Public Relations
Public Relations
Client: Workers Temporary Staffing
Ideas
Workers Temporary Staffing (WTS) is one of Florida’s largest temporary staffing companies, and has 25 offices throughout the Southeast United States. Despite its size and favorable reputation for providing career growth opportunities for its Team Members, WTS was unable to generate recognition in the media. This situation was a problem for two reasons: WTS struggled to differentiate itself from other staffing agencies, and its community involvement activities went unrecognized – which hampered efforts in attracting additional sponsors to help boost fundraising. Because WTS does little advertising, the agency wanted to make a public relations campaign its primary means of building brand awareness.
Work
In order to position WTS as a leading staffing agency and its founder/president Mark Lang as an industry leader, EVOK Advertising bolstered Lang’s visibility in the staffing industry by coordinating his involvement in a reform bill that was pending before the Florida House of Representatives. The bill’s purpose was to correct vague wording in the existing bill regarding transportation reimbursements to workers traveling to a job – wording that had the potential to leave the industry open to lawsuits that could bankrupt Florida agencies. Lang recognized the importance for reform and was eager to start work on solutions.
EVOK Advertising arranged a meeting between Lang and Florida House Representative Baxter G. Troutman, sponsor of the reform bill. Lang and Troutman – who also owns a temporary staffing business – discussed provisions of the bill and the overall state of Florida’s temporary staffing industry.
Tying together the company’s bill reform efforts and a litigation battle they were personally fighting, EVOK Advertising’s public relations team approached the media with press releases announcing a recent WTS victory in a litigation related to the same issue of transportation reimbursements. The press release drew attention to the economic importance of the temporary staffing industry in Florida, and the negative impact that any additional lawsuits would have – including putting economically vulnerable people out of work if their agency employer went bankrupt from litigation.
In addition to raising the profile of WTS as a leader in industry reform, EVOK Advertising also worked to position the company as a community service leader. To accomplish this, the EVOK Advertising public relations team focused on the agency’s premier fundraising event, the annual St. Jude Contractor’s Cup. Lang founded the invitational tournament in 2002 to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis. Participants are Central Florida building contractors and vendors.
Although the tournament has several prominent businesses as sponsors, it tended to get lost among Central Florida’s numerous charity fundraisers. To ensure that the 2006 Contractor’s Cup stood out, EVOK Advertising found a human interest aspect that would provide a newsworthy angle beyond that of the tournament itself: the appearance and participation of a three-year-old boy who received life-saving treatment at St Jude.
Calling on a network of well-established contacts in print and television news media, the EVOK Advertising team generated well deserved interest in the tournament.
Results
EVOK Advertising’s approach to raise the profile of WTS succeeded on both fronts. Orlando Business Journal ran a full-page article on the agency’s legal victory and the pending reform bill. The press release written in news article format was picked up by Web-based news sites throughout the Southeast U.S. The reform bill passed, and Lang now has an influential industry and government ally with Rep. Troutman.
The St. Jude Contractor’s Cup received the media coverage WTS sought. NBC affiliate WESH-Channel 2 broadcast a story about the boy who was treated at St. Jude and his family’s participation in the tournament. Coverage also included the Orlando Sentinel, Orlando Magazine and Golf Life Orlando, which published a feature article with several photographs. Greater community knowledge about the tournament is expected to attract additional corporate sponsors who can support the event and raise even more funds for St Jude.
EVOK Advertising’s well-planned and sustained public relations efforts ensured that WTS achieved recognition as a leader in the both the temporary staffing industry and the Central Florida community.