The challenge

The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation began 2020 following a record-breaking year of media coverage achieved in partnership with Kimball Hughes Public Relations. Many of the 75+ articles, interviews and media mentions were related to the non-profit’s in-person 2019 Women in Insurance Global Conference. With IICF’s four Regional Forums scheduled for Summer 2020, the international foundation expected continued year-over-year growth in media coverage, as had been its tradition since first engaging Kimball Hughes PR in 2017.

Of course, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to nearly all 2020 in-person events around the globe. IICF was no exception. The organization pivoted its Regional Forums to virtual formats as concerns about pre- and post-event media coverage — an essential component of attracting and retaining valued sponsorship partners, as well as attendees — came into focus.

The solution

The Kimball Hughes PR team devoted additional time and resources to ensure coverage of IICF’s critical industry events, focusing on topics of diversity, equity and inclusion, were not overlooked in a once-in-a-generation crisis impacting public health and driving the global economic response. We leveraged then little-used video technology, developed themes around the pandemic’s impact on DE&I, and found creative ways for media to participate in IICF events. We also worked to secure expert insights on the shifting landscape of issues intersecting work, home life, the economy, and insurance industry, as well as health safety issues. We were successful – securing more than 90 articles, interviews and media mentions for IICF in 2020.

We supported IICF as they launched a new virtual leadership program, Dialogue for Diversity, which allowed the industry to continue critical discourse on DE&I as we navigated a virtual business world. We assisted IICF in rebranding the Women in Insurance Global Conference Series, now known as the IICF International Inclusion in Insurance Forum. We also helped the organization to create and promote its 2020 Step Up Challenge, a virtual fundraising campaign designed to promote both team-building and individual wellbeing in socially distanced times. The 2020 IICF Step Up Challenge raised nearly $50,000 to benefit IICF’s COVID-19 Crisis: Children’s Relief Fund.

And, by far, our proudest contribution to IICF’s success in 2020 was in promoting the IICF COVID-19 Crisis: Children’s Relief Fund. The fund raised more than $1.3 million to combat food insecurity and missing educational resources for children and families made vulnerable by the pandemic. We were honored to align ourselves with a charitable fund that provided children in need with 2.5 million meals, awarded more than 60 grants to non-profits, provided funding to an additional 26 nonprofit partners of IICF, received more than 1,500 donations from individual insurance industry professionals, and aided hundreds of thousands of children and families negatively impacted by the global shutdown brought about by COVID-19.

The challenge

The Dorothy Rider Pool Health Care Trust engaged Kimball Hughes Public Relations to develop a communications strategy for a five-hospital collaborative in the Lehigh Valley. They sought innovative ways to share vital health information with their diverse communities and improve health outcomes.

The solution

Kimball Hughes undertook a careful process of learning about the collaborative’s vision, goals, resources, opportunities and obstacles, and then created a strategic plan to reach and effectively communicate with the communities in question. The result was a comprehensive report that included an analysis of how the HCCLV audience communicates and consumes health information, as well as recommendations and practical next steps to guide the collaborative in the future.

The challenge

With 33 offices and more than 1,400 agents completing more than $12.2 billion in sales in 2018, Alain Pinel Realtors (APR) was already a Bay Area success story before joining national brokerage Compass in early 2019.

In 2016, their new vice president of marketing wanted to reinvigorate the company’s social media practice, which was uneven following the departure of their long-term, in-house social media manager. They were unsure who comprised their social media audiences and if they were sharing content that reached those audiences. They asked Kimball Hughes Public Relations to create a social media protocol that the company could sustain, establishing best practices that support other public relations and marketing goals.

The solution

The Kimball Hughes PR team began with a thorough assessment of APR’s social media profiles as well as the brokerage’s competitors. We knew it was also critical to understand how other brokerages approached social media in the highly competitive and tech-savvy Northern California market.

We used these assessments to systematize a campaign-based approach to social media. Our refined approach to content curation drew from sources we knew APR’s agents and customers read. We maximized exposure for company news, announcements and events, highlighting volunteerism, fundraising efforts and open houses in a way that was most appropriate for each social network. All of this was done in conjunction with APR’s marketing team, working collaboratively to share the brokerage’s mission and amplify the brand.

As a result, we saw sustained, steady engagement with APR’s posts on all networks—particularly Facebook, during a time when all brands were seeing declining reach and engagement for posts. We grew their Facebook and Twitter audiences by about 500 followers each between April 2016 and April 2019.

But how effective were these efforts to drive real engagement? Here’s one indication: using APR’s social media to raise awareness of its charitable campaign to support the victims of the 2017 Wine Country fires, the brokerage raised $50,000 in donations in just 11 days, which APR matched dollar for dollar.