America Commemorates Daylight Saving Time with Sleep

The end of daylight saving time on Nov. 3 offered a natural opportunity to prioritize sleep and remind Americans about the importance of healthy sleep year-round. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) conducted a survey regarding how adults would use the extra hour.

Survey results found that 41% of adults indicated that they would fall back to sleep. “Sleep” was the top response, followed by spending the extra hour with friends and family (13%) and enjoying a relaxing activity (13%). Another 6% plan to do housework and run errands, and 5% plan to catch up on work or studies.

LCWA and AASM shared these results with media and the importance of taking that time to reflect on your own sleep habits – and make changes as necessary.

The end of daylight saving time survey results were highlighted in numerous outlets, including NBC News, The Boston Globe, HealthDay and WebMD. Overall, this outreach increased awareness of healthy sleep nationwide and earned more than 23 million impressions.

Boise Paper Awards One for You, One for Teacher in Successful Sweeps

Since 2011, Boise Paper has been a proud partner and supporter of the General Mills Box Tops for Education program which helps schools across the country earn money to purchase essential items, such as books, art supplies, sports equipment, instruments and more.

This back-to-school season, the LCWA social media team helped Boise Paper hold a Facebook sweepstakes to support the partnership and build awareness of special back-to-school reams of Boise Paper products featuring Box Tops at Office Depot. Utilizing the theme “1 For You, 1 For the Classroom,” entrants got the opportunity to win two $250 Visa e-gift cards – one for their own back-to-school shopping, and one to give to a deserving teacher. 

Overall, the sweepstakes was a big success, driving thousands of entries and an increased awareness of the good that Box Tops for Education does in the community.

LCWA Shows Magazine Editors that We’ve Got Them “Covered”!

While we may be gearing up for cold temperatures and snowfall, shelter magazine editors are already thinking spring! With that in mind, we recently headed to Meredith Corporation in Des Moines, Iowa – the headquarters for several of the nation’s leading home and lifestyle publications, including Better Homes & Gardens, Midwest Living and Traditional Home – to promote some 2020 outdoor living must-haves from our new client Classic Accessories.

Classic Accessories is the leading manufacturer of high-quality, benefit-rich protective covers, furnishings and accessories for outdoor living and today’s active lifestyles. In spring of 2020, the company will launch a new patio collection under its Duck Covers brand and we wanted to give editors a sneak peek at what’s to come. (You’ll have to wait until next year to learn more!)

We met one-on-one with more than 20 editors representing 15 different Meredith print and online properties. Our display proved a great conversation starter, allowing us the opportunity to discuss in detail the Classic Accessories brand and new products. Each editor walked away with a comprehensive media kit and story ideas that could feature the new collection or other Classic Accessories products. And, LCWA walked away with a number of great leads for editorial coverage in spring and summer editions!

Overall, our visit to Meredith Corporation afforded us direct access to editorial influencers and provided the opportunity to position Classic Accessories as the leader in protective covers and as a valuable resource for outdoor living coverage. LCWA effectively solidified relationships with known editors, established rapport with new editors and laid the groundwork for future editorial coverage.

Influencer Marketing – Not Just a Consumer Tactic

When you talk about “online influencers,” most people think of mommy bloggers, celebrities or fashionistas telling consumers about the latest “must have” products. But influencer marketing can also be a huge asset for business-to-business marketing. Here are a few reasons why B2B companies should consider partnering with influencers in their next PR push.

• Drive critical audience awareness. There are influencers reaching every segment of the population, it’s just a matter of finding the right person for your messages. Today’s influencers cover a wide variety of topics and reach audiences through workplace blogs, LinkedIn timelines, ongoing podcasts and more. To find the right influencer, look for three things: reach, relevance and resonance. If you have those things, the influencer will have the power to bring critical awareness to your campaign within your audience.
• Build thought leadership. Influencers are always looking for new and interesting content. Have interesting survey results or an intelligent white paper? Send it to an influencer to discuss and dissect in a new and interesting way, keeping your brand at the forefront of the conversation.
• Help your company stand out. Influencer marketing in the B2B market is still relatively untapped, so why not be the first in your industry to harness it? Your brand will stand out and apart from competitors. Influencer marketing isn’t slowing down, so the sooner B2B companies lean into it, the more ROI they will get out of it.
• Create essential credibility. Building customer trust is important and necessary when growing a business, and there’s no better way to illustrate your credibility than by working with a trustworthy third party.  Choose an influencer that matches up with your company’s values and style so that their followers will connect with your brand’s content. An influencer stamp of approval is useful in demonstrating credibility and can win you new fans for the long term.

There are many great influencers out there. Hopefully this insight will encourage your company to start applying influencer marketing into your next campaign!

