Florida’s top independent public relations firm today announced a sweeping repositioning and rebranding to help corporate, government and nonprofit clients navigate a fast-changing media landscape. The award-winning Ron Sachs Communications today launched Sachs Media Group with a strong focus on creating compelling multimedia content and leveraging new tools and tactics to most effectively reach and engage audiences.
The firm, with offices in Tallahassee and Orlando, was named the nation’s “PR Agency of the Year” in its class in 2011 by the Bulldog Reporter. The move reflects the dramatic changes in how audiences are accessing information and better leverages the firm’s roots in the news business.
“The modern communications horizon today continues to widen, evolve and push forward to exciting new vistas and platforms, making it imperative for corporate, governmental and nonprofit sectors to rely on smart and able navigators,” said CEO and founder Ron Sachs. “Today, every organization, every company, every campaign needs to operate like a newsroom, giving the audiences they need to connect with the rich content they want.”
The new brand also leverages the 18-year-old firm’s industry leadership in public relations/public affairs, crisis communications, branding, social/digital and marketing units, while breaking down the walls between those silos in new ways. Founded by communications veteran Sachs in 1996, Sachs Media Group provides a full suite of integrated services.
The new firm combines the firm’s traditional strengths – a powerful network of relationships, exceptional messaging, storytelling ability and news experience – with a recognition that audiences increasingly choose the information they want and filter out what they don’t want to hear.
“You can’t push information at people. The old strategies don’t work anymore, but the same skills can be applied in exciting new ways to achieve great results,” said Michelle Ubben, chief operating officer. “The key is creating compelling content that people will seek out and share.”
With a senior management team led by former reporters, editors and news producers, Sachs Media Group has deep roots in journalism and operates as a multi-faceted communications newsroom with professional staff serving as content creators, audience/community managers, creative producers and editors. The full-service firm also provides its clients the added advantage of nimbly developing on-point messaging content across a wide media spectrum – an important distinction in an era of media convergence whether branding or rebranding a business, delivering a winning public affairs communications strategy, creating a beneficial public-purpose campaign or defending a client’s reputation during a breaking crisis.
“When this firm started out, the world had fewer methods of communicating and the mass media was the be-all and end-all of public relations and messaging,” Sachs said. “Technology has demolished many communications barriers, and now our job is to break through the clutter and noise so our clients can most effectively reach the multiple and targeted audiences they value.”
The firm is widely recognized as one of the most prolific producers of long and short-form television programming on diverse issues related to public health, safety and education. Its Emmy Award-winning “Get Ready, America!” – the National Hurricane Safety Initiative – is in its 17th year and includes a new 30-minute television special every year, broadcast in more than 50 hurricane-vulnerable markets from Texas to Maine. In 2013, the firm is producing two statewide TV specials in Florida – one about the state’s rich 500-year history for “Viva Florida 500!” and another focused on preventing the epidemic growth of sexual abuse of children by predators.
This month, Sachs Media Group launched a new platform, Florida Newsmakers, an online public affairs program featuring top elected officials and industry leaders, in partnership with many daily newspapers and other Florida news organizations.
The multiple Emmys represent only a small portion of Sachs Media Group’s capabilities and recognitions. The firm’s What’s Next digital division recently captured a nationwide Gold Medal award and a separate Bronze from the respected Bulldog Reporter, marking the third straight year the Sachs Media team has been recognized by the prestigious national publication. The firm consistently is a big winner in local and state Image Award competitions hosted by the Florida Public Relations Association, and this week won two gold and three silver awards in area ADDY competition.
Sachs noted that the Sachs Media Group team includes three former gubernatorial communications directors, another Cabinet-level communications director, seven Emmy Award winners, former state legislative and executive agency managers, a former international promotions executive for Disney Parks & Resorts around the globe, and a nationally regarded thought leader on ever-changing converging social media and digital marketing challenges and opportunities.
“Shift happens and change is constant – and our experience and instinct compel us to seize the many upside opportunities in that by engaging audiences directly and measuring the results,” said Sachs. “It’s an exciting time to be in the communications business and chart a course for change for the benefit of our clients.”
About Sachs Media Group
Sachs Media Group is Florida’s leading public affairs communications firm, building public and opinion leader support for issues of local, state and regional importance. As an integrated communications firm, it combines public relations, marketing, advertising, grassroots and social media strategies, creating effective campaigns for corporate, nonprofit and government clients. Sachs Media Group, formerly Ron Sachs Communications, is ranked among the top public relations firms in Florida and the top 100 in the nation.
The Sachs Media Group leadership team includes CEO, Founder and President Ron Sachs; Partner/Chief Operating Officer Michelle Ubben; Partner/Executive Vice President Alia Faraj-Johnson; Partner/Senior Vice President Ryan Banfill; Senior Vice President Vicki Johnson; and Vice Presidents Lisa Garcia and Ryan Cohn.