This past year, Fineman PR marked another year of success with further development of the agency’s crisis communications practice, especially in Higher Education. The agency’s food and wine practice continues to provide stability, Brand PR work, event marketing, media relations success, depth in digital and social media, and public relations value measurement.
Here are snapshots:
- Delivering on more than a year of strategic planning, in March 2013, Fineman PR launched a milestone animal welfare campaign for West Coast poultry brand Foster Farms. The campaign officially announced Foster Farms as the nation’s first major poultry brand to earn humane certification by American Humane Association, the country’s first national humane organization. The launch was met with great success and major media placements in the first week alone, including front page cover story in the San Francisco Chronicle, feature articles in the Fresno Bee, Merced Sun-Star, Modesto Bee and Bakersfield Californian, and extensive broadcast news coverage in key California markets. The comprehensive communications program includes event marketing, national and regional media relations, social media promotion, community relations, measurement and corporate social responsibility elements.
- Fineman PR planned, managed and promoted Foster Farms’ third annual Fresh Chicken Cooking Contest with premier culinary judges and extensive media coverage throughout the West Coast.
- Fineman PR launched Foster Farms’ new whole grain corn dogs for the foodservice market. The agency succeeded in changing perceptions of media and foodservice decision makers by promoting the product as a nutritious lunch option with kid and parent approval. The agency highlighted the product’s value as a fun food that kids would actually eat while positioning the lower sodium, lower fat, whole grain product as a healthier alternative to popular lunch staples like pizza, burritos and even sandwiches. Social media and parenting blogger outreach was crucial to the program’s success, including a Seal of Approval from Parent Tested Parent Approved Media, the nation’s largest volunteer parent testing community.
- The agency worked with new women’s retail client The Limited to promote its California expansion and the opening of several new stores throughout the state.
- Throughout the year, the agency developed and implemented communications projects for a number of clients, including Mendocino Wine Company, which began with an issues management assignment and continued with a revamp of the company’s digital and social media vehicles and a launch of the Parducci “Small Lot Blends”; Autism Research Institute (ARI); Moone-Tsai wines; the launch of KonaRed antioxidant beverages; Sterling Meat Company and the Girl Scouts of Northern California, among others.
- The year also included multiple rounds of crisis counsel to help support the needs of several private colleges and secondary schools in the U.S. on behalf of higher education insurance company United Educators.
- Fineman PR earned additional client wins for sustainable food service industry leader Guckenheimer and XL Construction, one of the top commercial builders in the Bay Area.
- Mosaico, Fineman PR’s multicultural division, continued its run of multicultural client success with the development of a new CSR program promoting Xoom’s sponsorship and support of Peru’s Olympic team. Mosaico was also successful in working with New Orleans-based pharmaceutical company, Pamlab, Inc., in launching a pre-natal campaign informing the Latino community about a little-known mutation causing complications in Latina women’s pregnancies.
- Fineman PR’s clients continue to rely on the San Francisco-based agency for digital and social media strategy, monitoring, response and measurement. In crises, social media can be crucial in disseminating information and mitigating the spread of misinformation. In Fineman PR’s work with schools and universities, where students and communities are a primary audience, a Facebook post and/or tweet is often more effective than a traditional statement.
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Travis Taylor
On the HR side, Fineman PR made another outstanding hire. Travis Taylor, previously a VP at the agency’s IPREX partner, Communications Pacific in Honolulu, joined the agency last summer. Initially appointed Group Supervisor, Taylor joins a sterling team of seasoned professionals including VP Heidi White, a 16-year Fineman PR all-star; VP Lorna Bush, a 10-year Fineman PR hall of famer; Group Supervisor Toby Baird; Account Supervisor Katie Young; Account Supervisor and Social/Digital Media Director Karmina Zafiro (an 8-year Fineman PR veteran); Mosaico director Juan Lezama; and Senior Account Executive Serene Buckley.
Issues Management for several clients, including: Westmont College near Santa Barbara, Chadwick School in Palos Verdes, Calif., Olympus Calistoga LLC Calif., UC Hastings College of the Law, Golden Gate University School of Law, Mendocino Wine Company and San Diego-based Thomas Jefferson School of Law.