First Alert Celebrates Fire Prevention Month

When it comes to fire and carbon monoxide (CO) safety, First Alert works hard to ensure everyone has the tools to keep loved ones safe year-round. During October, the fire service, nonprofit organizations and industry partners offer families ample fire safety education for Fire Prevention Month. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), three out of every five home fire deaths result from fires where there is no smoke alarm or no working smoke alarms. To highlight the importance of home safety, LCWA worked with First Alert to improve awareness nationwide.

To reach consumers directly and underscore this information, First Alert partnered with Lowe’s stores and local fire departments across the U.S. to educate the public about how to protect their families and homes from the threats of fire and carbon monoxide (CO). This involved fun, family-focused activities to teach families about equipping their homes with smoke and CO alarms, as well as planning and practicing a fire escape plan.

LCWA assisted First Alert and Lowe’s in announcing the partnership with a press release as well as distributing a separate release focusing on fire safety and reliable protection for Fire Prevention Month. First Alert shared new data which showed that 60% of consumers do not test their smoke and CO alarms monthly as many forget or aren’t aware of the need for regular testing.

To ensure successful events at the participating Lowe’s stores, LCWA assisted in securing participation at the events nationwide. This included customer service support and coordination with fire safety professionals.

To increase public education, LCWA coordinated a multi-faceted media campaign. This included two media tours promoting home safety and the Lowe’s events in local markets. Additionally, we conducted outreach to numerous local markets to highlight the home safety events occurring at local Lowe’s stores.

In total, LCWA coordinated more than two billion impressions for Fire Prevention Month. Through this outreach, we hope people take home safety seriously all year!

How to Help Clients Earn Valuable Awards and List Placements

A gold star is a great way to denote a job well done. This applies to products, as well. Awards, “best of,” and “top of the top” lists are recognition for a great device and respect for innovation and quality. This recognition can give cachet within the industry, improve credibility with consumers and drive overall brand awareness.

To create a successful award program, here are three steps to consider:

Set the stage.

All award entries are not created equal, and there could be many that could fit your product. If there are not set parameters for your program, the list of possible awards could become a daunting prospect. It’s important to narrow the list. Consider your product’s audience. For a toy, this may be parents and children, while for an app it may be mobile developers. Once you have defined the target audience, it’s important to consider budget. There are typically costs for submitting a product award entry, and some can be quite costly. Additionally, winners will need to consider any add-ons as well. This could include logo usage on the website, a press release or even packaging.

Research award programs.

Once clear goals have been determined, it’s time to dig into the awards that fit for your product. When doing your evaluation, it’s critical to consider two types of submissions – product and editorial awards.

Product awards have a formal entry, criteria and evaluation process – typically along with a fee. Some well-known product awards include the Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards, the Good Design Awards and the CEPro Best Product Awards. Conversely, editorial awards or “best of” lists are more fluid – there may not be a formal submission form or application, however publication editors evaluate products and determine which are the best after a series of rigorous tests. The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval is the most well known. Both editorial and product awards can still include add-on costs.

When evaluating awards, it’s important to consider what products won in the past. This can confirm if your product is a fit for the award, and ensure your time and budget are not wasted on an unlikely entry.

Crafting the submission.

After selecting awards that are the best fit for your product, the last step is handling the submission itself. The bulk of submissions are based on a written product description.

Each award program considers specific criteria. This can be as vague as if the product went to market that year, or specific questions such as “Did the product meet an unmet need?” Each entry should be handled as a unique submission, catering the product for the specific award submission criteria. While the product may be the same, it’s best to hark on different values to promote how it is innovative, impacting the end user or different than existing products.

If you put the right tools in place with robust goals, research and submissions, then your award program will be on the right path to finish strong!

Making the Case for Urgent Care Reimbursements

In an industry as complex as healthcare, there are many sectors that are constantly changing and progressing. One such sector is urgent care, where our client the Urgent Care Association (UCA) is leading the charge for better payer reimbursements for urgent care centers that provide valuable services to millions of patients nationwide.

When pitching a new UCA position statement on payer reimbursements, it was important to target trade media that speak directly to insurance-related audiences. In addition, we reached out to more general healthcare media to ensure a wide audience of industry decision-makers were aware of UCA’s stance on the issue. While most healthcare outlets understood the situation and why the position statement was being shared, a few needed some context as to the who, what, where, when and why of the statement.

We worked with UCA to define the key messages and assembled background on what initially catalyzed the need for the statement. We weaved these details into our pitches to ensure all media understood why UCA created the position statement and the importance of it in the current healthcare landscape. Our efforts resulted in six trade media placements and an interview with Health Plan Weekly that resulted in an in-depth feature article on urgent care reimbursements!