Category: Culture & News

It’s already started. The speculations around which star collegiate will land on a favorite NFL team roster or in everyone’s fantasy draft pool. The news and buzz around the NFL Draft in Nashville is punctuated even louder by the growing popularity of its fan fest and chances to see the next stars of the game up-close.

But, five years ago, when the league announced a new-style draft experience in Chicago, the news and fans were more skeptical about the impact and the access they would receive. KemperLesnik was honored to work alongside the NFL events team to change that narrative and focus on the experience that is the event’s hallmark to this day.

The Playbook

• MANAGING THE MESSAGE: The team worked to shift the discussion towards an understanding of how the new draft provided a free fan experience unlike anything outside the Super Bowl.
• REGIONAL EXCITEMENT: Marketing the event to NFL cities within driving distance of Chicago made the event a destination for fans – who came in droves with all 32 team jerseys counted as represented at the fan fest in the first 30 minutes of opening.
• UPCLOSE AND PERSONAL: Special fan moments to interact with players and legends from the blue carpet to the Draft Town brought fans closer to the action than ever before.
• POSITIONING THE BRAND: Great care was given in all earned media to deliver on the core messages of quality experience and celebration of football for the fans. Thru the discipline and repetition of storytelling, the brand began to rise as the new moment for fans outside the season calendar.

Brands today are taking advantage of a widening digital media landscape, and the rise in popularity of sports podcasts, blogs, influencers and social media networks are creating new approaches by these brands to reach wider audiences.

During the 2019 NBA All-Star Weekend, the National Basketball Retired Players Association (NBRPA) launched Legends Media Day, the first of its kind, and welcomed 10 media outlets:

• ESPN
• Barstool Sports
• Sports Business Daily
• The Wall Street Journal
• Bleacher Report
• USA Today
• Turner Sports
• Sporting News
• Yahoo! Sports
• The Athletic

The team coordinated more than 50 interviews for 25+ former players and gave former players a national platform to share their stories and recount career moments on one of the NBA’s biggest stages.

The power of our onsite media, which totaled 129,050,000 monthly viewers and more than 700,000 followers on social media, helped NBRPA amplify its awareness and messaging. Barstool Sports and their basketball podcast, Mickstape, posted 22 times on Twitter featuring the @NBAAlumni handle, resulting in 2.69 million impressions and another 262,000 engagements. The team leveraged traditional media outlets to gain added exposure on social media and were introduced to new audiences, platforms and sponsorship opportunities, as a result.

Exposure for big brands and sports entities, such as the NBRPA, rely on social engagement to drive coverage of the brand, its key messaging and player stories. Taking advantage of the changing digital media landscape and leveraging it to create new opportunities for players is exactly what we set out to do. In the end, the Legends brand was able to break through a cluttered media moment to find a new voice among fans and brands alike.

AkzoNobel, an international paint and coating company, has hired KemperLesnik to manage public relations for the North American region. AkzoNobel is made up of 40 different trusted brands and products operating in 150 different countries. The KemperLesnik team will provide expertise in corporate communications, social media engagement and digital marketing.

ESP Gaming, a leading competitive gaming content company, has partnered with KemperLesnik for public relations and content marketing. ESP Gaming brings production, expertise and turnkey solutions to esports organizations and game developers on a global scale.

Thought leadership is at the core of all that we do in business-focused public relations and marketing. By definition, thought leadership is an area of expertise that a person or a company owns. It offers a solution to a problem that is challenging an industry. Often, thought leadership is what sets a brand apart in a crowded marketplace. That is, if the brand’s thought leadership is strong, reliable and engaging.

Here are a few statistics to paint the picture of the uphill battle we are facing when it comes to thought leadership:

• 56% of executives said that thought leadership is of no value
• 95% of executives said that poor thought leadership lowers their opinion of a brand, and they will be less likely to hire that company
• Only 66% of c-suite executives are proponents of thought leadership marketing

With this in mind, how can thought leadership content play a driving role in the bottom line of an organization? I recently attended the Profiting from Thought Leadership workshop in Boston, where some of the world’s leading thought leadership practitioners at firms such as McKinsey, Accenture and Fidelity Investments answered this question for a room full of PR practitioners and marketers. In simple terms, it is timely, relevant and substantive thought leadership that will move the needle, and it is the PR professional and the marketer that need to dig deep to uncover this content. This takes precision and skill.

