At The Fletcher Group, we take pride in our media relations expertise. April was another month of steady media relation wins, with some splashy coverage for TFG clients that is too exciting not to share. In this coverage roundup blog, we break down the news pieces focused on clients Blackhawk Network, Payfare and The Retail Gift Card Association.
BLACKHAWK NETWORK RELEASES INFLUENTIAL COVID VACCINE INCENTIVE STUDY
As the United States ramped up its campaign to vaccinate the populace against COVID-19, TFG client and incentives solutions leader Blackhawk Network conducted research to identify the incentives that would make Americans more likely to opt in to receiving the vaccine. “To better understand how incentives could impact COVID-19 immunization adoption and provide informed insights to our partners, we conducted research that found monetary incentives—even modest ones—could be an effective option,” said Jeff Haughton, SVP, Incentives, Corporate Development & Strategy of Blackhawk Network
We pitched this research to numerous national outlets coving the ongoing vaccine rollout and the hot-button topic of vaccine hesitancy. The results of these pitches were overwhelming. USA Today published a piece examining the various vaccine incentives offered by businesses and employers, focusing on Krispe Kreme’s now famous donut giveaway. The article cites Blackhawk’s research and frequently quotes Blackhawk’s Global Head of Marketing, Theresa McEndree.
We also placed Blackhawk’s research in outlets from Forbes and Fortune. The Fortune piece uses the research to suggest that of all the incentives offered to Americans, cash and gift cards may prove to be the most effective. The Fortune article turns to McEndree for comments on how retail companies can emulate businesses in getting employees to receive the vaccine.
PAYFARE’S IPO IS PAST, BUT THE EXPANSION IS JUST BEGINNING
In March, we helped client Payfare go public in Canada. Now, we’re highlighting their business expansion goals. In a recent interview with The Logic, Payfare CEO Marco Margiotta described plans to use proceeds from the Public Offering to further develop its platform as it scales outside of North America and into new verticals (like the car-sharing, home-rental and grocery-delivering industries, to name only a few). We placed Payfare’s expansion news in The Financial Post’s recent article: “After IPO, gig-work fintech Payfare targets ambitious expansion.”
RETAIL GIFT CARD ASSOCIATION’S “PERFECT GIFT” TOUR
In April, we launched a media tour for client Retail Gift Card Association’s representative and Lifestyle Expert Jennifer Bonner. In her appearances, Ms. Bonner showcased gift cards as the perfect option for spring season gifting events like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Graduations. The media tour was a fantastic success. We saw pickup in more than 200 markets across the country, including major cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The campaign boasted more than 400 placements and over 211 million impressions.
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished for our clients. April has been a busy, but fulfilling month of work.
Interested in putting our media relations expertise to work for your brand, campaign or message? Contact us!
