Media and Public Relations

WIT Strategy develops communication strategies on a bespoke basis for each of its clients.  We develop and execute effective message development and tactical campaigns that build on your specific media and communications priorities.  A typical WIT Strategy engagement may begin with our unique communications audit including analysis not only of what the media is saying about you, but what your own company is saying internally, what your clients may not be telling you and what your competitors think about you as well.  Then using “pull-advertising” techniques and media placement we exploit your strengths, confront your weaknesses head-on, and differentiate your position within your vertical exposing your competitors’ weaknesses.

Tactically, this diligence characteristically leads to the design and execution of these and other tactical objectives:

Lead generation

• Differentiate client’s service
  
• Position client as driving the industry standard
  
• Media placement with focus on thought-leadership as expressed through bylines
  
• Panel design and speaker placement

It goes without saying that speaking engagements at key industry conferences establish your executives as subject matter experts.  While most PR agencies are seldom asked to design panels for their clients or participate on them in conjunction with the agency’s representation, WIT Strategy makes panel design and speaker placement for clients a priority.  While WIT Strategy partners would never write about our own clients, we do write about our clients’ industry segments.  As ombudsmen within multiple segments of the interactive industry WIT Strategy partners are offered moderator slots on panels at nearly every show – not panel slots, those go to our clients.  On average, WIT Strategy partners speak at industry conferences and moderate industry panels as unbiased industry experts in advertising, marketing, and other related verticals more than once a month – more than twelve times a year. 

Advertising and Creative Campaigns

Working closely with our design partners, some of the best-regarded firms in the US, WIT Strategy also develops advertising campaigns, websites, and other creative campaigns.  As with other firms, all intellectual property affiliated with the campaigns we execute on behalf of our clients becomes the property of our clients.  However, for companies working with WIT Strategy, this intellectual property is not limited to drafts or media lists.  It also includes all call sheets and diligence – the proof of work and a source of residual value long after the conclusion of the engagement.

Also, unlike our competitors, WIT Strategy does not mark up our out of pocket costs.  We feel that the standard 17.65 percent markup that most agencies regard as an entitlement is an unnecessary burden that clients need not bear.

Business Development and Revenue Generation

Because we view each engagement as the beginning of a long term relationship, WIT Strategy proposals integrate overall company goals including business development and revenue targets.  We consult as often as possible with our clients on strategizing ongoing corporate matters.  As a rule of thumb, the more engaged we are on your strategic matters, the better service WIT Strategy can provide. Sales people often claim that sales is where the “rubber hits the road” and marketing is where “the rubber hits the sky.”  At WIT Strategy, we think that the whole idea is to drive better top line results while adhering to bottom line disciplines.  If our marketing strategies do not lead to increased sales – or at least sales opportunities - for our clients, then we’re not succeeding. We know that we have to add value in an ongoing basis and prove it every day.

Crisis Management and Media Relations 

Most communications and PR shops make general claims regarding their crisis management skills.  The fact is that many strong communications firms can generate good media placements.  What good crisis management dictates, however, is seldom media generation as much as it is media suppression.

In other words, almost any firm can place a good story for you. But, how many firms can keep a bad story from running?

WIT Strategy’s leadership in crisis management has led some of the leading law firms and crisis management teams in the US – from Kekst and Company to Hogan and Hartson and others – to retain our firm for both our industry expertise as well as our dependable execution.  Since 2002, we’ve successfully designed and executed crisis management strategies on behalf of our public and private clients in matters as large as federal regulatory issues and states attorney general litigation to matters as small as disgruntled employees who blog.  Clients have estimated that WIT Strategy efforts on their behalf have saved them well more than $200M in sales and market valuations just since the beginning of 2005.

We like to think that well managed crisis strategies event is emblematic of why our company is called “Whatever It Takes” Strategy.  If we’re not providing value well beyond communications and PR, we’re not doing our job.  If we’re not providing you, personally, with strategic insights far beyond anything having to do with PR, then we’re not doing our job.  If WIT Strategy is not providing value well beyond communications and PR, we’re not doing our job.