This article previously appeared in Hotel Business Review on June 16, 2…
Execute community engagement initiatives with our public affairs team.
How an organization engages with the community can make or break a campaign or project. Mower Public Relations and Public Affairs has a team dedicated to helping our clients succeed through thoughtfully designed community engagement initiatives.
We research and assess key stakeholders and develop strategies, messaging and tactics that help move a campaign forward through coalition building and open and transparent public interaction.
Regulatory approvals are nuanced and, at times, can be cumbersome. Regulators, in particular, will want to ensure that project sponsors have completed the necessary outreach to the public, and conducted not only the minimum due diligence, but gone above and beyond what state regulations require. Mower knows how to work with legal, environmental and government relations teams to make that happen, and our track record proves it.
For example, we’ve:
- Led the community outreach required by the state and local approval processes of SEQRA, Article VII, CPCN and local zoning in Maine and New York for AVANGRID’s $2 billion transmission upgrade project.
- Worked with Honeywell to design and implement public information outreach initiatives for one of the largest environmental remediation projects in the United States — the cleanup of Onondaga Lake.
- Provided 18 months of complex outreach to various key stakeholder groups to gain the approval to build a 330-mile underwater and underground transmission line for Transmission Developers Incorporated.
- Managed preservation board meetings, community discussions, petitions and more to successfully convert an old packaging center into a world-class brewhouse, restaurant and museum for Genesee Beer.
- Helped Lafarge North America gain public support and regulatory approval for the expansion of its cement manufacturing facility.
- Increased awareness and understanding of the benefits of the City of Cincinnati’s streetcar proposal to a wide variety of audiences through a series of milestone events, social media and media relations.
- Organized state, federal and international government support for Plan 2014, a proposal from nongovernmental organizations Save the River, The Nature Conservancy, WWF-Canada, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, American Rivers and Audubon New York, to regulate water levels in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
- Listened closely to community concerns to clear the way for Noble Environmental Power to complete the construction of approximately 160 wind turbines in three towns in New York.
Our Approach
At Mower, we take a holistic approach to community assessments. We understand that no two places are alike, and it’s important for the success of your project that the team fully understand all the dynamics in a specific location. In many cases, we start with community profile reports — comprehensive documents that explore the demographics, history, housing, local governments, stakeholders, allies, opponents, and past interactions an organization may have had in the community. These documents drive the messaging and execution of a community engagement campaign.
After we determine who these stakeholders are, we’ll gather all their contact information and sort them in tiers. These tiers will allow the team to understand who the most important key players are and what impact they can have on the project moving forward. From there, we’ll also construct a timeline to lay out when to reach out to interested parties. The Mower team will constantly update this tracking document whenever anyone on our side or yours makes contact with a stakeholder.
Some of Mower’s community engagement tactics can include:
- Open houses / facility tours
- Information stations
- Newspaper advertorials
- Videos
- Public and private meetings
- Editorial board outreach
- Speakers bureaus
- Polls, surveys, focus groups and message testing
Consistently ranked among the top U.S. public relations firms, the Mower Public Relations and Public Affairs team of specialists are close at hand. All across our Mower’s nine-office network, our team works seamlessly to address all your strategic communication needs.
