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.

How Can Social Media Benefit Your Business?

Most people understand that a strong social media presence is crucial to maintaining a brand or business during today’s day and age. Developing a strategy to connect through social platforms can be one of the most important, cost-effective, ways to maintain relationships with current and potential customers. 

To fully leverage the benefits that social media can provide, strategy and consistency are key. Below are four key elements to consider when developing a professional social media presence.

 

Determine the Proper Platforms

Source: https://skedsocial.com/blog/social-media-channels-for-your-business/

Part of developing a smart social media strategy is understanding the functionality of each channel and how they align with the organization’s goals.

For example, Instagram is the best place for high-quality photo and video content. You can also utilize the IGTV feature for longer videos, Instagram Stories for shorter daily content and engagement, and host live video sessions with your audience. Instagram is also great for connecting with younger audiences, including millennials and Gen Z.

Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, is the king of social media with more than 1.59 billion users mostly in Gen X and Y age range. Facebook provides a platform for connecting with family, brands, and friends. Nearly 70 percent of U.S. adults use Facebook. If you’re trying to reach middle-aged adults, this platform is definitely where you want to be. Facebook analytics tools are also very comprehensive and easy to use. The platform also offers live video sessions with your audience, and a story feature – similar to Instagram’s. 

Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube are additional platforms that should be researched and considered when developing your targeted social media strategy. 

Twitter is a platform that is fast-paced similar to a newsroom. Businesses can engage with global audiences, allow space for consumers to act as brand ambassadors, monitor competition, and handle customer service inquiries quickly and efficiently. 

The visual search engine and productivity tool, also known as the social platform Pinterest, holds an audience that is looking to be inspired and moved by content. Here, you can not only pin your products to your company’s board, but you can share blogs and create relationships by repinning informative posts from other users. 

YouTube is great for video content that focuses on the culture of your business, shares industry talks and podcasts that showcase your business’ organizational and community efforts, and highlights product launches. With 1 billion visitors monthly, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and the 3rd most visited website worldwide! Having content on YouTube also improves your business’ search results through Google.

 

Content Planning

Source: Sprout Social https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-content-strategy/

Planning your content ahead of time is one the most important parts of content strategy. It’s unproductive, unrealistic, and quite stressful to try and post in real-time, every day. For the bulk of your content, you can create a master content calendar that outlines your content per channel on a monthly or weekly basis. Of course, each channel speaks to a specific audience and can be used to help your organization reach certain business goals.

When you’re planning your daily content, consider weekly focus days. For example, maybe it would be beneficial to establish every Tuesday as “Industry Talk Tuesday”, where your audience can look forward to a post, short video, photo or quote that provides news and updates about your industry or business and is relevant to your brand. You can also try something more fun, like “Motivational Mondays” for example. This way, your audience can expect your brand to uplift them for the upcoming week!  

Additionally, you can incorporate timing hooks and observances into your planned content. A good example for a health and wellness company could be to develop a campaign for National Wellness Month (August) and Self Improvement Month (September), in addition to the regularly scheduled content. 

Maximizing Engagement 

Source: Hootsuite https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-engagement/

It’s one thing to be active on social media, but it’s another to actively engage your audience on a consistent basis. Engagement is what lets you know that your audience is paying attention to your content, and likes it! 

Engagement can be measured through likes, comments, shares, retweets, mentions, use of campaign hashtags and click-throughs. A key to maximizing engagement is knowing your audience. Research and analyze the types of content your audience responds best to, and incorporate that. For example, if you’re targeting millennials or Gen Z, it would be beneficial to include Instagram reels into your social media content strategy. Find ways to creatively integrate your content in a way that your audience will easily digest. 

Utilize engagement features such as questions, polls, contests and giveaways, and other ways to encourage participation. Show your audience that you value their engagement by quickly liking and responding to comments and messages, spotlighting responses to polls and questions, etc. Be sure to stay topical with your content, and when appropriate, chime in on current events that are relevant to your brand. Consider creating a funny meme or gif that people can react to. 

 

Cost-Effective

Source: Bakers Labs https://bakerlabs.co/using-social-media-as-a-cost-effective-means-of-marketing/

We’ll end with the reason that everyone is considering social media marketing in their business: cost-effectiveness! Social media campaigns produced by your team members, so there’s essentially no additional cost there. Content creation and monitoring tools themselves are many times free, and if not are relatively inexpensive and easy to track for ROI. Social media campaigns can assist in bringing down overall marketing spending. 

This is particularly relevant for regional businesses that use social media platforms such as Facebook to target exactly who they need to based on audience demographics.

 

Octane’s dedicated Digital Team has the professional experience to assist you with creating a social media plan for your organization, creating graphics, writing posts, and assisting you with creating and maintaining a social media presence and reaching your business goals. If you would like to schedule a consultation, please contact us!