- Case Study -

Next PR

As Next PR prepped for its rebrand from SSPR, the internal marketing team planned an integrated earned, owned and paid media strategy.

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THE CHALLENGE

With any rebrand, there is a threat of losing brand awareness and the need to establish a new brand identity. To boost SEO, brand credibility and overall awareness, the team built a strategy to educate the Next PR audience and potential customers on what this rebrand means for the organization and the industry. 

 

HOW WE GOT THERE

Planning the campaign strategy early was key to driving success. The Next PR team researched and vetted paid media options, built out an earned media strategy and planned for the execution of the social media profile transitions.

Earned:
The team prioritized earned media outreach to local and trade publications to position the rebrand news in front of target local markets and the PR industry. It specifically prioritized news outlets in Next PR’s office locations to help increase brand awareness in those markets, as well as top PR publications to position the firm as an industry leader.

Owned:
Transitioning social media profiles to a completely new brand name takes plenty of timeline management and coordination with the different social platforms. With profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Indeed and Glassdoor, the team built out a transition guide which included creating profiles with the Next PR name to hold the preferred username until the announcement, making all the name changes to Next PR on announcement day and phasing out all the SSPR profiles in the weeks following the announcement.

The team also crafted a social media content strategy for the announcement week, including sharing the announcement on social channels and driving traffic to the new Next PR website. The team also shared a video from CEO Heather Kelly explaining the background and impact of this name change.

By creating graphics for the corporate pages to share, as well as multiple graphic options and Instagram Story stickers for team members to use, the content shared across profiles was eye-catching and increased engagement.

Paid:
The paid media strategy aimed to increase Next PR’s national and industry brand awareness, ultimately reaching new business and talent. The team placed BizSpotlight listings in Business Journals publications corresponding with four of Next PR’s office locations – Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago. Furthermore, the team arranged a Companies on The Move advertisement in AdAge to announce the rebrand to fellow marketing, PR and advertising leaders.

The team also set up an ongoing paid relationship with Forbes Agency Council to ensure consistent national coverage and increase the SEO of the Next PR domain in the coming months. The team leveraged this relationship for Kelly to share how she knew it was time for a company rebrand.

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Paid Media Placements

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Earned Media Placements

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Social Media Engagements

 

THE RESULTS

The six paid media opportunities in AdAge, Forbes and local Business Journals allowed the team to include more promotional language and ensured full control of the messaging around the rebrand announcement.

Additional media outreach resulted in six earned media placements, including an interview with Kelly in PR Week, coverage in the PR Week morning newsletter and mentions in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Agility PR Solutions and the Denver PR Blog.

The placements resulted in an estimated online readership of 15M, 70.4K estimated coverage views and 1,468 social media engagements.

Organic social media content announcing the rebrand garnered 1,468 social media engagements and 473 link clicks driving users to the new Next PR website. The posts engaged Next PR followers and current and prospective employees while increasing the brand’s visibility in front of existing and potential clients.

The LinkedIn and Facebook ad campaigns focusing on CMOs and target industry buyers garnered 14,185 video views, 787 video completions, 58 link clicks and 43 web sessions.

 

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