In 2021, our team committed to focusing on strengthening the North brand while at the same time helping our clients throughout the southeast do the same.
North’s first 10 years of business were defined by carving out a niche as a new company, enduring growth and learning various lessons, and figuring out how to serve our clients’ diverse needs while establishing a foothold in a competitive marketplace. Tack on the last two-plus years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we – like other businesses – have faced quite a bit of adversity since our founding, so we are simply happy to still be here.
The North team is not a group unaccustomed to navigating challenges – we’re a woman-led communications firm specializing in helping small business and nonprofits establish their brands (often on limited budgets), make their voices heard with lawmakers, and navigate high-stakes stories with the media. So, taking on a bigger challenge as part of our 10-year anniversary didn’t seem illogical. The difference here was that this client was our very own company: North.
After a decade, we were ready to continue expanding our business, undertake a full rebranding of the firm, and add a marketing manager to our team whose role would be to focus on a comprehensive North brand strategy.
In January, we launched our North rebrand, a campaign that included a new company name, a new logo, new colors, a new website and the slogan, “New Look. Same Results.” While the name ‘North Public Relations’ served us well for our many years, we knew that a decade of growth and service expansion deserved a bit more recognition, so ‘North – A Media Company’ was born. As the slogan states, our results stayed the same, but with the new title, we were able to more accurately market our vast array of communications and media services.
Over the last few years, our team has also worked to implement a new marketing model with our clients. The model, PESO, which stands for Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned media, allows our team to implement comprehensive and dynamic marketing strategies that utilize the full range of media, marketing, and communications components and tools available today. In order to truly treat North as a client, we applied the PESO model to our own brand with the goal of more consistent marketing and engagement for North.
In July, former North intern Emma Hynek was hired full-time as North’s marketing manager. In addition to assisting with client work, one of her primary responsibilities is to elevate the North brand. Upon joining the company full-time, she began creating a dedicated and strategic marketing plan for North to help grow our firm’s audience and strengthen the brand. We began consistently creating content and seizing opportunities that raised the firm’s profile, including a monthly newsletter, a more strategic social media plan, securing publication opportunities , partnerships with other women-led business and community non-profits, a North blog, and more.
With a rebrand of our company, a marketing manager and a new marketing model, we started seeing an uptick in brand recognition for North. Ultimately, this model and focused attention on our brand resulted in greater recognition and growth for the company.
Through PESO and this continued strategic branding strategy, we were also able to help clients gain recognition and awareness in their communities this year. Below, we are spotlighting a few of our clients and their accomplishments in 2021.
Carolina Youth Development Center
Carolina Youth Development Center (CYDC) is a Charleston-based organization that works to support vulnerable children and families in the Lowcountry through a variety of educational, career-preparation, and community-based programs.
CYDC serves over 900 children and families annually and operates two residential campuses in Charleston and Berkeley Counties through contracts and funding provided by the SC Department of Social Services.
North is engaged to help CYDC develop and implement strategic communications throughout the year that helps educate and engage the families and youth they serve about the programs, services and resources available to improve community well-being.
Additionally, North’s team of communications experts help CYDC leadership and Board members consistently coordinate with community partners to educate target audiences about their programs and services and engage community partners, including local law enforcement and lawmakers.
The result has been increased community engagement – including new funding partners – and consistent messaging on issues impacting youth in foster care, human trafficking, and domestice violence. As a result CYDC leadership are consistently being engaged by lawmakers as well as DSS, the Office of Attorney General, and the Joint Citizens and Legislative Committee on Children.
The Courage Center
Putting an end to the stigma of substance misuse and giving hope for recovery makes all the difference in saving a life.
Located in Lexington, South Carolina, The Courage Center (TCC) works to provide a safe and supportive recovery-focused setting for youth (and their families) on the journey to recovering from substance misuse.
In March, North began a collaboration with The Courage Center and Pierson Collective to execute a multimedia campaign to promote clarifying messages about the diseases of opioid use disorder and other substance use disorders to reduce stigma within six targeted “hotspots” of suspected overdoses in the community.
During the Courage Over Stigma campaign, North collaborated with various media outlets to secure discounted and donated advertising (including digital and billboard), ultimately obtaining paid media exposure that resulted in more than 500,000 impressions for the campaign. Through targeted social media marketing efforts, including the launch of a series of video interviews with community members and individuals living in recovery, TCC provided greater visibility for the campaign by increasing community awareness with more than 70,000 impressions.
Additionally, TCC launched several partnerships with faith organizations in the Lexington area to reduce access to unused medication and prevent accidental overdose through distribution of almost 1,000 Deterra Drug Deactivation System Pouches (link). These easy-to-use pouches contain organic activated carbon that, when mixed with water, deactivates unused, expired or unwanted medications at home.
In total, with additional features in news stories, letters to the editor, and e-newsletter
publications, this campaign had an estimated 1.3 million impressions in an effort to reduce the stigma of substance use disorder and encourage community members to seek recovery support and services.
Read more about the amazing work of TCC here:
Recovery Through Faith and Healing: Lexington County Chronicle https://www.lexingtonchronicle.com/opinions/recovery-through-faith-and-healing
Defining Courage: Garnet & Black Magazine https://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=https://www.gandbmagazine.com/article/2021/09/defining-courage-sarah-hudock-jeffrey&ust=1639689240000000&usg=AOvVaw1fnlFXdBhPrhlqAqB53t1I&hl=en&source=gmail
Beginnings SC
9,232 children in South Carolina are deaf or hard of hearing and are not identified and/or receiving appropriate interventions. This amounts to 1 in every 100 children in being deaf or hard of hearing – but not being identified.
Beginnings SC is a nonprofit located in Columbia that is working to change that by providing support and resources for deaf or hard of hearing (DOH) children in South Carolina through trainings, hearing screenings, counseling and more.
In August, North collaborated with Beginnings SC to create an awareness campaign titled Ready, Set, Screen! The goal of the campaign was to encourage parents, teachers and early childhood professionals to get the children in their care screened for hearing loss. The campaign included a Back to School Bash that took place in July in collaboration with community partners to include free hearing screenings (contributing to a total of more than 1,300 children who received hearing screenings from Beginning in 2021).
Since then, North has worked closely with the Beginnings team to bring awareness to their work (including a feature in the latest issue of The F-Suite), build relationships with elected officials to strengthen policy efforts to support DOH children and elevate their work on a national platform in 2022!
CBCW National Symposium
This year, North was hired to plan and execute the 2021 Community-Based Child Welfare National Symposium in partnership with ACH & Embrace Families.
The event took place in Orlando in November. Over 150 child welfare professionals from around the country came together to discuss the child welfare systems in different states and create plans for how to improve current systems. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many who wished to participate in the conference were unable to attend in-person, so North created a hybrid event that included a virtual component to allow for as many participants as possible.
The symposium received great attendee feedback and is already in the planning stages for an even bigger event in 2022!
Community Engagement – North Gives Back
With three offices in Florida and South Carolina, North has the opportunity to serve a diverse array of clients that focus on having a positive social impact. This is an important mission for our firm, and it’s the result of our desire to be a part of healthy and thriving communities. It’s also why, in addition to our work, you can find our team investing in and volunteering with various nonprofits in our communities. From leading statewide councils to ensure more youth are in safe homes to sponsoring local charity golf tournaments in Tallahassee and Charleston to giving back to charities supporting women and children and educational programs, the North team is investing in our clients and our communities in big and small ways all year long.
As our team grows personally and professionally, we want to ensure our brand reflects that growth. North’s number one value is authenticity in everything we do, and we look forward to continuing to share our successes, struggles, and goals with you in 2022.
