Our media relations team brought home the gold for Inch & Co.
The right message at the right time through the right lens makes all the difference when engaging investors and key market players. After a long lull on a project plan with enormous potential but a lack of controlled voice in the market, Inch & Co, a leading Pennsylvania developer with a passion for sports, needed a hail Mary for the win.
Inch & Co. was looking to secure the final rounds of funding to officially launch its impressive vision of its new premier sports complex in South Central Pennsylvania. It required a well-networked media team to build momentum in the locker room and beyond. Inch & Co’s leadership suite turned to the influential public and community relations team at GAVIN™ to join the team.
With the clock ticking, GAVIN’s team of senior public relations strategists evaluated the landscape of media opportunities based on reaching investors, building excitement among economic development influencers and decision-makers, legislators, neighbors, sports advocates and local athletes alike to set the stage for investor re-engagement. Using a funneled influencer mindset, we established a chain of influencer thinking to build a media plan that would deliver a rolling thunder effect that could not be ignored.
Our team crafted the media engagement strategy to control the narrative around the sports complex vision, ensuring a complete story was told through a variety of trusted media sources. The goal was to affirm details for major investors to bolster their confidence and secure their financial commitment.
Our team knew that past coverage on the project was spotty and failed to control a clear vision and mission, so we assembled an absolute storyline with pointed sound bites, quick-hitting fact sheets, vision boards illuminating the wow-factor of the facility, media kits highlighting influencer and partner endorsements and more. With a sharpened set of tools in our toolkit, we facilitated a series of value-aligned feature stories in business-focused media outlets to position the project as an economic investment no investor could miss out on.
“Advancing York’s economy for a stronger future requires strategic investments like this sports complex that deliver a multiplier effect on our tax base, job creation, tourism revenue and our ability to attract more investment. This is the type of development that will positively impact our ability to attract and retain the best and brightest workforce and businesses. We need this sports complex for York.” Kevin Schreiber, President and CEO, York County Economic Alliance.
“This new facility will continue to bring athletes to our community and further solidify York County’s status as a top-notch sports tourism destination. The addition of courts, fields, and turf will increase hotel stays, demand for hospitality services, and will drive additional foot traffic to local businesses— continuing the circle of economic impact.” Laura Wagner, President, Explore York.
We put our extensive media contacts and networks to work, securing a series of feature stories to focus all attention on the key selling points on the project that we knew would impress upon the minds of desired investment partners and economic policy makers. With our team on-site, high-profile business reporters and outlets in the region were coordinated to have exclusive interview access to media-trained executive leadership.
Using our strategic communications mindset, we directed messaging to convey the client’s passion as the purpose behind the project, positioning a “mission-minded development” as the cornerstone. Supported by quantifiable outcomes of the project, including $19.3 million forecasted direct economic impact and new job creation for the community.
The results created a momentum-building series of opportunities in the market that caught attention and got people reinvigorated about the potential of the project and its economic impact on the market. As was the plan, we leveraged this moment in time to then launch a cadence of coverage hitting all the points for every audience across broadcast, print, radio, social and more.
Our team knew we needed to show the project was making progress along the way and worked to coordinate an onsite media opportunity when milestones in permitting were hit. The efforts worked in showcasing dirt was moving and investors were investing.
The results delivered endorsements from the local economic chamber, regional tourism leadership and healthcare organizations alike.
Consistent headlines affirmed the project was full steam ahead and forecasted to have an impressive impact on the region’s tax base, workforce and tourism.
GAVIN’s role touched all aspects affecting the project and client’s brand visibility to affirm a worthy investment, ranging from messaging, advising on community relations, social media reputation management, project outcome stories and more.
All the efforts led up to a well-orchestrated exclusive investor dinner, which set the stage with a series of endorsements and high-profile partner alignments, including a major regional healthcare organization with high interest in naming rights. GAVIN worked with Inch leadership to curate the VIP investor invite list and the dinner’s agenda to facilitate quality conversations teeing up investor asks.
After a consistent series of media placements with a controlled message over the course of six months, along with endorsements and community support secured, Inch & Co. successfully closed the funding gap and was set for its long-awaited groundbreaking.
GAVIN led the charge on strategic media relations, messaging and key community endorsements and was proud to help bring yet another game-changing project to market.
