Case Studies

Starting Point/Situational Analysis:
Segal Communications was contracted to provide Montgomery Village, an open-air retail destination located in the heart of Sonoma County, with public relations support as the new management company upgraded the facilities and storefronts to appeal to the local community and a new generation of visitors. The shopping center features 50+ retailers and is continuing to grow its tenant diversity.

Campaign:
Segal Communications works with property management to support a wide variety of events, including seasonal property events, grand openings, and ongoing evergreen coverage. Property event support includes calendar listings, media outreach as well as sourcing and managing of influencers to highlight the on-site happenings. For grand openings, Segal works directly with the tenant to support regional press and influencer partnerships. This support varies based on the existing brand presence of the tenant and includes all the elements of a traditional grand opening event. Lastly, Segal works with the management team to develop a seasonal gift box program to secure social content for the property. The gift boxes feature a rotating assortment of gift cards and products that influencers are provided in exchange for social media coverage.

Results:
To date, Segal has supported numerous seasonal events, grand openings of Lululemon, Warby Parker, Shake Shack, Amour Vert, and countless other shops and restaurants, on-site activations, such as an appearance by Guy Fieri and Holiday “Santa Sightings,” and has distributed dozens of influencer gift boxes. All these efforts have resulted in 50+ pieces of editorial coverage with 30 million estimated views, calendar listings in 5-10 outlets per event, and partnerships with over 30 small to mid-sized influencers to promote activations such as “wellness Weekend,” Sur la Table Cooking Classes, and Amour Vert’s “Sip and Shop” event.

Starting Point/Situational Analysis:
The newly named Press Ambassador for the APEC 2023 Host Committee of San Francisco contracted with Segal Communications to support media relations for the week-long Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leader’s week at the Moscone Center that would be attended by the leaders of 21 international economies.

Campaign:
Segal was contracted to conduct proactive outreach to local, national, and international media to encourage early accreditation, management of the host committees’ press inquiry inbox, and distribute a series of newsletters to members of the media covering the event with important updates and valuable resources. Additionally, was asked to develop an informational deck that would be used to educate members of the media about APEC. The host committee expanded the contracted with a requested that Segal take on the additional responsibility of proactively pitching all APEC-related news to local media outlets and provide on-site support throughout the duration of the project.

Results:
Segal conducted outreach to thousands of members of the local, national, and international media and worked in partnership with the State Department to facilitate the credentialling of more than 2000 members of the media for the event. Segal responded to hundreds inbound emails or redirected inquiries to the appropriate contact on the local, national, and international levels. The team develop a series of 17 newsletters that each featured welcome videos from well-known members of the San Francisco Community, such as Rodney Fong, Emily Chang, and Tyler Florence. The videos were developed in partnership with SFTV.Gov. The newsletters were distributed to 2283 subscribers over five weeks with an average open rate of 45 percent. Each newsletter included a welcome letter, conference updates, the latest APEC News, San Francisco-specific opportunities developed in coordination with SFTravel, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and Office of Economic Workforce Development, local San Francisco News, San Francisco Landmark highlights and an informative fun fact. Segal developed a comprehensive presentation that was used for newsroom tours conducted by the Press Ambassador to provide deeper insights into the significance, history, and local impact of the event. During these visits, the team met with management, editors, and reporters from local outlets such as the SF Examiner, SF Standard, KGO, NBC Bay Area, CBS Bay Area, KTSF, and the San Francisco Chronicle to review this comprehensive presentation. The Press Ambassador also met separately with KQED & Bloomberg leadership. This presentation was then developed into a 30-minute pre-recorded webinar in collaboration with the CEO Summit, the APEC Secretariat, and the U.S. APEC Secretariat. The team has also worked to ensure that local and regional media outlets are aware of media credentialing opportunities and who to contact for media inquiries, drafting and distributing the following PR Newswire press release throughout California before the media credentialing application deadline: MEDIA CREDENTIALING CLOSES ON OCTOBER 6th FOR THE ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION LEADERS’ WEEK EVENT. Leading up to and during the week, the Segal team supported the publication of more than 1500 articles and broadcast segments by local media outlets. During the week of the event, the team provided on-site staffing support at APEC Leader’s Week and the CEO Summit. The APEC CEO Summit is widely considered the most influential meeting of business and government in the Asia Pacific.

Starting Point/Situational Analysis
The American Geophysical Union (AGU), an international nonprofit dedicated to advancing discovery in Earth and space science, was seeking to develop a scalable way to help publicize the hundreds of community-led scientific research studies it funds. AGU looked to Segal to develop a toolkit for media relations and social media that non-communications professionals could implement on their own. With the studies covering everything from wildfire mitigation to flood prevention, the team would need to develop supportive communications templates and timelines that were focused yet flexible.

Campaign
To fully understand the diverse range of funded scientific projects, the Segal team conducted intake interviews with seven project leads and developed customized communications plans for each of the seven that included a press release, media list, media pitch, media briefing, and recorded media training, along with a universal toolkit that would be distributed across the organization. These projects included the following:

● Ottawa County, OK (LEAD Agency Tar Creek)
● Pinole, CA (Friends of Pinole Creek Watershed)
● Lindenhurst, NY (American Venice)
● Hamburg, MI (Ore Lake North Shore HOA)
● Columbus, OH (FCPH/MORPC)
● Fairfax County, VA (Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions)
● San Ysidro, CA (Casa Familiar)

Results
From the above projects, Segal was asked to support one of the seven projects to create a case study for how the templatized program could be implemented. Segal led publicity for a comprehensive mapping study of a superfund site in Oklahoma. The publicity resulted in national coverage from outlets like Green Matters and NPR, as well as comprehensive local coverage. All told, the campaign earned coverage estimated at 1.75 million UVM.

Starting Point/Situational Analysis:
Stockton Scholars is a Stockton, California-based nonprofit dedicated to guiding the young people of the city on a clear path to higher education and an impactful life. Founded in 2018 by Michael Tubbs, the program provides support, resources, and mentorship to high school students to make the college process simple and achievable, working to increase the only 17% of the city’s residents who have a bachelor’s degree level of education.

The foundation’s first group of students to receive help and financial aid in 2019 were beginning to graduate from college in 2023, and Stockton Scholars was hosting a celebration to commemorate the milestone. The foundation enlisted Segal Communications to publicize the event and raise awareness of Stockton Scholar’s mission both locally and nationally.

Campaign:
Segal was brought on with only one month to raise awareness of the event and program, so we quickly began building media lists of local print, broadcast, and radio, as well as national education journalists. We drafted a press release highlighting the foundation’s success in its first graduating class, which was released on the newswire and used for pitching purposes. We pitched national education writers and education trade media to inform them about the program and the milestone, and pitched local media to invite them to cover the event. We secured student spokespeople to speak about their experiences in the program, and their hopes for after graduation.

Results:
Our newswire release generated 145 pickups nationally, with an 87.9M potential audience. We secured the attendance of both local print and broadcast stations at the Stockton Scholars graduation event, resulting in the placement of two articles and one broadcast segment, all with very positive sentiment of the event and program. We also provided on-site assistance at the graduation event, coordinating interviews with spokespeople and supporting any other media needs.