2021: The Year in Review at Octane

This past year, Octane Public Relations surmounted the obstacles that the COVID-19 pandemic tried to place on our company, employees, and their families. We built on the processes put in place in March 2020 addressing the continuing pandemic workplace and delivering remarkable results for clients. On top of our external successes, Octane developed positive changes internally. Let’s take a look at the highlights of 2021 at Octane.

 

Change in Leadership

After more than 20 years of co-leadership, Everett Hamilton became the sole owner of Octane Public Relations and Advertising this year.

“Octane was founded because we both had an interest in public relations. And for two decades, we kept that philosophy of targeted communications alive,” said Everett Hamilton, who is Octane’s sole owner and Chief Executive Officer. “I promise I will keep our vision alive.”

Mr. Hamilton provides leadership and vision for sustaining a successful and industry-lauded public relations firm in the District of Columbia. He has more than 20 years of experience in public relations, communications, and marketing consulting for the DC government, the federal government, and private sector entities. His rich experience includes expertise in reaching marginalized groups: African Americans, Hispanics, LGBTQ+, low-income and low-literacy residents, youth, and seniors.

Mr. Hamilton is a trusted partner and collaborator across Washington, DC, having served as Chair of the Edgewood/Brookland Family Support Collaborative Board of Directors, Vice-Chair of the DC Citywide Collaborative Council, and member of the Washington, DC Convention and Tourism Corporation LGBT Marketing Committee. He is a former member of the Marriott Customer Diversity Advisory Board, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Commission, and the DC Housing Finance Agency.

Keen on collaboration with communities, Mr. Hamilton infuses lessons learned into Octane’s philosophy and the language Octane uses to assist clients in reaching their goals.

 

Social Equity Division

A new division of our firm, Octane Social Equity, launched in 2021. The division develops comprehensive brand identities for companies and organizations, demonstrating their solid commitment to social equity, both internally and externally. Octane works with clients to present honest communication that diminishes ambiguity surrounding corporate policies, actions, and beliefs, which act as symbols of positive social change in our constantly evolving cultural landscape.

Octane has successfully developed social equity brands for national organizations across industries, including energy and power, health and wellness, the booming legal cannabis industry, and more. Here are some highlights:

 

What Drives Us

With client Pepco Holdings, the leading Mid-Atlantic electric and gas utility company, Octane developed a Corporate Impact Report, which presented overarching information about the company’s community and social good efforts in environmental sustainability, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement, and more.   

In tandem, Octane developed the What Drives Us campaign to communicate Pepco Holdings’ new level of commitment to diversity and inclusion that is aligned with its purpose, which is to power a cleaner and brighter future for its customers and communities. 

The brand rolled out across all utilities beginning with the release of the 2021 Community Impact Report and an inspirational What Drives Us video. Octane’s success in planning, packaging, and releasing the new campaign has since resulted in a spinoff effort, GROW Together, an initiative that recognizes that diversity fuels growth and makes each person stronger. It is a commitment to remain true, fostering a company and community that values and rewards team members for how they use their differences to make Pepco Holdings a better place to work.

 

B NOBLE and Rooted in Good

  • Curaleaf Holdings, Inc., a leading medical and wellness cannabis operator in the United States, launched its CSR division, Rooted in Good, as part of its larger commitment to advance racial and social equity in cannabis. Considering the harsh history of racism and the harm caused by the War on Drugs, Curaleaf wanted to ensure that it was doing its part to dismantle cannabis bias and provide equitable opportunities.

 

  • Octane developed branding, including the Rooted in Good logo, as well as a robust public relations and communications strategy to connect with key audiences and garner brand awareness of Rooted in Good via media and public relations opportunities. Led by Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Khadijah Tribble, Rooted in Good delivers social impact by focusing efforts within three key pillars: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Social Equity; and Sustainability, ultimately achieving key goals through the company’s strategic social partnerships. 

 

Looking Ahead to 2022

As we embark on our 22nd year of serving DC as a leader in communication, we look forward to tackling important racial and social issues to help create an equitable future. We are an African-American- and LGBT-owned company that strives to connect with key communities and to keep people at the center of our work in the spirit of true diversity and progressive change. And we are so excited about the new year and the prospects ahead that will allow us to continue making progress!

Keeping Productive CSR Strategies Beyond the Holiday Season

Holiday Season 2021 will soon be a fond memory. Companies of all sizes have embraced the season as an opportunity to strengthen their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives dramatically. But come January 2022, many will trim down, or even abandon their CSR efforts.

