Advertising Benefits From Timely Tie-Ins

Timeliness isn't only for stories--it's a key element in advertising, too.

With that in mind, I have been inserting information about upcoming events in print advertising for a client, McAdam Landscaping.

In the pages of Wednesday Journal, Inc. and Pioneer Press publications, early this month it was a Mother's Day special, last week it was a musical performance held at its Nursery & Garden Center and this week it's an incentive to become a Facebook Fan of the Forest Park firm (how's that for some ambitious alliteration).

Want to win a $25 gift certificate from the Nursery & Garden Center? You have until June 1st to get onto Facebook and then type "McAdam Landscaping" into the search box and become a fan.

Or you can simply go directly to the McAdam Landscaping page here.

More importantly, if you advertise in any forum, capitalize on every opportunity to make the content relevant and timely. It's a great way to engage your audience and move them to action, rather than to settle for making a simple one-way statement that is more prone to go absolutely nowhere.

McAdam Featured in Earth Day TV Segment

Last night, on the eve of Earth Day, Jackie Bange of Chicago's WGN Channel 9 filed a report with a refreshingly different take on environmental stewardship: not only honoring the stuff of the Earth, but also some individuals who are in need of a fresh start.

As part of her reporting, Bange came out to Forest Park-based McAdam Landscaping and its Nursery & Garden Center last week. For years, McAdam has hired graduates of the Green Corp program profiled in the piece.

In 1997, brothers Scott and Rob McAdam, along with two other partners, started WRD Environmental, Inc. The company provides consultation for native landscapes and currently oversees the Green Corp program of Chicago’s Department of Environment.

As the WGN report notes, the city of Chicago has partnered with WRD "to create a green jobs program for those who have a difficult time finding employment, many of which are ex-offenders."

Some elements of that visit are evident in the segment below, including interviews with Scott McAdam, the company president, and employees Anthony Harris and Rosa Montes.

Clearly, they are among a larger group of individuals, including some others interviewed on camera, that have played instrumental roles in this successful initiative. Kudos to the entire team for its collective willingness to do "the right thing," as Scott McAdam told Bange.

To learn more, you can read the summary here or or click on the video (graciously provided by WGN) below.

 

A Fun, Feel-Good Story For Christmas

Heart-warming, feel-good stories are great to share all-year round, but especially so around Christmas.

That's why one of my favorite activities this month was telling the story of one local family that moved back into their home after nearly a year away, to accommodate workers building an addition.

One of Inside Edge PR's clients, McAdam Landscaping, helped the mom put a festive, creative touch on the moment.

You can read the story here at Triblocal.com and see a related video below.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

McAdam Landscaping At 30: Sowing & Reaping

For the last two years, I have had the pleasure of providing public relations service to McAdam Landscaping, a leading company that has accomplished much in its 30 years in business.

To take a look at some of its history, check out a news release I wrote and posted the other day on Triblocal.com, McAdam Landscaping: Sowing and Reaping for 30 Years.

I also posted a photo gallery on the Tribune site.

'Tis the Season to `Go Green' With PR

"Green is the new black."

Over a year ago, that phrase was the centerpiece of one of my clients' involvement with a design project at her alma mater. You can see some of the efforts to the left, and the story here.

Stories focusing on environmental stewardship are hot this time of year. Witness recent Inside Edge PR releases about Better Homes & Gardens Gloor Realty and McAdam Landscaping here in the Chicago area.

Is there something your business or organization is doing in the "green" category? My advice: think of a fresh way to position it and get the word out to your local media.

PR Focus: Picture this....and this...and this

For more than a year, I have helped McAdam Landscaping share stories about the breadth, depth and quality of its work with the Chicago-area media, as well as nationally.

Increasingly, a pivotal part of that story can be told via photographs, such as ones that are included in this post.

The photos were among those that led to McAdam's receiving an award for commercial maintenance from the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association.

Media outlets provide simple tools for posting multiple photographs to complement written content, and it's an avenue that companies and organizations ought to capitalize on more often.

North Shore magazine, for example, is interested in printing a few photographs from a charity fundraiser that was held in January at Five Seasons Sports Club in Northbrook, another Inside Edge PR client.

At sites like Triblocal.com, there are "photo gallery" features that enable anyone to post a variety of photographs that showcase any given story.

You can see samples of some recent Inside Edge PR photo postings here and here.

Quantity of Information Begets Quality PR

In the PR business, you can never gather too much information. Now, choosing what to disseminate--and when, and to whom--those are areas where you want to be more selective.

But out of quantity flows quality.

Case in point: on Monday, I spent three hours with Scott McAdam, president of McAdam Landscaping. I took still photos and shot video at about 20 locations, throughout River Forest and Oak Park, where his company has done its stellar work. It's all part of a longer-term plan to develop more--and more compelling--ways to communicate his company's expertise and experience.

Along the way, we discussed a wide range of topics and Scott mentioned that the cost of doing business has grown markedly this year, and a significant reason for that has been the rising cost of fuel. Besides mentioning a fuel additive that he may want to look into (which has provided my vehicles with 10 to 15 percent better efficiency over the years), I tucked the information away for potential media outreach.

Then, this afternoon, I heard from Geoff Williams, a top business writer based in Cincinnati, "asking if you represent any companies (like the landscaping client you have) that involve a lot of transportation – like, a company that has cars, buses or trucks or makes deliveries. For a gas article."

The article is for a publication with a nationwide subscription of 175,000.

Of course, the dots don't always connect so neatly--or nearly so quickly. But gather as many dots--or pieces of information about your client, its industry, or even facts that may not seem very relevant at the moment--and you are in a stronger position to do more for your client.