Archive for Baltimore PR firm
Remembering an Extreme PR Experience
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Today’s announcement that ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will soon come to an end brought to mind Sawmill’s experience working with the Hollywood producers during a 2007 build in Port Deposit, Md.
It was one of those extreme PR assignments that come along every so often, requiring constant caffeine injections as we managed all aspects of media relations while a team of more than 1,500 volunteers built a 4,300-square-foot home and a therapeutic riding facility in less than a week. Actually 106 hours, to be exact, and we wouldn’t trade those 20-hour days for anything.
Sawmill was brought on board to craft messages, help with product placement, provide media coaching and provide round-the-clock management of the onslaught of media coverage that was sure to arrive with Ty Pennington (seen above with the Luther family on “Move That Bus” day) and the rest of the cast of the Emmy Award-winning reality television show, including the always-in-pink Designer/Carpenter Paige Hemmis (below, chilling with Jeff just after the door-knock).
During the course of the build week, results included more than 55 television stories, dozens of newspaper articles, regular live radio interviews coverage in the trade press and one surprised family!
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations Marks 17th Year
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I’ll spare us the parade of trite sayings such as “it seems like only yesterday, blah, blah blah” about Sawmill Marketing Public Relations marking its 17th year in business. Instead, here are two of my high highlights as well as three maxims that I’m sure will guide us the next 17 years as they have since 1995.
High Highlight #1: No question..it’s when Jeff came on board and we became SMPR partners. A Public Relations professional to his core who has lead us in new directions…most notably/recently his expertise in social media…he is also a genuinely nice guy and good friend.
High Highlight #2: Being on site (and working around the clock day after day) for five weeks at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City where we represented a resort property that was an unofficial Olympic Village for Nordic ski and biathlon teams from around the world. It was a heady experience working with major national and international media on a daily basis and in close daily contact with athletes of that caliber.
Our Three Maxims:
- Always Take the High Road. No exceptions, no detours.
- It is a Small World. In large measure reputations rise and fall as a result of this simple statement.
- LOVE what you do or don’t do it anymore. A great day @ SMPR is when we get a “hit” for a client and/or we provide counsel that a client recognizes as smart, insightful and new.
Thank you for your part in helping us to arrive at age 17 and for your continuing help to propel us to the next 17 years.
Baltimore PR Firm Partner Named to SMEI Baltimore/Washington Chapter Board of Directors
Posted by: | CommentsThe Baltimore/Washington chapter of SMEI (Sales and Marketing Executives International) issued the following press release announcing the 2011-12 Board of Directors, which includes Sawmill Marketing Public Relations partner Jeffrey A. Davis:
HUNT VALLEY, Md. (July 8, 2011) – The Baltimore/Washington chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) today announced that David G. Poulos, CEO of Granite Partners, LLC has been named president of the regional chapter of the international sales and marketing organization, to serve along with seven members of the board of directors for the 2011-2012 term.
Poulos founded the Sparks, Md.-based Granite Partners in 2006, after serving as Director of Marketing Communications for Graphic Arts Show Company, Inc., Reston, Va., producer of trade shows exclusively for the graphic communications and converting industries. He holds a bachelor of science degree in marketing communications from Northeastern University in Boston.
Joining Poulos on the SMEI Baltimore/Washington board for the 2011-12 term are the following directors:
- Lynn K. Argenbright, employee benefits advisor, PSA Insurance & Financial Services, Hunt Valley, Md.
- Mary Lou Coyle, president, Coyle Studios, Towson, Md.
- Jeffrey A. Davis, partner, Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, Baltimore
- Seth McElroy, VP, marketing & sales administration, Dunbar Armored, Hunt Valley, Md.
- Steve Navarro, director, business development, R2integrated, Baltimore
- Jonathan Oleisky, CEO/founder, Media 924, LLC, Baltimore
- Concetta Sipes, sales representative, Trade Division, K.C. Company, Inc., Hunt Valley, Md.
About SMEI
Founded in 1935, Sales & Marketing Executives International (SMEI) is the worldwide organization dedicated to ethical standards, continuing professional development, knowledge sharing, mentoring students and advancing free enterprise. For more information about the Baltimore/Washington chapter, visit www.smeibaltimore.org
Kudos to Fireline Corp. President for Maryland Daily Record Award
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We were delighted to nominate Anna Gavin, 28, president of Fireline Corporation, a Sawmill client, for the Maryland Daily Record “20 in their 20′s” award that recognized young leaders for their exceptional professional and personal achievements at this early stage of their careers.
The award is meaningful and the recognition is invaluable!
No News Can Indeed Be Good News
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s not always the right strategy to seek media attention for your client — especially when it involves one side of a complicated and litigio
us situation. But what if the client wants to react to recent (albeit one-sided) coverage?
