Category: client news

Gifts That Give Back: Remark Social Clients’ Holiday Gift Guide

Posted on by Katie Wagner

Every year many of us face the same obstacles around the holidays. What do you get the person who can afford to buy herself everything she wants? Or the person who doesn’t really like…well, stuff? I don’t know about you but I find it stressful to waste my hard earned money on something that at best may be re-gifted.

We’re here to let you in on a little fail-safe secret: go for a gift that gives back and you will never have to worry about it’s reception. A generic candle is no longer a cop-out when it’s creation owes to the employment and shelter of homeless, adolescent moms (as is the case with the hand poured candles from Bright Endeavors).

Below are 10 gifts that give back (and we are lucky to call these amazing enterprises clients!)

1. Packed with Purpose: PwP is a gifting company that is embedding Purpose into their gifts that give back. Each Packed with  Purpose gift box contains handcrafted products & goodies curated from non-profits and social enterprises that employ people with disabilities & other barriers to the traditional workforce. Purchase directly at: https://shop.packedwithpurpose.gifts/collections/all-gifts

2. Lindy’s & Co: Lindy & Co Gourmet Dog Treats may arguably make the most important dog treats you can purchase! The social enterprise employs homeless youth to produce their line of healthy homemade dog treats – with 100% of the proceeds going towards sheltering street youth. Created by Daybreak – a nonprofit organization that provides emergency shelter, outreach programs, transitional housing, and other vital services to the Dayton, OH homeless and transient youth population.

3. BeeLoveBuzz: Beelove employs formerly incarcerated people work with urban hives to produce its organic honey skincare line. Buy this amazing skincare line directly at: https://beelovebuzz.com/collections/all

4. Bright Endeavors: 100% of their hand crafted, sustainable soy candles sales benefit their mission to empower young moms, their kids, and Chicago communities. Check out their gift sets! https://brightendeavors.org/product-category/gift-sets/

5. Women’s Bean Project: Women’s Bean puts women with backgrounds ranging from organized crime to histories of incarceration and addiction to work learning gourmet food production. Shop their premium gift baskets for that very special someone on your list! https://www.womensbeanproject.com/product-category/premium-gift-baskets/

6. The Mile High WorkShop: MHW is a Denver-based manufacturer and job-training non-profit skilled in wood working, sewing, laser etching, packaging & distribution. Check out their workshop goodies here: https://www.milehighworkshop.org/everything/

7. Central City Coffee: Look no further than this must-have stocking stuffer! Portland’s Central City Coffee is a social enterprise employing Portland’s most vulnerable – at-risk single mothers – and putting them to work roasting and distributing delicious craft coffees. Order all if it online: https://centralcitycoffee.org/

8. dfrntpigeon: an artsy apparel brand run by Portland’s marginalized youth, order these street art inspired Tees for everyone on your list! http://www.dfrntpigeon.com/

9. Net Effects: Net Effects is a socially responsible accessories brand which is focused on providing trade not aid to disenfranchised women in Cambodia and training them as artisans to produce beautiful, zero-waste bags & totes. All Net Effects bags and totes are constructed from recycled materials including repurposed remnants and end pieces of agricultural and industrial netting! https://neteffectstraders.com/

10. More Than Words: for the book lover on your list, look no further than this social enterprise that hires homeless, at-risk youth and youth in the foster care system aged 16-24 yrs old and trains them to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business selling gently pre-used books both in-store (Boston) and online.

Anyone can successfully pitch a guest for a broadcast segment! Learn how…

Posted on by Katie Wagner

One of the highlights of our job is working with experts from all walks of life. Experts in retail, experts on the art of building an app without knowing how to code, experts on predicting the future, the list marches on.

One of our experts is a life coach who deals in the art of personal transformation. Dr.Karin Luise helps her clients dig themselves out of those ruts we tend to find ourselves in once in awhile over the course of life’s adventures. And she is goooood. As someone with her own regional talk show, our team knew we had to showcase her strengths and get her on-air as much as possible. We decided to build her PR campaign around a regional morning show broadcast tour in a variety of networks in cities spanning the country.

