“We’re a team that values data-driven decisions, and Propel has been far more helpful in that arena than any other tool we’ve invested in,” said (W)right On Communications Founder and President Julie Wright.
(W)right On Communications, a San Diego public relations agency with a team of 15 and offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver, signed on with Propel in January 2021. The (W)right On team immediately began using Propel. With one of their first campaigns using the tool, it produced an award-winning pitch for client Oakmont Management Group, a leader in luxury senior living.
The (W)right On Communications team faced an all-too-relatable PR challenge before getting started with Propel. That is, using tons of different tools and siloed management systems to put media lists together. Previously, the team would use Cision, Meltwater and Critical Mention for list building and often pulled data from those tools into spreadsheets to build pitching lists. They tended not to use those platforms to distribute pitches and sent customized email pitches instead. These lists were not as organized or accessible as they needed, which was causing issues. .
“Once we exported a list to Excel, it would become outdated in a hot minute,” said (W)right On Communications Coordinator Brad DeClouet. “In Meltwater, we couldn’t find basic contacts like news desks or editor emails. They primarily supplied journalist and anchor contact information.”
(W)right On was searching for a solution that would help create a more seamless experience for the team to pitch and track the performance. They turned to Propel PRM and quickly realized it was a much more efficient experience to pitch from the comfort of their inbox, ultimately getting their clients the results they’re after.
Recently, its client Oakmont Management Group, a leader in luxury senior living, was rolling out its second set of Covid-19 vaccination clinics for their residents across California and Las Vegas. (W)right On developed several pitch lists in Propel targeting the California and Nevada media markets where their client had senior living communities.
“The team supporting Oakmont was able to divide and conquer, sending the pitch region by region,” said (W)right On Founder and President Julie Wright. “Propel’s Outlook integration made it easy to customize pitches to each recipient and localize it to each media market.”
See an example of an email-integrated pitch with Propel:
The agency tracked opens and responses via the platform, and Wright was able to use the dashboard to track engagement rates.
“I love Propel’s Outlook integration best. As an agency leader, the dashboard is also an excellent feature,” explained Wright. “It can alert me to team members who might need more coaching and development to increase their success rates.”
“The automated notations in our pitch lists are also helpful because anyone on our team evaluating a media contact to pitch can see who else on the team has worked with that contact to collaborate for better outcomes and media relationships.”
(W)right On’s initial pitches for this campaign secured coverage and a photoshoot in the San Francisco Chronicle, for instance, as well as interest from other local media in other Oakmont markets. But its greatest success—which earned the agency a Ragan PR Daily honorable mention for Best Pitch--came from a single community, Oakmont of San Jose, which had an exceptionally strong media angle.
“Propel helped identify TV and major daily news media to pitch, was the platform for distributing the pitch through the Outlook integration and allowed us to monitor opens and track follow ups,” said Wright.
The outcome? (W)right On secured media coverage on every TV newscast in the Bay Area as well as coverage in the San Jose Mercury News.
This is only one example of how Propel made pitching easy and supported such fast, remarkable campaign results for the (W)right On team. With a new full PR management system by its side, the team will continue to thrive in the pitching process, from building top-notch media lists, to celebrating results.
