Tag: "Imperial Sugar"

The News Group's Newsroom, Best of the Best

The News Group’s Newsroom, Best of the Best

My business partner at The News Group Net - David Henderson – and I consulted recently with a team at one of the world’s most respected corporate advisory organizations. They wanted to know more about our strategic, proprietary model to building corporate online newsrooms that are vastly more effective at managing online brand image and reputation than anything else.

The consultancy, which advises the world’s leading corporations about best practices, had evaluated literally hundreds of corporate online “pressrooms” or newsrooms … and had zeroed in on our work to develop and manage Imperial Sugar’s online newsroom as the best example of using a new online model to effectively enhance corporate brand.

The head of the team said, “In a world of grossly mismanaged corporate brand images,” the Imperial Sugar newsroom is among the best they have seen. And, here’s why … Our model for an online newsroom achieves corporate brand prominence, distinction and competitive differentiation within an industry. It defines leadership online. It uses the appeal of news to become the center of discussion and interest within an industry sector.

When you openly and honestly present the news, you open discussion that results in credible attention. Our online newsroom model is not about the old-fashioned style of pushing out or shouting out marketing messages, meaningless press releases or promotional dribble. Such things are the antithesis of today’s style of online communication, media and brand-building.

A corporation that uses an online newsroom to “market its messages” is making a big mistake that will ultimately harm that corporation’s brand image because it corrupts the fundamental credibility and integrity of news with the self-serving purpose of marketing. Furthermore, it’s not about scampering to try to reach vast numbers of eyeballs because that’s irrelevant; it’s about reaching the right leaders, the most influential and important people within target audiences.

The News Group Net, a corporate journalism consultancy, develops and manages custom turn-key online newsrooms for organizations that want to expeditiously enhance brand positioning online and throughout their respective business and financial sectors by becoming the most respected, trusted, transparent and influential source of industry news. In the area of crisis management, this approach online is singularly the most important step any organization can take. It is a vast difference from what anyone else is attempting online … and, it works!

Mar 15, 2010 | 0 comments View Post
How to Get Great Media Coverage

How to Get Great Media Coverage

The News Group Nets clients at LSR groundbreaking. Lonnie Champagne, General Manager, Louisiana Sugar Cane ProductsAlan Willits, President, Business Unit Leader, Cargill Corn Milling North America, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and John Sheptor, President and CEO of Imperial Sugar at groundbreaking of new Louisiana Sugar Refining plant.

Event publicity is a tough business. There always seems to be something sexier, more appealing competing for the media’s attention. On top of that, resources of today’s mainstream media to cover stories is stretched by cutbacks and shrinking budgets.

So, what to do when a client asks for coverage of an event that’s to be held in a small town, 35 miles from any major media city?

The team at The News Group Net, of which I’m a partner, was recently given the assignment to handle news media coverage for a ground breaking event near New Orleans – a major, new cane sugar refinery is being built at Gramercy, La., along the Mississippi, 35 miles miles from both New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The sugar refinery will become the largest in North America.

Our clients included the groups that make up the joint venture – Imperial Sugar Company, Cargill and the Louisiana Sugar Growers.

Media surround our client, Lonnie Champagne, General Manager, Louisiana Sugar Cane Products, at groundbreaking event.

But, we had another formidable problem, besides distance – the event was scheduled for February 3, in the middle of Super Bowl week as New Orleans Saints were getting ready for the big game. Media attention, understandably, was focused on the hometown team’s first trip to the Super Bowl.

Our first task was to find a compelling and legitimate news story angle to appeal to the media, and that part was easy – the sugar refinery, biggest in North America, would be an economic development engine for southern Louisiana, attracting as many as 500 construction jobs for starters.

In this digital era of media, our focus turned to creating a content-rich media resource Web site which we got online in less than a day. We got lucky and registered a great domain name – LouisianaSugarNews.com. Credible-sounding and appropriate. This is important – the site’s sole purpose was to serve as a news media resource.

Reporter interviewing lan Willits, President, Business Unit Leader, Cargill Corn Milling North America.

Working together with Nicole Riechert, an outstanding professional on Cargill’s corporate communications team, we drafted an advance media alert and specific news stories for the site. Ed Lallo of The News Group Net went on-location to shoot high resolution news photos and HD video.

No news releases were used because releases are really the antithesis of what today’s media wants … reporters want stories. We created no media kit because everything was online. Rather, we also put all high res photos and HD videos on USB “thumb” drives that we handed out to the media.

