For over 40 years, CAI, a global IT services firm, maintained a limited and sporadic media presence without a PR strategy or dedicated resources. PR was reactive, intake was informal, and it lacked structure for evaluating what was worth pitching, what warranted a press release, or how to respond when a crisis hit. The opportunity was to build that infrastructure from scratch and then prove its value.

I built a PR program designed around three principles: protect credibility, earn attention, and measure reach.

To start, I had to design the structures:

1. A flowchart to educate the organization on clear criteria for when a story warranted a press release, a media pitch, both, or neither.

2. A pitch calendar that connected thought leadership themes, client success stories, awards, and world events into a single PR strategy.

3. An interview protocol with media materials to prepare spokespeople before a reporter discussion, support during the conversation, and debrief after to improve for the future.

4. A tiered crisis communications plan complete with a response taskforce structure, scenario walkthroughs, holding statement templates, and a monitoring system so the team could move fast when it mattered.

With the foundational elements in place, I organized and led media training for our C-suite and SMEs; licensed a wire distribution and database technology vendor; partnered with an agency to secure opportunities; and constructed CAI’s first newsroom webpage to showcase media reputation.

Finally, I formalized an intake process with separate workflows for press releases, awards, employer branding, internal communications, and events — each with SLAs and legal and compliance checkpoints.

After establishing CAI’s first PR strategy, I secured a 538% increase in positive earned media coverage, including:

• Features, mentions, and bylines in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Washington Post, TechTarget, Inc. Magazine, and many trade outlets

• Proprietary frameworks for media interactions and crisis plans made into company policy and adopted organization wide

• Scaled Communications Team from one to four transforming the function from constantly reactive triage to strategic output

Some content was for internal use only. Confidential details were redacted.

• Annual PR Content Calendar (password protected)

• PR Process & Decision Framework (password protected)

• Crisis Communications Plan (complete doc password protected)

• Communications Intake System (password protected)