So far we’ve built guest segments for our expert on over 10 shows including: Great Day Washington, NBC Roanoake, Talk of Alabama, Hallmark’s Home and Family, Houston Life, Let’s Talk Live in DC, Fox 4 Dallas, AZ Family and more in Georgia, Ohio, New York, Myrtle Beach.

Great, but how did we do it? Here’s five quick, easy and effective tips when building a campaign around guest segments:

  • When reaching out with your pitch, after explaining why your guest would be a great fit for their audience, offer to work with the producer or host to build out the segment. This allows you to have creative control on behalf of your client and helps out a busy producer by taking the work off their plate.
  • Broadcast pitching is often timely. We recently took the angle of ‘spring cleaning your self-care routine’ when pitching our potential guest. Right away it helps us build a theme from the idea of spring cleaning that is timely and relevant.
  • Include clips of your client doing previous on-air interviews or speaking at a conference; send broll if you have it. If you or your client have never done a morning show before, provide clips of a Facebook Live talk or a highly engaging Instagram video. Producers want to get a feel of how potential guests will appear on the screen.
  • Beware network rivalries. Don’t pitch the Today Show by sending a clip of your client on Good Morning America. In the same token, if you are pitching ABC’s regional morning show in Dallas, don’t send a clip of your client on Fox Dallas because they are directly competing for audience share. You can however send ABC Dallas a clip of your client as a guest on Fox in another region.
  • One trick of the trade when pitching a national guest segment, the whale of all broadcast opps: do send clips of regional affiliates when pitching national morning shows. For example when pitching Today, do send your clips of your client or yourself on regional NBC morning shows. This strategy works wonders!

Shift Happens: Remark Client Speaks to Celebrity Divorce & Her Transformation

Posted on by Katie Wagner
Leading up to her divorce Karin Luise felt like she was in a Lifetime Movie. She was married to Atlanta Braves superstar Chipper Jones and despite public appearances had never felt more isolated and alone in her life. Because behind closed doors, masking the fame, glitz and glamour, Chipper revealed his extra martial affairs had resulted in not only betrayal but pregnancies (yes, plural).
But this isn’t a story about the death of a marriage, it’s a story about Karin’s rebirth. By sharing her pivotal transformation with others, she hopes to inspire women who are experiencing the same feelings of despair and hopelessness, to use their divorce to make a pivotal life change; a rebirth. Today Dr. Karin Luise is a transformational life coach, host of the Dr. Karin Show and co-author of the book The Fatherless Daughter Project. 

She starts with her story: “I was truly on my knees at rock bottom TWICE when the Universe said, “BAM – do you want to be this miserable forever or do you want to transform?” Then I raised my hand and the shift happened.” And then goes through how her divorce was the best thing to have happened in her life.

Read more in Karin’s hometown paper, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: http://www.myajc.com/lifestyles/life-after-chipper-jones-and-divorce/i7z9POmnoiuYMJQaGEVaHK/

A Love Affair With Forbes

Posted on by Katie Wagner

Valentine’s Day is looming on the horizon and as such we started thinking about love. Our team has enjoyed so much incredible media love for clients this past year but one particular outlet went the extra  mile and showered us with much deserved attention. From January 2017 to January 2018 Remark clients had a love affair with Forbes.

Below, we reminisce:

2018 28 Retail Marketing Predictions To Watch in 2018: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rganatra/2018/01/18/e-commerce-marketing-predictions-for-2018/#3747de8849b6

2018 How A Social Enterprise Rebranded to Sell More Products And Help More Women: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robindschatz/2018/01/08/how-a-social-enterprise-rebranded-to-sell-more-products-and-help-more-women/#63d19f6f7763

2017 How One Venture Has Impact Coming And Going: ow.ly/MXz830b4gJ1

2017 Cinemizer OLED: A Personal Video Player For Your Eyes Only: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottkramer/2017/03/02/cinemizer-oled-a-personal-video-player-for-your-eyes-only/#39dc5a4b1a85

2017 Helping Young Moms Work Their Way Out Of Poverty: https://www.forbes.com/sites/meimeifox/2017/01/31/helping-young-moms-work-their-way-out-of-poverty/#729badae5998

