Workplace Strategy Integrated Communications Campaign

Challenges

Margulies Perruzzi Architects (MPA) is Rhino PR’s first and oldest client. Since 2004, Rhino PR has managed a comprehensive PR program for this award-winning architecture and interior design firm. Always calibrating its PR strategy with MPA’s in-house marketing efforts, Rhino PR focused its 2016-2017 PR program on promoting MPA’s new workplace strategy research and positioning MPA as a thought leader in this area of design.

MPA frequently meets with prospective clients on the topic of workplace design, and in 2016, the firm’s principals desired new marketing tools to spark discussion on current and future workplace trends. MPA’s team began the process of assembling research that would resonate with C-suite executives, facility managers, and OPMs/brokers who hire or recommend the firm. MPA’s workplace strategy research, titled “Workplace Strategy: Leveraging Your Space to Inspire Tomorrow’s Talent,” was created to dynamically present information to this target audience.

With its workplace strategy research initiative, MPA sought to position itself as a thought leader that:

1. Understands the business drivers that are pushing workplace transformation to occur at a rapid pace;
2. Recognizes the specific design solutions that help a company express its culture, industry, and leadership; and
3. Demonstrates the core strategies that inspire, motivate, and connect employees while producing quantifiable contributions to the bottom line.

Rhino PR collaborated with MPA to develop an integrated communications strategy for conveying this thought leadership messaging through marketing activities and media outreach.

Solutions

To easily disseminate its research, MPA’s marketing strategy was to create a dynamic and engaging PDF document for download from the MPA web site. The firm chose not to write a white paper, but rather, rely on short sound bites and infographics to display the research in a slideshow format. After roll-out of the research, MPA also unveiled a five-part video series that outlines the business and workplace transformation drivers that help create a productive and inspiring workplace.

Rhino PR’s goals were to:

• Drive traffic to MPA’s web site and encourage download of the PDF and viewing of the five videos;
• Garner coverage in target publications that positions MPA as a thought leader in workplace design; and
• Highlight the MPA projects that exemplify the implementation of a successful workplace strategy.

To complement MPA’s direct outreach to clients and prospective clients via email and social media, Rhino PR’s strategy included two widely distributed press releases and media pitching to secure feature articles in key publications. Rhino PR drafted an “executive summary” press release that announced the availability of MPA’s new research, offered a short overview of research highlights, and provided a link for readers to access it on MPA’s web site. The release was distributed on PR Newswire, with an image to bolster open rates, and a longer, more substantive version was sent to MPA’s full media target list. A few months later, the same strategy was applied to a second press release about MPA’s workplace strategy video series. To demonstrate thought leadership on this hot topic, Rhino PR pitched national vertical publications read by MPA’s core client base. Rhino PR continues to identify new media opportunities for pitching.

Results

Leveraging MPA’s reputation as an industry expert and reliable source for editors, Rhino PR successfully placed feature articles in top-tier publications including Building Operating Management, IFMA’s Facility Management Journal, NAIOP’s Development Magazine, and Facility Executive Magazine. Each feature article focused on a different aspect of workplace strategy such as productivity for a mobile workforce, designing the workplace to attract and retain talent, and supporting the workplace culture of professional services firms. Rhino PR also placed two articles in High-Profile Monthly, one on healthcare and workplace strategy and the other on why companies are embracing workplace strategy ideas.

The PR Newswire distribution garnered significant coverage of the press release, as well as web site downloads and page views of the research. PR Newswire reported 209 exact match pickups for full text postings of MPA’s press release, online and in social media. MPA’s site analytics showed a 50 percent surge in web site traffic for the two weeks after release distribution, as well as an increase in research downloads as a result of Rhino PR’s media outreach.