Tag: Local NC
On Friday, April 16, philanthropy and field day competitions were combined in the inaugural Bull City Blowout, a fundraising event that benefited SeeSaw Studio. Nine Durham, N.C. creative agencies went head-to-head in a series of fun games to raise money for the local nonprofit, a free afterschool program that fosters design-focused art and entrepreneurship skills for teens. Through event sponsorships, individual and corporate donations, the Bull City Blowout collected nearly $4,000 for SeeSaw Studio.
Click here to see our photo album on Facebook.
Some of these photos are courtesy of Mark Yonjof of Vertis.
To see more of the action, check out these photos from RichdDesign.
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Largemouth is competing for bragging rights and a good cause in the first annual Bull City Blowout. The fundraising field day event is being organized by nine Durham creative agencies and will occur this Friday, April 16 from 3-5 p.m. in Durham Central Park. Donations are still being accepted for SeeSaw Studio, a nonprofit art enrichment program for teens. The event is open to the public, so feel free to stop by, enjoy the weather and see some crazy competitions!
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Kelly Hubbard and I were fortunate enough to attend the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association's (NCRLA's) first annual Taste of North Carolina at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club in Durham. Largemouth is working with one of Raleigh's landmark restaurants, and since the restaurant's owner was being honored with an award at the event, we wanted to show our support and network with other attendees in the hospitality industry.
According to the NCRLA, North Carolina's hospitality industry is a $17.5 billion industry. In fact, restaurants and hotels combined are one of North Carolina's largest employers, providing jobs to more than 10 percent of the state's workforce.
While Largemouth's primary focus remains B2B, we do work with retail and consumer clients to drive visibility and preference for their goods and services. At the Taste of North Carolina, Kelly and I sampled North Carolina's finest food, beer, wine and hospitality service, and we were not disappointed!
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Last week I had the pleasure of attending the first-ever nationwide Media Leaders event that took place simultaneously in seven cities: New York, Austin, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and … Raleigh?! Yes, that’s right. I was so proud to see North Carolina’s capital listed among these other major cities. I have happily lived, worked and played in the Raleigh-Durham area for several years now. Over time I have seen our area receive increased recognition across the country as a technology hub with Research Triangle Park and an education center with the many renowned colleges and universities in our midst. I am proud to see Raleigh is being recognized for its active social media scene.
From a public relations perspective, social media is a logical component of a comprehensive communications plan designed to support specific business objectives. We work with our clients to leverage new media channels to share their organization’s story with a rapidly growing audience. The beauty of new media is, well, it’s still very new, and many fields are playing a part in shaping the user-experience of these new communications channels. At Media Leaders Raleigh I met with fellow public relations colleagues as well as people from local advertising, marketing, graphic design, production and IT organizations. I really think we took down Foursquare for a short time with the amount of people checking in at Busy Bee Cafe that night. You can see the wide industry representation yourself by browsing the RSVP list for the Raleigh Media Leaders event.
If I received a dollar for the number of times I heard (or said), “I recognize you from Twitter!” I’d have left the Media Leaders event with heavy pockets. This event, among many other localized social media gatherings like Tweetup and Social Media Breakfast meetings, proves that social media will never take away from the value of in-person interactions and networking. If anything, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare increase the value of these types of gatherings.
If you didn’t get a chance to attend the Media Leaders event, add yourself to the mailing list and catch the next event. You can also view the @phonebooth photos taken during the Raleigh event (keep an eye out for the Wolfpack white board photo). You’ll quickly learn why Raleigh won the “Award for Best Social Media Community”. You can find me @khubbard on Twitter – I hope to say “I recognize you from Twitter!” during the next in-person event.
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For the holidays this year the Largemouth team decided as a group to contribute to the community through donations to the Durham Rescue Mission this holiday season. The Durham Rescue Mission’s goal is to help those in need across all aspects, spiritual, educational, emotional, physical and vocational, to enable them to become fully functioning members of society.
Largemouth collected toiletries, blankets, cleaning supplies and other housekeeping items that the rescue mission is regularly in need of. We probably enjoyed selecting toys to donate the most, knowing the cuddly stuffed animals, toy trucks, games, baby dolls and sports gear would help make several kiddies very happy this Christmas.