2017 Loves Wins In 2017: Here Are 25+ Valentine’s Day Gifts That Give Back: https://www.forbes.com/sites/vanessamcgrady/2017/02/04/valentines2017/#391c1c486321

2017 Hiring Women Other Businesses Won’t Has Made All The Difference: https://www.forbes.com/sites/devinthorpe/2017/01/04/this-business-only-hires-women-you-wouldnt-and-that-has-made-all-the-difference/#6e94c0134316

Questions Every Social Enterprise Should Ask When Embarking On A PR Campaign

Posted on by Katie Wagner

 

My team has had the pleasure of working with Chicago based social enterprise Bright Endeavors for several months as part of a larger partnership with REDF, a San Francisco based non-profit dedicated to investing in double bottomline enterprises. Bright Endeavors employs at-risk young moms in candle production and aims to break the cycle of poverty through job training.

Over the months, I’m proud to say we’ve successfully garnered a fantastic media mix of product reviews (Earth911, Inc.com, Business News Daily, ) and social good company profiles (Christian Science Monitor, Forbes, Unite:4Good) resulting in increased site traffic and sales. Because REDF has many non-profits which could benefit from Public Relations, our campaigns must wrap after several months’ time to spread the opportunity throughout the portfolio. Recently I received the following list of questions from Bright Endeavors’ Sales & Marketing Coordinate, Allie Sundet on how to best continue to leverage the momentum created by Remark. I’m sharing these here as I believe these are questions all social enterprises should be considering when looking towards towards a building or maintaining a PR campaign that is both effective and manageable.

  1. How does Remark determine the appropriate news outlet/type (blogger, influencer, online magazine, gift guides, etc.) to reach out to? About how many/week?

  2. How do you divide your time between reaching out to the various outlets, is more time spent on bloggers than another source, for example?

  3. What are some tips for building a media database?

  4. What tends to be an initial ‘pitch’ or ask? Do you have any tips for creating an engaging story that will hook the influencer/publication?

  5. How many times do you typically follow up after the initial pitch? Are product samples necessary for each outlet?

  6. What are some tips for creating a successful PR strategy?

  7. How do you measure success of this strategy?

  8. How much lead time do outlets typically need to ensure timely publication? For example, when is a good time to start pushing stories for the holidays?

      9. What are some strategy ideas around promoting our candle rental service in the spring/summer        months?

Q1 is for Coverage

Posted on by Katie Wagner

It’s hard to believe it’s almost tax time for 2017 as I type this. Where has the quarter gone? Our team’s been busy securing phenomenal coverage for our amazing clients and it’s always fun to pause for a minute, reflect and share.

Baby Gourmet: Latin Moms Tips, Emmet’s ABC, Clean, Green & Sprouted

Bright Endeavors: Forbes, BeautyNewsNYC, Hippie and Heart, Caravan Style Studio, Simply Annie, Chic Metro Magazine, Across the Avenue, Posh Beauty Blog, Daily Mom, Sugarly, My Style Spot, Shabby Chic Boho, Beauty Style Watch

Cinemizer: Forbes, Oscar Liang, A Luxury Travel blog

Go Gourmet: Runner’s World Magazine, Everything Changes, SnackDot’s Youtube, Hula Hooping Mom, New and Natural Mom, OC Register Family, Montgomery County Moms 

Lindy & Co: Pet Age Magazine, Fido Friendly

Micro Drone 3.0: HuffPost, The Gear Junkie

Mile High Workshop: Forbes.com

PilotsFriend: City Palate Magazine, Skies Magazine, Plenty Magazine, Le Spark, Her Modern Canvas, almostfamous, Carlivh.com, eating is the hard part

RecycleForce: Your Mark on the World

Women’s Bean Project: Weight Watchers Magazine (March print issue), Spry Living Magazine (Feb print issue), Eco18.com, Parade.com, Chicago Tribune

December Coverage: Rounding Out The Year With A Bang!

