“At Meristem Communities we believe words wield incredible power. Since day one, NewGround has been a strong partner, understanding our specific needs related to PR and even pushing us to further develop the narrative about our work. Our relationship has been easy, collaborative and no doubt has moved the needle for our bottom line.”
—Scott Snodgrass, Meristem Communities, Developer of Indigo
“NewGround PR,
Best in business brilliance,
Personable, prompt.”
—Haiku by Clayton Garrett, Meristem Communities, Developer of Indigo
A new kind of PR campaign for a new kind of development
Services provided
- Media relations
- Event ideation and planning
- Industry relations
- Thought leadership
- Crisis communications
- Digital content strategy
CHALLENGE
NewGround is charged with a two-fold mission – build Meristem Communities’ reputation while beginning to tell the unique and multi-faceted story of the company’s debut development project, Indigo, even before ground broke on the community. Typically, the media is hesitant to talk to developers before they have projects out of the ground, so it was imperative that NewGround establish the Meristem Communities’ founders as change-makers and thought leaders who are taking a unique approach to development.
- Establish and build the reputation of Meristem Communities as a new developer while promoting its first project, Indigo
- Communicate a new kind of development to stakeholders (local code officials and electeds)
- Enhance and build a new brand
STRATEGIES & TACTICS
NewGround developed a dual communications strategy – one to raise the profile of the Meristem Communities’ founders, Scott Snodgrass and Clayton Garrett, and one to tell the Indigo story and the unique vision behind it to both B2B and B2C audiences. We first established Meristem Communities’ founders, Scott and Clayton, as credible sources for interviews, articles, and features using their unique backgrounds, origin stories, and fresh perspectives as new developers to secure meaningful media coverage about Meristem Communities and Indigo. We complemented this traditional media outreach with new media strategies like podcast and broadcast appearances for growing thought leadership and launched a LinkedIn strategy to amplify the Meristem brand on social media. We then set about talking to the media about how Indigo was breaking the mold of the traditional master-planned community in Texas and how it will serve as a model for developments of the future. This caught the attention of the media both regionally and nationally who have covered the community’s vision and milestones on a regular basis.
- Press releases
- Customized and targeted regional and national pitches
- Bylined articles
- Award submissions
- LinkedIn strategy
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
NewGround helped establish Indigo as a destination and drove qualified traffic to the website with numerous media mentions while helping to differentiate Meristem Communities’ approach to development.
- Appearances on numerous national podcasts resulting in new business opportunities for both Meristem and NewGround
- Three feature stories (including two covers) in Houston Business Journal; Within 24 hours of the first feature publishing, more than 200 people signed up for the Indigo interest list, tripling the number
- Dozens of media hits, which have directly resulted in additional media and speaking requests and coverage
- The Indigo groundbreaking and inaugural small business event nabbed 10 individuals joining the priority list to purchase retail spaces at Indigo Commons— double the goal—and accounting for half of the total retail spaces available