Just as the Durham Rescue Mission helps with new beginnings, the New Year brings all of us a definitive fresh start. From all of us at Largemouth, we give thanks to our customers, coworkers and peers for a great year. We send best wishes and look forward to a wonderful 2010! Happy New Year!
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This week Largemouth’s President and CEO Brandon Bryce spoke at the Raleigh Public Relations Society (RPRS) meeting. I am on the board as the hospitality chair and was delighted when the RPRS vice president invited Brandon to speak to our members and guests during the September lunch meeting.
The RPRS mission is to advance the art and science of public relations and to strengthen communication, understanding and cooperation among the diverse individuals, groups and institutions of the society. Its members are made up of PR and communications professionals from across North Carolina who work in various fields either internally, at a firm or as consultants.
Brandon’s presentation “Protecting Brands in a Tough Economy” addressed the current economic climate, the impact of a recession on brands, the evolving communications landscape and best practices to take control of the message. He asked the attendees, “Why protect company reputation in the first place? Shouldn’t a company be concentrating on their balance sheets and budgets during an economic downturn?” The reality is that communication is taking place no matter what the climate, and brand equity needs to be protected. Brand equity can help maintain the confidence of employees, customers and stakeholders and prevent the potential negative feedback loop that often prevents other efforts from operating efficiently.
With dwindling ad revenues, shrinking newsrooms and evolution of news consumption patterns, the communications landscape continues to change. Readers hunt for the news and information they want to read and can learn about breaking news 24 hours a day. These communication changes are impacted by the recession in the sense that there is more competition for share of voice.
Brandon emphasized the need to take control of the message and share the right story with the right audiences during tight times. It is also important to take inventory on the collateral that shares the company message and story. With the various online communities and social outlets available today, companies must actively monitor discussions taking place around their brand. Organizations that commit to reputation management today will ultimately emerge stronger when the economy takes a turn for the better.
RPRS members were actively taking notes during Brandon’s presentation. Since these were PR professionals, one audience member asked Brandon’s perspective on client adoption of social media. Brandon explained that he thought there was always going to be a learning curve, especially as the new media options continue to evolve at a rapid pace—there seems to always be a new application or online community emerging. Clients are usually more inclined to take a closer look at the benefits once presented with research of the online discussions taking place about them, about their competitors and their brand.
We were proud to have Brandon represent Largemouth and share his thoughts in front of many of our local peers and colleagues.
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One of the great things about working at Largemouth Communications is that we all truly like each other, and we like to have fun. So when my tennis team played in the North Carolina state USTA championships over July 4th weekend in Pinehurst, I stepped on the court knowing that my whole Largemouth family was rooting for me. It was a great weekend. Good competition, great tennis, incomparable atmosphere (imagine hundreds of tennis players packed into Pinehurst for a weekend we've all been anticipating since last August!), and a chance to try for a new "personal best." Our team did well - we placed third in our group after winning three of our five matches. As a team of busy working moms in our 30s and 40s, we felt pretty good about that! We snapped this photo after celebrating our first win with a terrific lunch at Pinehurst's Village Deli. That's me in yellow. They say tennis makes happy people. I believe that!
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Kim Green, executive producer at WNCN NBC17 in Raleigh and @NBC17EP on Twitter was kind enough to hold a tour for PR professionals in the area, and I jumped at the opportunity. The only other TV news studio tour I've done was when I was in Girl Scouts in middle school, and all I remember is how much makeup the anchors were wearing. As an adult in public relations, I took much more away from this tour!
The assignment desk is to the left, and you can barely see Ginny Skalski, who helps run MyNC. Below is a shot of the newsroom (l) and production control room (r).
And no tour is complete without a stop by the studio, where the makeup-wearing anchors reside. Since they were filming the 6 p.m. news, I didn't take pictures of them, but I was able to meet them during commercial breaks.
Thanks for the tour, and keep up the good work, NBC17!
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We have now officially started our blog. From this point forward, we promise to capture and offer our loyal visitors useful strategies, tips and techniques for improving communications.
Enjoy your morning coffee and read this helpful article on protecting your brand in a recession.
Thanks, BB
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