PUBLIC RELATIONS
MEDIA RELATIONS
ON CAMERA WORK
PHILANTHROPIC PARTNERSHIPS
In my time at InQuest Marketing, I managed public relations projects for numerous clients. But to best illustrate my experience in this discipline, I'll focus on my time as the public relations manager for Price Chopper grocery stores in the Greater Kansas City Metro. In this role, I managed several aspects of Price Chopper's greater communications strategy, including media relations, content strategy and philanthropic partnerships. Below you will find examples of my work in these areas.
MEDIA RELATIONS
As the PR manager, I was responsible for all inbound and outbound media relations needs. I was the first call for the local news desks when they needed to connect with Price Chopper for a news story. I also proactively pitched company news when appropriate to receive coverage on important developments.
A prime example of proactive media relations occurred when Price Chopper rolled out its Grocery Delivery program "Powered by Instacart". Grocery delivery was still fairly new, but Price Chopper was behind the game. Top competitors such as Hy Vee had already successfully rolled out their own programs, and the novelty had worn off.
Our challenge was to still create buzz around Price Chopper's delivery program despite the fact that the newness factor was missing. Fortunately, Price Chopper has maintained its position as the number one grocery store chain in Kansas City, and therefore this was important news to a large portion of the market population.
We were able to get coverage across several stations and effectively got the word out to our shoppers. Here are two examples:
Local TV Coverage
ON CAMERA WORK
In addition to managing relationships with the media and pitching stories, I also served as an on-camera spokesperson for Price Chopper. I represented Price Chopper for a variety of media interviews, including but not limited to: seasonal stories for holiday shopping, new products and services, food drives with local food bank, and donation campaigns.
For two years, we also had a sponsorship with the morning lifestyle show on the CBS affiliate in Kansas City. During that period we had weekly cooking segments of which I was the on-camera talent for many. Here are a few of my favorites.
PHILANTHROPIC PARTNERSHIPS
A significant responsibility in my role as public relations manager for Price Chopper was to manage the relationship with the company's primary philanthropic partner, Harvesters - Community Food Network. Every year, we worked together to fight hunger in the Kansas City region through a series of initiatives.
Stamp Out Hunger: Sponsorship with local chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers. We donated 600K plastic bags every year to support the largest single day food drive in the United States. The bags were delivered to residential addresses across the region with a postcard asking for non-perishable food donations to be left next to your mailbox and your mail carrier would pick up. Hundreds of thousands pounds of food were collected each year and distributed through Harvesters network of food pantries.
No School=No Lunch: Monetary donation drive held each summer to raise awareness of the students who rely on free and reduced lunch programs for meals. When school is out of session the families of those students often struggle to provide enough food. On average $35,000 was raised through $1, $5, and $10 donations at the grocery checkout lanes.
Step Up to the Plate: In partnership with the Kansas City Royals, we hosted a food drive at a home Royals game, encouraged online donation, and accept donations at checkout lanes. The Royals would challenge the visiting teams city each year in the spirit of friendly competition to see which fans could raise the most to fight hunger in their cities. We won.
Fill the Fridge: In partnership with 41 Action News (local NBC affiliate), Price Chopper hosted a week-long perishable food drive in which we collected items such as apples, oranges, milk, bacon and more. Harvesters provided a refrigerated semi trailer each day, 41 Action News provided the mega phone, we provided the people and food.
Check Out Hunger: Arguably the most impactful donation drive we did each year, Check Out Hunger was a donation drive at checkout lanes held from November-January. During my years managing this program, we raised more than $1 million to support Harvesters.
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