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BUSINESS BEAT NEWS TIP SHEET - "BEST CORP. COMMUNICATIONS," SAID PRSA "Best Corporate Communications, Nonprofit " “The Business Beat News Tip Sheet™” Objectives: The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) asked MAYO Communications to design a corporate communications program that would foster a better understanding and awareness of the LAEDC as a whole. The ongoing program would educate the media and the media would in turn educate its target audience. Another objective was to help attract new corporations to join the 501 (c) nonprofit organization, whose mission is to attract and retain jobs and businesses in Southern California. Target Audiences: Our primary audience was the business print, TV and radio media in Southern California. Our secondary audience was the public and any business and nonprofit organizations that could benefit from LAEDC’s membership services. Implementation: MAYO first designed a template and masthead for a new electronic newsletter called The Business Beat News Tip Sheet™ (BB), which would be edited and distributed by MAYO Communications monthly – and more often when needed – to the media only. Due to the business supported and bureaucratic structure of LAEDC, we composed and produced the BB’s vision and mission as well as media story guidelines so there would be no misunderstanding amongst senior management, staff and membership. We knew it would be a struggle internally, because something of this nature had never been tried before; it was a big risk to membership and we would face the challenges of some micro-management. We first sought approval from top management and when we made our presentation to senior staff we were already a hit due to our innovative ideas and past successful media programs. Everyone bought into the concept and agreed to follow the guidelines of the BB. One way we ensured the new communications vehicle would move forward without impediment was by having one or two top managers, namely Chief Economist Jack Kyser or Wally Baker, review and sign off on the BB to meet media deadline pressures. To improve corporate communications internally we worked with each regional manager to encourage them to provide story ideas from their five regions that included Long Beach, San Bernardino, San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Orange County and Downtown Los Angeles. We also persuaded the World Trade Center Association of Long Beach and Los Angeles to contribute stories of regional business interest. The vision was to make the BB corporate communications vehicle a first stop resource for economic information, public policy and business news in Southern California. The mission was that the BB would be an external e-newsletter provided to all media outlets, not intended as a member’s communications resource. It would contain a one-page menu of interesting news tips for the media about LAEDC, its business partners, consulting projects, studies, member stories, events, promotions and special resources provided by LAEDC. We came up with several designs and used colorful graphics to match the LAEDC logos, letterhead, business cards and even parts of their website. In fact, some links accessed continually updated information on the LAEDC website, so even though the e-newsletter was published at least monthly, the information links were updated more frequently. The BB was hosted on an outside Internet server by a company in Texas that charged about $200 a month to host and allowed MAYO to manage and monitor the hits, readership and subscriptions. The service also offered live interactive polls so if we wanted to take a quick survey of a topical issue we could do it at a moment’s notice with instant results online. The BB’s template also included a subscription box for writers, freelancers and journalists, including the broadcast media in California. For subscribers, the BB would be converted to html, text or AOL formats so it would arrive in a writer’s or reporter’s inbox fully formatted within the body of the email immediately upon the BB’s publication. We were instantly notified whenever a reporter or writer subscribed or unsubscribed to the BB so we could track interest in LAEDC. Budget: The budget for the entire campaign was $40,000 for 11 months, which included phone calls, faxes, printing and news advisories and news releases announcing the Business Beat News Tip Sheet™. It also included follow-up media calls and interviews after stories were published. Results: At first there was some resistance from top to bottom within LAEDC and information from regional managers only trickled in slowly each month. But after we began attending the regional managers meetings religiously each month to build confidence and credibility in the Business Beat, regional managers started calling with story ideas, some at the same time, with successful story angles the media had not covered. Releasing media tips in the BB got us to try a couple new media relations tactics that worked – after calling business editors in a specific region and asking them if they would be interested in a story, not only did they start working on the story that afternoon, but they also subscribed to the BB and