these videos received 234,764 impressions.

How-to Videos: A mini-series was produced to showcase Reinventions, a new, multi-functional collection designed for everyday living. These videos demonstrated how to maximize space with the versatility of the collection’s pieces. For example, the Slater Mill Drop-Leaf Table can be folded down to a mere 13-inch deep sofa table or expand to a dining table to accommodate six people – ideal for city apartment living. These videos received a total of 88,055 impressions.

Results: Through our promotional efforts, including these videos, Thomasville’s fan base on Facebook increased from 11,249 to 31,256, approximately a 178 percent increase from 2010. Additionally, we boosted average weekly interactions from 2,964 to 7,571, a 155 percent increase, engaging the target audiences of existing customers and young consumers alike. Specific to the videos, we received nearly 322,819 total impressions, 102 likes and 43 comments, exceeding our goals.

What did you think of this social media case study? Was it helpful? Be sure to check out our last case study featuring the Thomasville Facebook page.

Have questions? Interested in Clairemont’s video production services? Drop us a line!

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To Tweet or Not to Tweet?: A Guide to Twitter Business Etiquette

July 11, 2012January 31, 2023 Josephine ButlerBlog, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media + Influencer Engagementadvice, business, don't reply to every tweet, etiquette, schedule tweets, social media monitoring, social network, tips, Twitter, Twitter for businesses

As consumers of all things public relations, the Clairemont team can’t seem to get enough of Twitter. From managing our own personal accounts to strategizing for clients, we’re constantly on the social networking site, tweeting away. And when we’re not having conversations on Twitter, we’re researching the latest industry tips and trends, via sites like HubSpot, where we recently stumbled across this gem. Too good not to share, we hope you’ll find these Twitter etiquette for business tips as helpful as we do!

Tip #1: In lieu of time, don’t make it a habit of replying to every single Tweet. You should be replying to two types of tweets on an ongoing basis: questions and negative comments. And it pays off. Did you know that 64 percent of users are more likely to purchase from businesses that answer their questions on Twitter?

Tip #2: Follow back your followers! This way, if your followers end up with a question, they have the opportunity to DM (direct message) you, and you better believe it: this is especially ideal when it’s a complaint!

Tip #3: To allow for more time to monitor content, schedule tweets in advance. And now that you have all this extra time on your hands, have a colleague take a second look — you never know what might come off the wrong way.

With these three tips, you’re well on your way to becoming a Twitter pro! Still need a little help writing, scheduling or creating a strategy surrounding your tweets? Clairemont can help! Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Have more tips to share? Ditto!

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What Does A PR Agency Do? Furniture Industry Social Media Campaign

June 27, 2012January 31, 2023 Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Furniture PR, Marketing, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, Social Media + Influencer Engagementawards, engagement, Facebook, InSpire Awards, measurement, NCPRSA, North Carolina Public Relations Society of America, PR case studies, PR case study, Social Media, social network, Thomasville Furniture1 Comment on What Does A PR Agency Do? Furniture Industry Social Media Campaign

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!

Client: Thomasville Furniture, established in 1904 and a leading name in the home furnishings industry.

Objective:  Manage the Thomasville Facebook page. Based on our research and several meetings with Thomasville executives, the Clairemont team identified the following objectives:

  • Boost overall interactions on the Facebook page, with special emphasis on increasing interactions among 18 to 34-year-olds by 5 percent.
  • Increase the number of likes on the page by 100 percent

Execution: Research provided insights on existing customers and younger consumers, including media consumption preferences. Focus groups revealed that younger consumers often see Thomasville’s furniture as special occasion furnishings, while they seek everyday furniture (of course, we know that Thomasville is very fun and fashion-forward these days!). Clairemont also evaluated social media networks and confirmed Facebook’s significant potential as Thomasville’s primary customer engagement channel.

We focused creative content in the following areas:

  • Interior Design: To position Thomasville as the fashionable brand that we know it to be, we shared ideas from shelter magazines, such as Elle Décor and House Beautiful. We uploaded product photography featuring new collections designed for a young demographic and shared decorating tips via professionally produced videos. Our chatter posts got fans talking and sharing their own interior design ideas, too.
  • Sweepstakes: Recognizing the traffic-driving power of sweepstakes, Clairemont generated steady fan engagement with giveaways throughout the year. The Best Bridal Shower Gift Ever Giveaway targeted 18 to 34-year-olds by awarding a bedroom suite as a wedding gift to a young couple. Our Best Seat in the House Giveaway earned more than 1,900 content likes, posts and comments, as fans couldn’t resist the chance to show off photos of their beloved pets. With a prize of a new sofa, our 1 Sofa 4 Looks Giveaway increased page likes by 13,767 alone. Along with additional giveaways such as the Bright Idea; Backyard Barbeque; No Tricks, Just Treats; Thanksgiving Dinner Disasters (with many hilarious accounts of Thanksgiving dinners gone wrong); and Stocking Stuffer giveaways, the Clairemont team successfully raised the fan count and interactions on the page.
  • Customer Relations: Because it’s our policy to allow fans to have a voice, when questions or complaints were posted, we worked closely with Thomasville’s corporate customer service team to provide quick responses instead of deleting or ignoring negative posts.

Results: Thomasville’s fan base on Facebook increased from 11,249 to 31,256, approximately a 178 percent increase from 2010, and we boosted weekly interactions from 2,964 to 7,571, a 155 percent increase. Additionally, we increased the number of 18 to 34-year-old fans from 20 percent of the fan base to 30 percent, exceeding our goal of a 5 percent increase. Based on the success of 2011, Thomasville has retained Clairemont to continue to manage its page on Facebook in 2012.

What did you think of this social media case study? Was it helpful? Have questions? We’ve got answers!

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