Public Relations

Public Relations Planning and Strategy precedes results. As public relations counselors who operate as a seamless extension of our clients, we care deeply about the concerns of our clients. Our Plans and Strategies capture research findings, establish communications objectives, and set out strategies, tactics, timelines, and budgets.

Whether you’re upset to find yourself facing the news media or yearning to be featured in leading media outlets, and believe you need a media consultant, Ward’s public relations specialists will help you craft a Media Relations strategy that’s right for you.

Our results-driven programs include:

• Proactive media relations strategies
• Fast-response media tactics when time is of the essence
• Long-term media relationship-building to build brands, sway opinion, educate audiences
• Bylined articles to build credibility and authority, and influence action
• Editorials and letters to the editor to support public opinion and policy
• Editorial board meetings to educate media about issues
• Effective news response to influence accuracy, balance and fairness
• Ghostwriting in key trade journals to educate decision-makers on best practices and solutions
• Highly visual media events and content to appeal to media who now must show more than tell the story
• Creation of viable story angles when little or no news exists or can be shared publicly
• Interview preparation and staffing to support spokespeople in being successful in their spokesperson role
• News release writing and placement to keep audiences current
• News conferences to announce or respond to significant events
• Proactive publicity to produce a steady drumbeat of third-party media coverage
• Timely media monitoring to capture coverage as well as inform media messaging and strategy
• Well-orchestrated media tours to deepen media understanding and ability to accurately cover issues, organizations and trends

Getting your point across in a media interview is not a talent, but rather a skill learned in Media Training. Through our sister company OnwardU, experienced facilitators have trained hundreds of spokespeople to deliver quotable messages via print, broadcast, wire and online media outlets in executive and group sessions, which may be customized to your particular situation. Routinely we conduct:

• Designated spokesperson training
• Field-level first-responder training to effectively re-direct inquiries to designated spokespersons
• Subject matter expert training to ensure their preparedness to support spokespersons
• Gatekeeper training to ensure support and administrative personnel properly manage hand-off of media, regulatory and stakeholder inquiries to designated responders

Integral to an organization’s communication strategy, social media can help educate constituents, engage loyal fans, drive support for causes and influence media coverage. Ward helps clients integrate social platforms into campaigns as they make sense for the business objectives at hand.

Through well-planned and -executed Community Relations programs, we have helped numerous organizations engage key audiences to build trust and support for a variety of issues and initiatives.

The success of large infrastructure or transformational initiatives relies heavily on engaging effectively with key stakeholders. Ward and sister company OnwardU help clients create comprehensive, robust stakeholder relations programs that build relationships with those who are affected by or have significant influence over your organization’s initiatives through:

• Strategic planning
• Identifying target audiences
• Developing messaging
• Engaging stakeholders
• Building support
• Nurturing relationships
• Building community relationships
• Facilitated community meetings
• Managing media relations

Sometimes an organization’s greatest thinker is not the organization’s greatest orator. Clients employ Ward’s sister company OnwardU to conduct Speaker Training on an individual and group basis for:

• Investor presentations
• Keynote speeches
• Media interviews
• News conferences
• Panel participation
• Sales presentations
• Workshop and trade show talks
• Customer and prospect Lunch ‘n Learns
• Employee meetings
• Division/department presentations to headquarters and senior management

Crisis Response

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You can prevent a Public Relations Disaster with sound Crisis Communication Planning and Response. Among the countless crises – both operational and reputational –we have faced with our clients:

• deaths of management
• employee fatalities
• criminal events on a client’s site
• safety and security breaches/lapses
• unethical and illegal acts by employees
• wrongful deaths of innocent bystanders
• environmental incidents
• cyber attack
• threatening and disruptive acts by activists
• community evacuations
• personal injury
• attempted murder
• oil & gas crisis events such as explosions, well blow-outs, pipeline punch-throughs
• hotel crises such as a drive by shooting, guest room security breaches, disorderly guest conduct, suicides on property
• financial investigations
• lawsuits
• community opposition
• regulatory breaches
• kidnapping
• hostage situations
• labor strikes
• allegations of impropriety
• threats of government shut-down
• product recalls

To mitigate the damage of an unplanned event, we provide clients with strategic, cohesive public relations strategies that take into consideration each constituent’s relevance to the issue, and the intended outcome. Ward’s sister company, OnwardU, offers a series of workshops led by experienced crisis communications experts bringing their real-world experience preparing for and responding to unplanned events to your frontline team.

Depending on the nature of the incident, Ward public relations consultants and OnwardU facilitators provide a variety of communication support services to reduce the relationship impacts among key stakeholders, such as:

• News media and social media monitoring
• Issues identification and message development
• Identification of voices of opposition
• Response strategy development
• Selection and preparation of spokespeople, including each spokesperson’s role
• Identification of internal and third-party subject matter experts and allies
• Rapid-response public communication to demonstrate transparency and collaboration with affected communities
• Coordination with first responders’ public information officers, hospital public relations representatives, legal counsel, HR, etc.
• Proactive and responsive media relations
• Internal communication to ensure workforces act responsibly and continue to conduct business, as appropriate
• Town Hall meetings in public forums
• Thought leader, grassroots communications
• Social media management
• Customer communication
• Vendor/supplier communication
• Community relations

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Risk Mitigation and Preparedness

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Increasing and highly vocal public scrutiny inspires clients to request Ward’s and sister company OnwardU’s help to ensure they are prepared to deal with a public relations crisis.

Working together, our seasoned public relations experts and facilitators provide the experience and guidance clients need with crisis plans, messaging and spokesperson and support role training.

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Post-event Recovery

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• Litigation public relations
• Community relations
• Employee and employee family communications
• Safety communications
• Investor relations support
• Customer, partner, supply chain communication
• Reputation management and restoration
• Employee communications training to improve their effectiveness in meetings, presentations and written communication

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Typically, we are hired either by law firms representing clients on issues likely to be in the news or needing public attention, or we are retained by corporate general counsel to assist in litigation related to labor, bankruptcy, disputes with customers and suppliers or other matters that have entered the public dialogue.