asked their supporting staff to do the same. Every month we would contact new business writers and ask them how we could improve the news tip sheet – what they liked and disliked. We received very few complaints, but many comments along the lines of “I like the short menu and story sheet idea.” The first month we had about a dozen subscribers. The second month the e-newsletter and tip sheet grew to 50 business editors, writers and freelance reporters. Each month subscriptions jumped. Nearly one year later subscriptions for the Business Beat News Tip Sheet™ increased to a whopping 801 subscribed writers, reporters, producers and editors of the print and broadcast media in California alone. In 11 months only a half dozen writers unsubscribed, but it was because they were editors of their own competing nonprofit internal or external newsletters. Media calls according to LAEDC increased 50 percent to 1,700 calls for media interviews in 11 months. Membership grew seven percent during a sluggish economy in 2003, however throughout that same period a majority of the members, both new and old, complimented the LAEDC on its Business Beat program and the media placements that followed. Often the BB would be sent to executive board members after its distribution to the media, and they would see first hand the next day or within the week that an article directly resulted from a news story placed in the BB. At least one and sometimes three stories would consistently be covered in the Los Angeles Times Business section, Los Angeles Daily News or the Los Angeles Business Journal. According to the Texas service where the BB is hosted, the communication program was the only one of its kind in the nation among the 33,000 newsletters hosted on its servers. MAYO Communications was asked if the company could use the BB as a good example of corporate communications online. At the annual membership board meeting LAEDC CEO & President Lee Harrington said it was the most profitable year for LAEDC and its membership rolls. He also spotlighted MAYO Communications for boosting awareness and media calls. LAEDC renewed its contract with MAYO Communications for another year with a much larger budget for PR.

Jack Kyser on CNN Chief Economist Sen. V.P. LAEDC Media Placement - Print   "Recapturing The Dream For The LA Region" Overview:   The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) was set to release the 2005-2006 LAEDC Economic Forecast for the LA region at the end of January, and they worried that the media frenzy around Michael Jackson’s pretrial hearings and stories would bury the forecast. They also worry about constant breaking news with the War in Iraq and other high profile region stories.     This year’s forecast and event was different, because LAEDC had broken down the study in two phases. “Recapturing The Dream-A winning strategy for the LA Region” and the “2005-2006 LAEDC Economic Forecast.”    Objectives:   Our client wanted a double media punch for both studies, but combine in the same month. The idea and objective was to get advanced media coverage for the first phase, and tease the second phase with an event one week later, analyzing everything from Tourism, Housing and the Economy with an economic panel discussing the forecast on the day of the event somewhere downtown. Their objective was to get the media to obtain the results of both phases of the study at the same time and cover both events individually, including the event on day of the release, which was Wednesday, January 19th, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. and the Forecast would be released one week later, January 26. The event was held at the Colburn School of Performing Arts Auditorium in the heart of the business district in downtown L.A.    Target Audiences:   Our primary audience was the print, TV and radio media in Southern California and the local public. Our secondary audience was the business community, Southern California regional political officials, especially the mayor of Los Angeles, and other communities and business organizations.     Implementation:   Acting on recommendations from MAYO Communications staff, LAEDC agreed to set up advanced interviews and perform interviews for two hours at the LAEDC office on the day of the release of the first phase of the study that talks about what LA business and political community needs to do to keep business thriving in the LA Region. We narrow the subjects to hot button issues such as housing, transportation, runaway movie production, Aerospace, International Trade and Tourism.     MAYO knew that Michael Jackson was in an out of court for hearings and there were several other national stories dominating the news, so our timing had to be perfect. Due to the lateness and availability of Joel Kotkin, co-author of the winning strategy phase I study, we dropped the idea of a news conference to allow radio media to do telephone interviews, and print and TV to come by and interview at their convenience since all media were under drive time afternoon deadline pressure, and breaking news always prevails. To entice the media we put refreshments would be served and even used it in our pitches over the phone: “If you got time drop by and pick up a copy of the study, and grab a doughnut, juice, snack and cup of coffee at our conference.” We’ll probably have a few sandwich’s leftover, too.”   