In some organizations, this means the PR practitioner and marketer need to probe their experts and encourage thinking. In other organizations, it is important to be contrarian and push the boundaries. No matter the company, it is important for PR and marketing to use these strategies to find effective thought leadership that will push the company’s brand to the forefront:

1. Be a gatekeeper. When every expert thinks his/her thought leadership needs to be promoted, it is essential for PR and marketing professionals to identify the thought leadership that will support and drive the company’s brand. One approach is to establish content guidelines or develop a content assessment tool, which can be an objective way to examine thought leadership for its effectiveness.
2. Be an argument shaper. Often times, it is weighing in on industry hot topics that will put the spotlight on an organization. When a crisis strikes or an impactful event happens, encourage your experts to create and deliver thought leadership that takes a stand, takes a side and says something meaningful.
3. Be an evidence gatherer. Sixty-six percent of executives agree that research studies are the most successful part of PR and marketing campaigns. Tap into company research and/or recent data findings when building content. Make it substantive. Dig deep to find the data points that will give your thought leader and organization a clear platform on a specific issue.
4. Be an expert. Most importantly, all thought leaders throughout the organization should respect the direction of the PR professional and marketer. To earn respect, come prepared to your discussions with thought leaders, show them you know about their industry and provide feedback about why and how their thought leadership will or will not be effective. You are the content expert. You should be trusted to make the decisions that will drive the brand forward.

In sum, it takes planning, preparation and precision to build a meaningful thought leadership program that drives results for your company’s bottom line. With your initiative, you can change executives’ perspectives on the value of thought leadership and be the driver of your brand’s success.

Hammock Dunes Club, a private oceanfront golf community in Palm Coast, Florida, has partnered with KemperLesnik for public relations, social media and lead generation efforts. Hammock Dunes Club is home to two championship golf courses designed by Rees Jones and Tom Fazio. Hammock Dunes Creek course hosted the 2018 Florida Cup and will host the 2019 Florida Open.

It’s the same story now as it was then. Clients are tired of the politics, bureaucracy, nickels and dimes of big agencies. They are tired of the bait and switch. They want senior PR counsel, true relationships, ease of use and better results. That’s what niche agencies provide.

In its recently published “The Road Ahead” article, PR Week says: “At the holding company level it’s about building scale and simplifying the way they go to market, on the behest of clients that are sick of spending as much time mediating the politics between their multitudes of different agency brands as constructing great brand campaigns.

Small and medium-sized firms are seeing opportunities born of clients’ desires to deal with the senior staffers at agencies rather than seeing them once a quarter and when account review time rolls around.

It was telling that Procter & Gamble added niche firms … to its PR roster, noting that “the media landscape requires greater breadth and speed of content and … different agencies may have capabilities we need at different times.””

This is the story we tell to our clients every day, and it’s the reason we have deep relationships with many major brands. High touch. True service. Deep passion for results. Entrepreneurial spirit. 2019 is the year of the niche agency, and it’s great to be at one of the best. We are KemperLesnik.

Snapsheet, a fast-growing insurtech company, has partnered with KemperLesnik for public relations, social media and content marketing. Snapsheet provides an automated claims service allowing customers to file claims directly on their smartphones. KemperLesnik has already assisted Snapsheet in announcing an innovative global collaboration with Zurich Insurance Group.

KemperLesnik is pleased to announce the promotion of Erin Law, Maddi Henry, Erin Parro and Mykolas Saulis. Law, Henry, Parro and Saulis were selected for KemperLesnik’s 2018 summer internship program and have transitioned into full-time positions at the agency.

Law joins KemperLesnik with a Master’s Degree in Digital Storytelling from Loyola University. She will serve as Associate Manager of Creative Services in KemperLesnik’s Content Marketing Division.

Henry, who interned with KemperLesnik twice during college, will serve as Assistant Account Executive supporting consumer PR clients.

Parro joins KemperLesnik after graduating from Iowa State University with degrees in Public Relations/Image Management and International Studies. Erin will serve as Assistant Account Executive for KemperLesnik’s corporate and technology clients.

Saulis joins KemperLesnik as Esports Coordinator after working as part of the esports team over the summer and while completing his degree at Robert Morris University. Saulis was a member of the University’s collegiate esports team. Saulis will serve as Assistant Account Executive with a focus on esports.