Second Place
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) — Building the profile of the BLP Tax Practice

BLP’s 2009 media relations campaign involved engaging a PR agency to build the profile of the BLP Tax Practice. The campaign was centered around two key fiscal announcements made by the UK government: the 2009 Budget and Pre-Budget Reports.

The main message of the campaign related to HMRC’s policies (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs; US equivalent is the IRS), focusing on the issues and implications of tax policy to business. BLP was first to market on a ‘Backdoor Sarbanes-Oxley’ in HMRC’s report. Sarbanes-Oxley was introduced to improve transparency for public companies, and was intended to ensure companies pay an extra GBP 140m of tax in the next four years, however BLP commented that in reality it was likely to cause tax to distort commercial decisions.

This unique approach resulted in over 45 major media hits for the Budget, and over 55 for the Pre-Budget Report, translating to USD 7,601,561 (GBP 4,733,318) in PR value. When considering pre-campaign media awareness, the low level of total expenditure and subsequent return on investment, the campaign allowed BLP to achieve significant impact for low outlay. 

Summary of Outcomes

The campaign generated  coverage in all broadsheet newspapers including the Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The (London) Times, The Sunday Times and The Daily Mail. BLP’s Head of Tax also gave a primetime TV interview on BBC News channel during the PBR, and appeared on BBC News Night during the 2009 Budget. These interviews combined with mainstream media coverage have significantly raised the profile of BLP's Tax practice.

Third Place
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP — Manatt's National Public Relations Campaign

As Manatt, Phelps & Phillips has grown over the years, the firm’s public relations efforts had remained largely unchanged. The firm needed to completely revamp its approach and develop a more aggressive public relations program that better reflected the firm’s national stature. To more effectively reach clients, they had to bring Manatt’s depth and breadth of experience to life through the media.

To reshape the program, they examined general market trends and aligned media relations goals with the best business development opportunities. They looked for issues the media was likely to cover in 2009 and overlaid those topics with Manatt’s legal strengths. The internal team coordinated with an external PR agency on the campaign and collaborated to ensure messaging was consistent and perspective was timely.

The advertising media campaign highlighted Manatt’s FTC capabilities through national and trade media outreach. They took advantage of new federal banking/Treasury programs to secure article placements for the financial services team. The ongoing healthcare reform debate provided good opportunities for the healthcare practice to talk with reporters throughout the nation.

The firm narrowly focused their efforts on areas where they saw the most opportunity for their business. Feature coverage communicating the firm’s strength in core practice areas appeared in top national, legal, industry and regional business publications.

Summary of Outcomes

The dramatic success of the program was measured in the quantity of media mentions, both of which increased markedly, with a focus on national and business publications.

In 2008, the firm saw only 365 stories, with 58% in legal publications. 2009 realized 1,515 media mentions — an increase of 315% — with impressions of nearly 88 million as a result of these aggressive efforts.  An impressive 76% of those mentions were in national and business publications, and coverage increased significantly in each of the targeted regional markets and practice areas.