Creative Successful Publicity Strategies
Click on headlines below to view press coverage
Sims & Associates amplified the awareness and impact of the client’s research and analysis of major industry segments by introducing an innovative annual “State of the Financial Services Industry” press briefing that generated extensive coverage in vertical news media covering banking, capital markets, insurance and governance, as well as major horizontal business/finance publications. The annual briefing, in early November, had an added focus recommended by Sims: a look ahead at anticipated industry trends in the following year. For five consecutive years this press briefing attracted more than two dozen journalists, making it the firm’s best attended media event and served as a platform for ongoing media coverage of the firm’s though leadership. This event was augmented by Sims with an International State of the Industry press briefing in New York that was covered by 20 reporters from European, Asian and Latin American news media.
Sims & Associates conducted an ongoing publicity campaign that spotlighted questionable practices by major health insurance companies that impacted on health care providers and their patients. The successful campaign was based on a Federal Civil Racketeering RICO suit filed against one of the largest health insurers by a safety net hospital network, a Sims client. The resulting substantial press coverage included network TV news, insurance and health care industry trade press, major newspaper and national wire service stories and editorials. It increased the industry prominence of the hospital’s senior executives and was a factor in negotiating terms of contracts with insurers.
When a major life insurer with a reputation for pioneering product designs experienced a lull in its new product pipeline, Sims & Associates devised a strategy to sustain the company's profile among distributors, brokers and consumers by shifting focus to its thought leadership through an innovative survey. The statistically valid survey quantified consumers' expectations of their financial preparedness for retirement. Its findings, that a majority of those surveyed significantly underestimated the cost of maintaining a desirable retirement lifestyle, were widely reported in consumer and financial news media and in insurance industry publications. It was also distributed with a letter from the insurer's CEO to legislators and other officials involved in retirement financial public policy issues The unique survey proved so successful--including press requests for updated data--that it was repeated biennially.
To draw attention to a large plant investment by a food manufacturer in a city that had suffered economic contraction and job losses from previous factory closings, Sims & Associates conceived and organized a major festive public event for the company’s key stakeholders in the community, including all of its residents. The Governor, State Comptroller and Mayor and City Council attended, along with hundreds of plant employees, their families and town residents. The unique celebratory event was covered by national wire services, regional and local press and industry publications.