For the second phase and staged event at the downtown auditorium, we had to work harder to get the media to come. We convinced one cable station Channel 34 to video tape the whole event and sell the video to various participants, including the LAEDC.  They liked the idea, made arrangements and we offered to have video b-roll from the event for TV stations that could make it. We also put out an advisory for the event, and as guests were confirmed we would update it and send it out again to the SoCal regional media. Again, even in the written and verbal pitches we teased the fact that we would have a great continental breakfast at the Colburn Performing Arts Center, and there would be audio and video hookups for TV and radio crews. We also pitched the idea of doing advanced interviews right before the event and during breaks.      We knew is important to have a Spanish speaking media person at both events: news availability and at the auditorium downtown. Aida Mayo, president of our company pitched and handled media interviews with Univision, Telemundo and LA Opinion, Hoy, and other Hispanic media outlets, because neither Joel Kotkin nor Chief Economist Jack Kyser, who wrote the 2005-2006 Economic Forecast could speak Spanish. We knew if we pitched that extra person it was draw the Hispanic media outlets. We also found it effective to summarize both thick studies into a two page news release for the media. For the Entertainment media such as Variety or The Hollywood Reporter We would only pitched the “Runaway movie production issues and updates” to them.    Budget:   The budget for the entire campaign was $3,600, which included phone calls, faxes, printing, media kits, news advisories and news releases. It also included follow-up media calls, Internet news website postings and interviews after the news conference. There was no budget for clipping services.   Results:   Despite the competing media coverage of rainstorms, mudslides, largest Iraq soldier toll, and the worst fatal train wreck in the country that left 200 injured and 11 dead, MAYO Communications earned more than a million dollars in media coverage and exposure for The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation’s two-phase studies in less than a two week period. In less than one week both studies in two different stories appeared on the front page of Los Angeles Daily News.     Three days before the first phase for news vailability talking about winning strategy in anticipation of the actual forecast and event we had only a few people sign up for interviews. We called and reminded everyone we had pitched especially the print media. One day before the phone rang off the hook from mostly print media wanting advance copies of the studies and to line up interviews either in person or on the phone with both Joel Kotkin and Jack Kyser. The “winning strategy” was broadcast on all major news radio and public radio stations and several TV stations carried the story. CNN radio network carried both study results, and ran the story globally on the day of the release of the study.    The second phase or actual Forecast event started as a disaster, because it was the first rain a long time (drizzle is big news in LA) and a half hour before our event a METROLINK train crash head-on with a loaded Burlington-Northern freight train, derailing injuring several hundred and left some dead. Most of the TV stations bolted for the nation’s worst commuter train crash. We still have TV coverage and some stations came after event to do interviews. The biggest surprise was from the LA Times, which RSVP 12 reporters, including the editorial board, mostly senior writers for the first and second wave of coverage assigning individual reporters on housing, economy, tourism and movie production. The second wave of coverage was bigger than the first, because part of the story was only one week old, and reporters were able to find the first phase study results on Internet news sites, a precursor to the Forecast and event downtown. They also downloaded the Forecast in advanced and used our two page news release to bounce off questions over the phone or in person. LA times covered various aspects of the studies and event, and even the Op-Ed wrote comments into their columns.       The story was carried by most of the news wire services including City News Services, Associated Press, UPI and even Voice of America attended the event. MAYO Communications exceeded the LAEDC’s expectations in less than two weeks time to pitch both complicated studies using tactics on the Internet and traditional old fashion media relations work, picking up the phone and calling rechecking to be sure the media knew about and made everything accessible and easy to cover. We also provided images and video b-roll for stations that dropped by late, which several crews appreciated. The Forecast was covered throughout California and was picked up by hundreds of newspapers nationally after the stories rolled on the AP Newspaper wire. The stories were published in places as far away as Boston, NY to Chicago and globally on CNN and Voice of America.