That is not what an authentic sense of social responsibility is about. A year-round CSR strategy is essential to ensuring that your business maintains effective corporate social responsibility initiatives, which can also support your business growth. Your CSR strategy can be crafted to include your business goals, such as improving employee engagement, increasing investor appeal, and solidifying your brand reputation.

But as customers, employees, and suppliers place increasing importance on CSR, some leaders have started to look at it as a creative opportunity to fundamentally strengthen their businesses while contributing to society at the same time. They view CSR as central to their overall strategies, helping them to creatively address key business issues. 

 

For example, B Noble Inc. and Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. , a leading international provider of consumer products in cannabis, recently completed a national launch of a pre-rolled cannabis product called B Noble. Bernard Noble and Fab 5 Freddy partnered with Curaleaf to launch the B Noble brand in support of a shared commitment to the advancement of social equity in cannabis. The initiative provides an opportunity for those directly impacted by the war on drugs. 

B Noble was founded by well-known visual artist, filmmaker and hip-hop pioneer, Fab 5 Freddy, to raise awareness and create funding to defend people from cannabis-related criminalization. The brand is dedicated to telling the story of namesake Bernard Noble, who was arrested in Louisiana and sentenced to 13 years of hard labor in prison for possessing the equivalent of two joints. In 2017, Bernard’s case began to draw attention across the country, and he quickly became a national symbol for the need to reform the country’s unjust drug laws, sparking advocacy and a movement to free him. As a result, Bernard was released seven years into his sentence.

To call attention to Bernard’s harsh sentence, the B Noble brand partnered with Curaleaf to release two-packs of high-quality one-gram pre-rolls, symbolizing the two grams of cannabis for which Bernard was arrested.  

Ten percent of proceeds from the sale of each B Noble product will be donated to local organizations dedicated to advancing social equity and providing opportunities to those directly impacted by the War on Drugs in dispensaries in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, and Oregon.

This partnership with B Noble is Curaleaf’s first large-scale brand venture in alignment with its dedicated social equity work, as a part of its Rooted in Good corporate social responsibility program. Led by Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Khadijah Tribble, Rooted in Good delivers social impact by focusing efforts within three key pillars: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Social Equity; and Sustainability, ultimately achieving key goals through the company’s strategic social partnerships. 

 

There are four types of CSR categories, and a CSR strategy helps you define which one is best for your business, ways in which you can implement it, and how to track the results of your efforts:

  • Philanthropic responsibility
  • Environmental responsibility
  • Ethical responsibility
  • Economic responsibility

A good CSR strategy builds a business case around how your chosen areas of CSR can integrate into your business growth plan, and makes sure that your initiative stays on track.

Here are the three main takeaways of a good CSR strategy:

Concentrate your CSR efforts. The greatest opportunities will come from areas where the business significantly interacts with society. These are areas where the business not only can gain a deeper understanding of the mutual dependencies and the where the highest potential for mutual benefit exists.

Build a deep understanding of the benefits. The key is finding symmetry between the two sides and being open enough to understand issues both from a business and a societal perspective.

Find the right partners. Relationships, particularly long-term ones that are built on a realistic understanding of the true strengths on both sides, have a greater opportunity of being successful and sustainable.

 

If you’re interested in developing a custom and impactful Corporate Social Responsibility strategy for your business or organization, please contact our team!

‘Tis the Season for Sales! Tips for Running a Successful Holiday Campaign

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially for small brands and local businesses! For them, holiday spending is key to a profitable year. According to an American Express Shop Small Impact study, roughly 75% of small business owners have said that they need holiday spending to return to normal in order to stay in business in 2021, and almost half of them expressed the need for above-average spending.

However, there’s good news. As we slowly rebound from Covid-19 restrictions, the National Retail Federation said that it expects holiday sales during November and December to rise between 8.5% and 10.5%, for a total of between $843.4 and $859 billion of sales.

Thankfully, it’s easier than ever for businesses to meet their end-of-the-year sales goals. Online holiday marketing campaigns can reach thousands — even millions of people — within a small business budget. To get results, business owners need to execute holiday campaigns to achieve maximum benefit. Here are a few tips for running an effective holiday digital or social media campaign. 

