“High Expectations Are The Key To Everything”
-Sam Walton
Truer words were never spoken. After all, if you are not into being the best you can be, why bother?
So here are some of the things we have done over the past six months to exceed our clients’ expectations.
To begin with, we’ve become a more well-rounded agency. While media relations – in print, broadcast, and online—has and will continue to be our strong suit we now offer a broader range of communications services than ever before.
1. We named Jodi Wallace Director of Strategic Branding Services. With 25 years of marketing communications experience for some of the nation’s leading brands, Jodi understands what it takes to make brands successful. As both a former Director of Marketing and a Creative Director, Jodi possesses a creative bottom line mentality, a truly rare skill set. Thanks to Jodi, we are providing some very smart strategic direction and language for brand architecture, messaging, vision and mission statements, and website copy.
2. Brand Activation Network- Recently our agency joined forces with 6 top-tier marketing firms representing a variety of communications disciplines to form the Brand Activation Network. What we offer are services ranging from advertising (digital and traditional) to viral word of mouth, to, of course, PR. This holistic approach conducted by entrepreneurial independent agencies provides some of the finest services found anywhere with quicker response times and more efficient and effective use of budgets.
3. Professional Services- Another 25-year agency veteran, Roger Ardan, joined the agency a few months ago. Roger specializes in representing professional services companies, especially consultancies, legal and accounting firms, and financial services.
4. Earlier this year we launched a Healthcare Practice which now has three clients including the world famous Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. We’re optimistic that healthcare will become one of the key areas upon which the agency continues to grow.
5. A few months ago I had the pleasure of being a keynote speaker at the Technology Conference given by the Public Relations Society of America. At the conference I, together with the Executive Director of the Society of New Communications Research, revealed the results of our 2011 study of how journalists use social media in the performance of their job. For a detailed look feel free to visit our website’s homepage and click on the icon on the lower right hand side. It is fair to say that no agency does this kind of academic work regarding journalists and electronic media.
6. Investments in technology-
- Smart Phones and tablets are two of the most important product innovations to impact communications in a long time. Our firm has made it a point to get every employee trained and equipped with these devices. They are encouraged/expected to become skilled with all of these exciting new tools and to pass their knowledge on to every client.
- To our firm’s website we have added Middleberg PressPass, a proprietary social media press release tool that’s an added benefit to our clients. Press release distribution has taken on a whole new meaning because of social media and SEO. Middleberg PressPass allows us to take a static press release and transform it into a search engine-friendly promotion for our clients’ businesses. With the addition of hyperlinks, keywords, video, and links to Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, press releases can now live online, be shared by viewers, and enhance SEO. Visit Middleberg PressPass here.
Thankfully, the past six months have also been highly productive. What follows is a partial list of firms who have selected Middleberg Communications as their public relations agency: AllSector Technology Group; Carter Ledyard & Milburn; Crosslink Capital; Davidoff Malito & Hutcher; MicroStrategy; Pennington Biomedical Research Center; SapientNitro; Schedulicity; Seward & Kissel; Skyline Windows; Snow Capital; Sterling National Bank; and Truveris .
Thanks for your time and attention. Here’s wishing a happy and fruitful time for us all for the next six months.
All the best,
Don