Connecting
Building a National Consumer Brand
Megabus.com’s industry-leading communication program since 2006 helps the city-to-city express bus company grow to serve more than 24 million customers in 100 major cities across North America. The integrated program by Hanser & Associates communicates the voice of the company’s customers via media relations, social media, events and advertising. Expansion Situation: Megabus.com is the first [...]
Introduction of Korean company (and new facilities) into USA
Situation: For more than five decades, CJ has maintained a reputation as a leading food and consumer product manufacturer in The Republic of Korea. CJ BIO America’s first construction project in the USA—a $320 million lysine manufacturing facility to be constructed at the Ag Industrial Park in Fort Dodge, Iowa by 2014—will employee 170 and [...]
Express bus service builds explosive sales and profitability
Situation: Paramus, N.J.-based Coach USA, a subsidiary of UK-based Stagecoach Group, selected Hanser & Associates in 2005 to launch Chicago-based megabus.com, the first company in North America to offer city-to-city express bus service with fares as low as $1 via the Internet. Megabus.com launched service in April 2006 from its Chicago hub and seven other [...]
Social media success requires strategy?
Last year, we were expecting to see more social media activity meeting expectations. In our third-annual survey, the number remains low at 45 percent, despite a six-point increase in strategy and a 14-point increase in measurement. Indeed, in a lot of ways, the numbers haven’t really shifted from the 2010 baseline. But the presence of strategy still correlates [...]
Mitas Tires rolls into USA with public relations
Situation: Mitas, based in Prague, Czech Republic, is one of Europe’s leading producers of agricultural and industrial tires, operates three production facilities in Eastern Europe and maintains a global distribution network. The company (formerly named CGS Tyres) was prepared in 2010 to announce construction of the Mitas Tires North America’s first ag tire production facility [...]
Home & Garden Show grows with PR
Situation: Marketplace Events annually produces 30 market-leading, consumer trade shows across North America. Hanser & Associates was retained for public relations services in support of the 2003 Des Moines Home & Garden Show and every show since. The 2011 show helped Central Iowa homeowners find unique home-improvement ideas from experts in interior design, landscaping, green [...]
Institutional rebranding via engagement and conversation
Situation: Upper Iowa University (UIU), founded in 1857, is a Fayette, Iowa-based private university providing undergraduate and graduate degrees to 6,000 students at campuses and centers worldwide. UIU in 2005 hired a new president and wanted to build its brand and increase enrollment. UIU sought a public relations firm to help them get closer to [...]
Smashburger sizzles into Iowa
Situation: Smashguys, LLC, the Iowa franchisee of Denver, Colo.-based Smashburger, a fast-casual restaurant designed to be everybody’s favorite burger place, retained Hanser & Associates to manage their day-to-day communication and marketing in Iowa. PR Action: Smashburger’s first Iowa location opened in September 2009 in West Des Moines. To build pre-opening awareness and word of mouth, [...]
Building public consensus regarding health priorities
Situation: Polk County Health Department is charged with delivering public health services in Iowa’s most populous county and implementing health improvement programs as defined in an ambitious ten-year plan. Elected officials and Department management were charged in 2008 to create a new road map – Healthy Polk 2020 – to identify future health priorities while [...]
Hospital mergers improve profitability
Situation: Catholic Health System, a five-hospital healthcare-provider network in Western New York, was under significant financial distress in 1998. Shrinking Medicare reimbursements coupled with shorter patient stays and fewer overnight admissions due to new technologies and therapies had put Buffalo, NY-based CHS at a crossroads. Management at CHS decided to “retask” three hospitals – providing [...]