Work
Relay
Since 2018, Segal Communications has supported the walkie-talkie alternative Relay in its consumer-focused business. Witnessing a trend of companies in 2020 purchasing their product for business purposes, Relay decided to pivot the focus of their brand from B2B to B2C. With this 180-degree turn, Segal Communications was asked to wind down their parent-focused outreach and focus 100 percent of their attention on their new target market — the deskless worker.
Segal Communications worked closely with Relay to optimize product and business announcements via earned, owned, and paid placements. The earned component of the program included media mentions of noteworthy moments, as well as hardware and software updates in Fast Company, PC Mag, ZDNet, ABC News, MSN, and many more top-tier outlets. The team drafted articles and posts for social media and blog channels to amplify newsworthy updates to all owned channels. And finally, to complement the company’s paid media program, the Segal team researched, curated, and coordinated paid placements across a dozen target audiences and trade news outlets.
Shane Co.
In 2018, Segal Communications was hired by Shane Co., the largest family-owned jewelry company in the United States. The company had not leveraged public relations prior to this relationship but recognized an opportunity to expand their visibility beyond their twenty brick-and-mortar stores with earned media directing customers to their e-commerce experience.
As Shane Co. has no physical footprint in Los Angeles or New York — where there is a concentration of fashion and accessory focus media — Segal Communications recommended piggybacking on an already scheduled photo shoot to introduce media and influencers to the brand in a meaningful and memorable way.
The team coordinated a media event to occur in tandem with the photoshoot at a convenient location. To maximize the investment, media was invited to view, try on and post about the jewelry showcased at the event. More than two dozen media attended the event from publications including Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Woman’s Day and Women’s Health, Today Show, Fashionista, People, Redbook, Martha Stewart, Harper’s Bazaar, Bridal Guide, Life & Style Weekly, InTouch Weekly, Closer, and Accessories Magazine. Following the event, the Segal team nurtured these relationships to secure ongoing coverage not only for the company’s extensive product selection but also for their jewelry knowledge and expertise. These efforts — along with proactive and reactive pitching — generated several hundred pieces of coverage (including O Magazine, Vogue, Who What Wear and many more) — resulting in over 3 billion impressions and counting.
Pots & Co.
Segal Communications was brought on by British dessert maker Pots & Co to support its US expansion. The London-based artisan food maker was available in a limited number of US stores but was set to embark on a nationwide trial with Costco. Traditionally Costco has been a retail location for established brands to sell bulk products to already loyal customers. However, more recently, the store aisles are being used to test out new consumer products due to its nationwide footprint. Segal Communications was tasked with providing regional and national exposure for a largely unknown brand amid the pandemic.
The secret to a successful campaign would be to get the product into the hands of media and influencers. The quality of the product was such that reviews would be highly favorable. With a tight budget, the team devised a plan whereby influencers would be provided with a complimentary membership to the warehouse store in exchange for seeking out and sharing their discovery. This worked to reduce the exorbitant expense and difficulty of shipping frozen products in breakable ceramic pots. As Costco has an immense footprint, influencers were asked to include specifics as to where in the store they found the product to make it easier for their followers to locate. For influencers and media unable or unwilling to seek the product out in the store, the team leveraged Instacart, overnight shipping, and even hand-delivered products for review. The result was nearly 200 influencer posts and 50 articles in Delish, Cosmopolitan, Yahoo, Mashed, and MSN.
Nurx
The Uber of birth control, Nurx partnered with Segal Communications to secure exclusive coverage as well as amplify several regional and national business announcements — including the addition of Chelsea Clinton to the board of directors.
Segal Communications worked closely with the Nurx team to curate media targets as well as develop visuals, messaging, and video to accompany outreach. State-by-state outreach was supported by region-specific data, sourced by the Segal team to reinforce the importance and significance of the announcement. These efforts resulted in placements in Business Insider, Them., Newsy, The Jackson Sun, The Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee Business Journal, and regional broadcast coverage in Georgia, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Arkansas.
Johnny Doughnuts
Segal Communications was hired by artisan bakery Johnny Doughnuts in 2020 to further brand awareness and support a series of additional locations that would be opened throughout the course of the year. In May of 2021, the already widely recognized regional favorite planned to open a new brick-and-mortar location. This new location would be taking over a beloved community doughnut shop. The challenge would be to earn favor from those who were loyal fans of the doughnut shop being taken over, while simultaneously working to gain publicity for the grand opening.
To accomplish this, the Segal team recommended securing the participation of the previous shop’s owners to facilitate and encourage die-hard fans to embrace the new brand. At six weeks prior to the opening, the team secured the former owner’s support, drafted key messaging, and media-trained both parties for an exclusive interview with the largest regional news outlet. This early news moment prepared the community for the passing of the baton well before the grand opening so that any negative sentiment that could possibly result would not interfere with opening coverage. The team then went on to publicize opening day via strategic placements spanning digital, radio, and print media, partnerships with local businesses and organizations, and earned and owned social media coverage. The end result was a sizable turnout for grand opening weekend; so sizable in fact that Johnny Doughnuts had to close early on both days of their opening weekend due to extraordinary customer demand.
Kix’ies
Segal Communications was hired in the fall of 2020 to “turn on” the company’s earned media channels to generate brand awareness and recognition beyond the brand’s band of loyal customers. When the Segal team was brought on, Kix’ies had not yet received media attention on a national level. Additionally, the Segal team was tasked with building a cadence of content for the company’s owned channels with the objective of establishing credibility within the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle spaces.
The Segal team worked with the Kix’ies marketing team to develop a brand narrative around the primary vision of its founder — to inspire people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and backgrounds to express themselves through fashion. The Segal team provided creative guidance based on current trends to inspire product imagery and website content for media consumption as well
as marketing initiatives. The team leveraged product launches, philanthropic efforts, and seasonal relevance to showcase the company’s distinctive assortment of products and broader mission. To cultivate brand ambassadors, the Segal team established and operationalized a successful influencer sampling program of which 90% were trade relationships. These efforts combined resulted in features in national publications such as Maxim, US Weekly, Hollywood Life, RetailMeNot, Yahoo Style, and The Inventory. A cadence of continuous influencer coverage was established in the form of dozens of posts across various social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