Local Union leader Lloyd Kliebert, rode his bike to be interiewed by the media.

The traditional PR business … which is slow to embrace using the powerful tools of real news stories, authentic online news sites, photos and video … remains largely paralyzed in a kind of press release catatonic state, generating a blizzard of releases that the media no longer pays attention to.

We also avoided the paid news services – such as Vocus, Businesswire and PR Newswire – that lazy PR agencies persist in using even though they rarely achieve results. Instead, Hattie Horn of our team created a custom media list for southern Louisiana.

John Sheptor, President and CEO of Imperial Sugar, does interview with television media.

Hattie is absolutely the best media relations pro at finding the media contacts that really count.

When our media alert first went out 10 days before the event, it resulted in a national Associated Press story, among other local stories. We know of a little secret about how to get AP coverage and bypass all competing PR hype.

The event on February 3 was … well, astonishingly successful. It was covered by 21 reporters and photographers from newspapers, TV stations and trade magazines. The New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a half page about the event in the Metro section the next day. One television news team fed the story to 17 TV stations throughout the state.

The News Group Net doesn’t do PR. We work with organizations to achieve substantial results through what we call Corporate Journalism … and, it is powerfully effective.


Feb 08, 2010 | 0 comments View Post
Dinner in DC with John & Tiba Sheptor and Lemonade Day Winner

Dinner in DC with John & Tiba Sheptor and Lemonade Day Winner

Diane Hoff of Houston, Texas was the winner of Lemonade Day Trip to DC.

Diane Hoff of Houston, Texas was the winner of Lemonade Day trip to DC.

Back in the early summer of 2009, when 9-year-old Diane Hoff was learning to be a young entrepreneur during Lemonade Day in her hometown of Houston, Texas, little did she know that she and her family would win an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. Well, nice dreams can come true for nice people.

Diane’s name was entered in the “Win a free trip to Washington DC” sweepstakes, part of Imperial Sugar’s title sponsorship of Lemonade Day, and she won … not just a trip for herself but her sister Elizabeth and her parents, Edita and Jeff Hoff.

During their recent visit to the nation’s capital, Diane and her family toured famous monuments and the Capitol building, walked Washington’s Mall and visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, twice.

Kyle Hics,

Kyle Hicks and Adrienne Lallo at the DC home of Tiba and John Sheptor.

eA highlight of their trip was dinner at the home of Imperial Sugar President and CEO, John Sheptor, and his wife.

Tiba personally cooked a tasty array of her family’s favorite Persian dishes that have been prepared by her family for centuries. Passed from generation to generation by word of mouth and hands on experience, the prepared dishes included; two kinds of rice, lamb and herb rice, beef and eggplant and chicken with pomegranate sauce. The meal provided a culinary experience second to none.

Joining the Sheptor and Hoff families for dinner were Chef Eddy Van Damme and Kyle Hicks of Houston, and Ed and Adrienne Lallo of Austin, Texas.

Chef Eddy preparing dessert with Lemonade Day Trip winner Diane Hoff.

Chef Eddy prepared dessert with Lemonade Day Trip winner Diane Hoff.

Chef Eddy and Diane worked side-by-side to prepare dessert for the meal. A flan with baked chocolate, gold leafed pear and berries. Tiba turned her kitchen over to the two chefs as the guests watched.
Lemonade Day is a very special event for Imperial Sugar. The company sweetens the Lemonade Day
 experience by supplying sample packets of pre-measured Imperial Sugar, a
lemonade recipe booklet and coupons for Imperial Sugar products. The 
sugar company also developed a set of marketing tips which are 
included in the backpacks on how the young
entrepreneurs can effectively promote their lemonade stands.

Wholesome Sweeteners, partially owned by 
Imperial Sugar, also provides organic sugar products, as well as cost-saving coupons for many of its products.

What did Diane think about all the things she experienced while in Washington? “It was cool,” she said, “seeing the Lincoln Memorial, the monuments, the Library of Congress, the White House, and visiting the home of Mr. Sheptor of Imperial Sugar.”

Back home in Houston, Diane wrote a paper for her fourth grade class and shared her adventures in the nation’s capital with classmates.

Edita Hoff, Diane’s mother, said the experience has opened up her daughter’s eyes to how big the world really is and praised the Lemonade Day program and Imperial Sugar Company’s support “to encourage young entrepreneurs to discover their talents and broaden their horizons.”

She said her daughter’s new motto is, “You can be what you want to be with hard work and determination.”

Dec 06, 2009 | 0 comments View Post