Perhaps the best counsel is to view the situation from a reporter’s standpoint, who would be receiving yet a new angle to a story s/he thinks has already been covered. With a little digging how many more sides to the story will now be uncovered? What’s the potential cost to the client in letting the media determine how to use the new angle? Is the risk worth it?
Think of ways other than media coverage to get your client’s story told, including communicating directly with the audience with concise, accurate and relevant information that may or may not touch on the situation at hand — a decision that needs to be weighed carefully and without the repercussions of “he said, she said.”
Four Years of ‘Social Content Integration’ – aka Social Media
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This week marks the anniversary of our move in 2007 to add social media to Sawmill’s suite of services (media relations, media training and crisis communications were the original three). As an early adopter and one of the first PR firms to go in this direction we gained a lot of attention for the move, and the Baltimore Business Journal marked the occasion with a news story about Sawmill’s role in this emerging trend, headlined: “PR firm trying to get its clients face (book) time with new media”
Back then, we didn’t quite know what to call it and wound up with the moniker “Social Content Integration.” Now everybody calls it Social Media, but we like the original name and that’s what it still says on our agency materials. Since the beginning, we’ve never viewed social media as a separate strategy or tactic. Instead, we believe it should be integrated with traditional communications and that the emphasis should be on solid and authentic content and not on automated or gimmicky Facebook or Twitter promotions that someone sitting in a back office passes off as “engaging in a conversation.”
Craftsmen Developers LLC Selects Baltimore PR Firm for Awareness Campaign
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BALTIMORE, Md. (July 12, 2010) – Craftsmen Developers LLC, a residential and commercial land development firm, has selected Baltimore PR firm Sawmill Marketing Public Relations for a public relations campaign to increase awareness of the firm’s land development projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and its expertise and commitment to environmentally responsible green development.
The Baltimore-based PR and social media company is implementing a comprehensive public relations campaign that includes media and community relations programs and that will initially focus on Craftsmen Developers’ distinction of achieving the first National Association of Home Builders Research Center 4-Star Green Land Development Certification on the East Coast.
About Craftsmen Developers, LLC
Based in Glen Burnie, Md., Craftsmen Developers, LLC, founded in 2008 by CEO W. Dennis Gilligan, is one of the most experienced land developers in the Mid-Atlantic region, serving the real estate needs of residential home and commercial building industry clients with properties in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware. For more information, visit www.craftsmendevelopers.com
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com
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Integration is New All Over Again and It’s Never Been Better
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Some time ago, advertising agencies were the pioneers into the unknown world of integration. Specifically, integrating PR into, and often in support of, advertising campaigns. The rationale offered to clients was typically centered around “a single message delivered by ads and publicity” that any communications pro knew was suspect because a promotional message is rarely, if ever, also a newsworthy one.
However, that was then and this is now when integration has assumed a new and powerful role in maximizing the benefits and values of social media campaigns with traditional marketing communications ones. As many of us know, this new role for integration has expanded far beyond messaging to now include how, when and what social media and traditional communications tools are used and their exact purpose in the campaign.
We all have much to learn about how best to creatively and strategically utilize (or not) integration and to then share our knowledge with our clients so they can reap every possible benefit from it.
Recently we met with a prospective client whose business is not a tech oriented one. Imagine our surprise and delight when he indicated his interest in our help to integrate the social media tools he was already using by weaving the fingers of his hands together — the sign language of integration!
2010 Winter Games Recall Our PR Work at Salt Lake
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Ok, it’s corny but conducting media relations during any Olympic Games is unlike any other professional experience we’ve undertaken and being glued to the tube these past two weeks brings much of it back into sharp focus.
Sawmill handled media relations for a luxury inn and resort that was also home to many of the cross country and biathlon teams competing in the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The intensity began to build two months before the start of the games and continued to the end of the closing ceremony. The only time we left the property during the three weeks we were on site was to drive into a nearby town to do laundry.
We spent our days and nights servicing the needs and requests of the who’s who of international major media — from The Today Show that arrived on site @ 1 a.m. to be ready for Al Roker to do his weather segments from the property 6-1/2 hours later to The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Ski Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune and countless international media outlets doing live remotes throughout each night.
Our job, of course, was to get every media outlet possible to the property and to then assist them in every way once they arrived. A steady dose of adrenalin was a constant and important companion.
There was a consistent and, in many ways, unparalleled level of professionalism between us and every reporter, producer, 
camera crew, sound truck driver that we worked with.
During these past two weeks, as we’ve reminisced about the good old days of the 2002 Winter Games, we’ve wondered how the impact of social media — as well the dramatic change in the number, size and financial health of traditional media outlets in the past eight years — has affected, if at all, the professionalism among media outlets and the PR community at the 2010 Winter Games.
We welcome your comments and anecdotes.