 

Define your Campaign Theme, Target Audience, and Goals

To define your campaign theme, conduct a SWOT analysis highlighting your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Perform a SWOT analysis before you commit to any sort of company action, including a holiday marketing campaign. Use your SWOT analysis to discover recommendations and strategies, with a focus on leveraging strengths and opportunities to overcome weaknesses and threats.

 

Create a Marketing Plan

It doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but take time to execute the following steps to ensure a successful campaign:

  • Write a simple executive summary.
  • Set metric-driven marketing goals.
  • Create an actionable marketing strategy.
  • Create a public relations strategy plan.
  • Create a media outreach plan.
  • Set accurate key baselines and metrics.
  • Set tracking or reporting guidelines.

 

Create an Offer

What is the best offer you can advertise that will entice shoppers to consider and purchase what your company has to offer? Once you pin down the “deal”, consider the content that will grab attention and stand out in the crowded holiday commerce crowd.

 

Create a Landing Page

Draw from your offer, imagery, and copy to create a dynamic landing page for your campaign. Incorporate keywords that will be picked up by search engines. Search Engine Optimization is the process of getting traffic from free, organic, editorial, or natural search results in search engines. It aims to improve your website’s position on search results pages. Remember, the higher the website is listed, the more people will see it.  

 

Create Holiday Hashtags

Different types of hashtags tend to perform well on specific social media platforms, and some platforms see more success when multiple hashtags are used in one post. Creating a branded holiday hashtag or two can double your holiday social media campaign visibility, giving you better engagement and profits throughout the holiday season.

Keep in mind that the word “branded” is key to making this campaign a success. While you can use generic hashtags such as #happyholidays and #2021 on platforms like Instagram, these aren’t the hashtags that will generate significant results for you. You’ll need special hashtags that incorporate your products or service, relate to your brand, and are used consistently across social media platforms.

 

Incentivize 

Find an option that encourages customers to spend more in order to get that little something extra. Here are some ways to make this work for you include:

    • Make the free item a gift card or certificate, which encourages buyers to purchase from you again in the future.
    • Give samples as a gift rather than something full size.
    • Set a specific dollar amount that must be spent in order to receive the gift.
    • Offer a percent-off coupon for shoppers who sign up for email or text messages on future promotions.

 

Now go get ’em!

Just because your campaign is holiday-themed doesn’t mean the rules for marketing change. Your campaign still needs to abide by marketing best practices. Also, think about the holiday campaigns you’ve loved throughout your life. If you can draw inspiration from something you love, chances are you’ll be able to create something incredible. Ultimately, a lot goes into a successful marketing campaign; whether it’s digital or otherwise, it’s best if it comes from the heart.

Measuring Your Website’s Success

After reading our blog on how to build a dynamic website, you now have one of your own. Congratulations! Your next step towards your business’ success is to learn how to best monitor your website’s performance, on its own and against competitors – especially with more than 1.8 billion websites on the Internet.

When you’re ready to understand how your website is performing, you must first look at your SEO (search engine optimization) and build a solid ranking on Google. Next, gauge the performance by measuring and quantifying the specific KPIs (Key Performance Index) on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis. 

Tracking key metrics over a specific time period will give you valuable insights, help you understand your audience behavior, and allow you to capitalize on opportunities while tracking improvements. 

 

Where are your visitors coming from? What content are they engaging with? Who are these visitors? How many visitors are they? When you use data to start to answer these questions, you can start to make informed decisions about how to effectively market to your audience and ultimately, convert your audience. 

– Andima Umoren, Digital Director

 

The Metrics 

Everyone measures success in their lives differently, but if you have a website, knowing what you should measure and monitor can mean the difference between growth and failure. Here are some fundamental metrics and how they help you improve your website.

 

Unique Visitors

Unique visitors indicates the number of individuals who visited your website at least once during the reporting period. If the visitor comes to your site multiple times during the reporting period, it is only counted once. However, if they visit your site again using a different device or browser, they will be considered a new visitor.

This metric gives you an idea of your website’s audience size during the period under review and is most accurate for pure visits, yet more accurate than page views. In the unique visitor metric, no matter the action taken, a person only represents one potential customer.

Keywords

The metric “keywords” tells you the specific words that visitors type into search engines to lead them to your website. This is a great way to learn to target a specific audience. You can also identify which keywords visitors type into the search box on your website, which helps your SEO, helps to determine your most popular content, and helps you understand the content visitors are looking for that might not yet be available on your website.