Posted on by Katie Wagner

(Photo courtesy of www.sugarthegoldenretriever.com)

From Inc.com and CNNMoney to HelloGiggles and Today.com, we delight in seeing our clients clean up when it comes to earned media. Whether your thing is quality or quantity, December’s roundup has something for everyone:

Baby Gourmet: won over Canadian moms and babies in Emmett’s ABCs, Mom Knows Best, Living the Mommy Life, The Mixed Bag, A Moms Perspective, Moscato Mom, Bohemian Babushka, 

BeeLove: can’t stop the buzz in Headlines for the Hopeful, UpTown Magazine, Darling Magazine, Hello Glow, Uncovered.com

Bright Endeavors: shines in Inc Magazine, Chicago Woman, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Hunter Collector, Hello Glow, ShabbyChicBoho, PRCouture, MarinoBambinos, EcoCult, Fountain of 30, Studio Matsalla, The Bottle Blonde and TomKat Studio

Mile High Workshop: is building brand and community awareness in CNNMoney, Colorado Country Life, 5280 Magazine and Budget Dumpster

Slammers Snacks: satisfied the tastebuds of The Supermarket Guru and Triathlete Magazine (print)

Total 3D Solutions: Essence Magazine recommends the Cinemizer for it’s luxury travel gift guide

Truly Pawsome: received some, well, pawsome coverage in Today.com, HelloGiggles, Tails Magazine and Golden Woofs

Women’s Bean Project: enjoyed delicious coverage in BuzzFeed, POPSugar, Food 52, Petite Foodie, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, OnMogul, Sandi Klein Show, With Our Best, Cookistry, PBFingers, Tonia’s Kitchen, Soulicious Life, TeresaBergen, BeachBody and Queen of Reviews

Social entrepreneurs, taglines and reflection

Posted on by Katie Wagner

At Remark we realize how lucky we are to do the work we love with inspirational clients and thought leaders in one of the greatest cities in the world. Recently our team was asked by Ardice Farrow, founder and director of NET Effects, to help come up with a remarkable (see what we did here?!) tagline for her company. NET Effects, is built on championing disenfranchised women in Cambodia – employing and training women who have been disfigured by land mines, blinded and are hearing impaired – and paying them a fair wage to create beautiful bags and totes. In fact every 15-20 pieces sold in U.S. provides fair wage for one month for a woman in Cambodia.

The branding assignment got us thinking: how do we succinctly convey what NET Effects stands for? Do we focus on the fact that the brand provides a net to a family in need with every sale? Do we focus on the women creating the beautiful accessories who have lived hard lives and are prospering because of conscious consumerism? Do we take the zero waste angle because NET Effects repurposes remnants and end pieces of agricultural and industrial netting for their bags?

This exercise resulted in a healthy dose of reflection. We’ve always believed in the importance of giving back. Remark has worked with many deserving clients on a pro-bono basis and felt especially fortunate we are able to do so. More importantly we get to work with clients who are truly leaving the world a better place.

We are fueled knowing our success will help sell bags and ultimately allow Ardice and NET Effects to hire and train more women in Cambodia and supply nets to reduce the spread of disease to families around the world. And that is something our team can be proud of.

KRON4 hosts Alameda South Shore Center’s Fourth Annual #TheLittleIceRink2015

Posted on by Katie Wagner

Check out video here: http://kron4.com/2015/11/05/video-ice-skating-rink-opens-in-alameda/

ALAMEDA (KRON) — There are fewer than 50 days until Christmas, and a holiday treat just opened up for anyone who loves to ice skate.

As the temperatures drop, ice skating rinks are opening around the Bay Area,including in San Francisco’s Union Square.

The Little Ice Rink in Alameda is back. And a special ceremony just wrapped up at around 5:30 p.m. Thursday night.

“Not everyone can afford it,” ice rink sponsor Alyssa Tomfohrde said. ” (It) is an investment, especially for a larger family, so we want to offer that to kids who wouldn’t normally be able to (skate), and to everyone in the community.”

The ice rink opened at the Alameda South Shore Center. And it was hosted by KRON’s Justine Waldman!

KRON is a proud sponsor of the Little Ice Rink.

Justine said she was honored to be there for the grand opening of the holiday tradition. In the above video, Justine explains the new features at the rink this year.