Pro-tip: To check which keywords you’re ranking for, you can use the Google Search Console. Just log in using your Google account and click performance on the left sidebar. This shows your ranking and specific keywords for your website. 

Time on Website

Time spent on the website is one of the major keys to the success of your content. It gives you the average time visitors spend on your website, and you can learn which pages are most popular (people spent the most time on) to help you identify content that your target audience is interested in. Addressing the content on these pages can help improve conversions and help you build a community of brand supporters.

Referral Websites

The Referral Websites metric tells you where your website visitors came from, in other words, were they referred from a search engine, social media, or another business site for example. Knowing the referral pathways can help you target your marketing campaigns to these pathways (which is great for SEO) or even to the types of consumers who frequent those referral sites.

Conversion Rate

Conversion Rate is the percentage of people who landed on your website and then took action. The action could either be by the visitor purchasing your products or services, donating money, or subscribing to your e-newsletter. Whatever the goal of your website, the conversion rate tells you the percentage of consumers who performed this action. Low conversion rates can indicate that the offer you provide is not compelling enough, the content may not be resonating, or the visitors you’re attracting is not the right traffic.

Bounce Rate

The Bounce Rate metric tells you the number of people who land on your website and then leave before investigating further. For example, instead of clicking on another page or blog post, users return to search engine results pages or proceed to another website.

This can mean that the page they land on does not engage them sufficiently or is not informative enough for them to bother remaining on your website. A high bounce rate is a content opportunity area that is critical to the success of your website.

Exit Pages

The Exit Page, just as it sounds, is the page visited last before leaving your site. Pages with high exit rates can help identify weaknesses in your site. Users are leaving these pages for a specific reason. Whether they’ve read something they don’t like or there simply wasn’t a clear next step for them to take, reviewing and updating these exit pages can help increase your business’ conversions.

 

Keep in mind that the trick to using these metrics properly is identifying which ones can help you specifically assess whether your website is meeting the needs of your business. It’s a good idea to focus on generating insights from the metrics you’re measuring—insights that you can convert into actionable knowledge for improving the user experience on your site. Now that you’ve got the tools, implement the practices that help you build a successful website! 

How to Create Impactful Blogs for Your Audience

We know that digital marketing strategy is critical to connecting with consumers in today’s climate. According to a recent inbound marketing report, nearly 80 percent of companies that use blogging as a part of their marketing strategy reported acquiring customers through their blogging efforts. 82 percent of businesses admit that blogging is critical to their business. That’s why it’s so important to put together a strong blog strategy that connects with your audience, and encourages them to engage with your company or organization. 

Here are three major ways to create impactful blogs for your business:

 

Incorporate Timely Topics and Conversations

Source: Hubspot 

It’s important to stay abreast of the current events and news that are relevant to your audience and incorporate them into your content. For example, if you are a fashion brand, and a major celebrity or influencer drops a fashion line, you might consider a review, or find another way to tie in the timeliness. You should also leverage national observances that pertain to your audience, and build engaging content around them. For example, if you’re a nutrition or food brand, you should incorporate Better Breakfast Month into your September planning.

Introducing conversational elements in your blog such as a comment section, or continuing a conversation on social media, can help engage your audience even further. 

 

Use Captivating Titles

Source: Hubspot 

Let’s face it. First impressions matter a lot. It’s how others judge what they’re not familiar with. Having a captivating blog title entices the reader to read your blog and reshare to their audiences. You could have the most valuable, ground-breaking content included in every post you write, but without an attention-grabbing title, no one would know. 

Additionally, titles can positively impact your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which allows for the maximum number of individuals using search engines to come across your blog. You should craft your headline to include specific elements that help your post rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SER). This could help drive more organic traffic to your site.

 

Utilize Search Engine Optimization

Source: OpenVine Internet Solutions

Search engine optimization (SEO) allows your blog to get the most traffic possible. You can optimize your blog by utilizing keywords in your post. Google Adwords is a great tool to help you research strategic keywords and monitor what others are using in your industry. 

Try to include keywords in titles and subtitles, introductory and conclusion paragraphs, and metatext. Also, include hyperlinks and information relating back to your social media channels.

 

Make Your Content Digestible 

Source: StackLA

People don’t read content on the internet like they would read a magazine or book. And with our attention span getting shorter and shorter, it’s important to curate digestible content that’s easy for your audience to read and take in. 

Consider formats such as list-based articles, bullets and numbering, bolded subtitles, etc. Also, try to incorporate engaging visuals when possible, such as gifs, videos, and photos. 

 

Octane Launches New Brand Identity

A lot has changed since Octane was first founded 21 years ago! At that time, Facebook hadn’t been born and Amazon was ONLY selling books. Issues like sustainability, marriage equality, and social justice did not command the front pages of the news – or should we say, the top of our news feed. But even before topics like these were mainstream, Octane has always been a catalyst for culture-shifting issues, and creatively communicating their importance to the public. 

For more than two decades, we have tackled tough issues such as HIV/AIDS, an epidemic that hit home especially hard for us as part of the Washington D.C. community, as well as maternal and infant health, alcohol use among teens, and children’s mental health. 

As we have engaged people and communities, we have also connected them to valuable information about energy and sustainability, increased participation in the U.S. census and elevated voices to speak out about Washington, D.C. becoming the 51st state. Families and communities are now using information to create “good” and become activists across the globe. Thus, we believe it is the right time to introduceOctane Culture and Action Octane’s new brand identity.

The logo displays the intersection of culture and action, the premise of Octane, and our strategic approach. The primary visual is the fingerprint, which represents the lasting impact that Octane leaves on all of our work, and recognizes that humanity and our community are at our core. Like the uniqueness of each fingerprint, our communications solutions are personalized for each client based on their distinctive background, perspective, and goals.

Check out our website to receive the latest updates about our brand, client projects, and transformative communications solutions! Also, be sure to connect with us on social media, and follow our new Instagram page!

Tell Your Brand Story in a Compelling Way

The past few years should have shown business owners and leaders that connecting with your audience and building a supportive community through transparency is the best way to gain and keep loyal customers.  Instead of hopping on every trend in an effort to outrank the competition, brands would do better to connect with audiences by simply sharing their values, thus creating a competitive advantage that no other brand can match. You’re probably thinking, “how can I make my brand story attention-grabbing and engaging in a successful way? How can we attain that natural captivation of our audience?” Here are 3 tips that can help you answer these questions.

 

Be Real

The best way to connect with consumers through your brand story is by first understanding your brand thoroughly and then simply telling your brand story. Be introspective when asking yourself, “What does my brand stand for?; – who are we as an organization?;  what do we do?;  who do we do this for?;  why and how do we do it?” 

Self-identity generally occurs during the creation of brand values. Once those values have been confirmed and communicated to internal teams and external audiences, a brand has to consistently stand on them. These values should be authentic, meaningful, and valuable to your brand and your audience. A brand’s values should also be considered when making business decisions, when speaking about certain social issues, and when deciding your business’ niche. 

 

Be Simple

Has your mother ever said, “Quality over quantity,” or “keep it simple” to you? Well, now is the perfect time to apply mom’s advice! 

Keeping your brand story as digestible as possible will allow your brand to be more “human” and will allow more people in your target audience to connect with you. It also helps to easily articulate your brand message across multiple platforms. Simple stories are far more trustworthy for consumers, as well.

Our professionals recommend brand stories that incite emotion, provide solutions and measure success. It’s easiest to format it as a short story that introduces the problem your brand aims to fix, the solution you’ve created that will work towards that fix, and, the finale, the success that the solution has produced. The end of your simple story should not be the end-all, however. It should, instead, be the end to the appetizer, leaving room for the entree and dessert. In other words, let people know that you will continue this work to solve whatever issues your brand is working to improve. 

 

Be Transparent 

Today’s consumers are not those that waste time with pushy marketing tactics. Instead, they appreciate the integrity and authenticity of the brands with whom they choose to build loyalty. Attempting to be a doppelgänger of another brand will prove to quickly fail.  Audiences are quickly able to search and compare a company’s tactics using digital tools and social media. 

Our professionals recommend thinking of your brand as a person in order to give it a unique angle, what does the brand look like (this will be the visual piece of your brand story used for media and digital marketing efforts)?; what does the brand sound like (this is the communications aspect – the voice and tone of the brand)?; and what is important to your brand (this helps you determine which conversations to lead or become a part of regarding political or social issues, community efforts, etc.). 

 

While thinking through all of this, have fun but be careful not to get lost in the rabbit hole of creativity. Be sure to keep the fun ideas that will ultimately boost your brand to success. Let your audience see that while many companies are doing the same things, no company can do it like you!