MacMillan carefully considers the business goals of each client and creates media campaigns that positively impact the bottom line. Here are brief descriptions of a few recent successes:

Mutual Fund Client: Leverage Media to Grow Assets Under Management

Challenge
Attract new retail investors and grow assets under management for a small asset management firm.

Strategy
When the client first retained MacMillan, they were largely unknown in the retail market despite a long and successful track record with institutional and high net worth investors. To distinguish the firm from other retail asset managers, MacMillan created a compelling narrative that clearly defined the firm's character and investing style. To provide a crucial milestone, we timed the campaign to coincide with the three year anniversary of the client's high performing mutual fund. We conducted aggressive media outreach, targeting major business, investing and personal finance press in both print and broadcast.

Results
We generated feature coverage for the client and its fund in nearly every significant business and investing publication, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, The New York Times, Kiplinger's, Money Magazine and, most recently, BusinessWeek. Subsequently, the client has experienced extraordinary growth during a challenging period for asset managers. Overall, the firm's assets swelled by approximately 500 percent, while mutual fund assets have grown twenty times.


Law Firm Client: Establish a New Practice Group

Challenge
Create visibility for newly constituted health care practice group at a top 20 U.S. law firm.

Strategy
MacMillan initiated a series of regular, multi-site conference calls with the client to develop content, prepare spokespeople and establish a rapid response mechanism to react to breaking news. Through numerous briefings with key editors and reporters we saturated the health care trade publications with our client's ideas and expertise.

MacMillan also developed a press event for high-visibility journalists that addressed leading health industry issues. Top healthcare reporters at The New York Times, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Reuters, Modern Healthcare, National Law Journal and various key trade publications attended.

Results
Our client's commentary on issues ranging from Medicare, non-profit hospitals and health care fraud appeared regularly in national high-visibility media. In addition, we secured standing by-line commentary opportunities for client attorneys in leading health and legal industry trade publications. Our efforts created greater awareness of the practice group in a highly competitive market.



Business Process Outsourcing Client: Create Understanding of Home-Based Call Centers

Challenge
Establish the "virtual (home-based) call center" outsourcing concept as a viable customer care option for Fortune 1000 companies while positioning Florida-based WillowCSN as the industry leader.

Strategy
To counter the national trend of off-shoring corporate call centers, WillowCSN sought to establish the viability of home-based "virtual" call centers for Fortune 1000 companies. MacMillan adopted a two pronged approach to drive interest among companies who could benefit from home-based call centers and among workers to train as home-based agents.

First, we worked closely with our client to identify compelling human interest stories among their agents, which then served as the basis for targeted pitches to regional and national consumer and business media. At the same time, we created a tailored campaign targeting both business and those vertical industries most likely to use Willow services.

To introduce the nascent industry onto the national stage, we assembled a panel of industry leaders (from companies such as Jet Blue Airways and Virgin Atlantic) and analysts for the first-ever "home-shoring" virtual teleconference. The Associated Press, USA Today, Newsweek, Reuters, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and various key trade publications attended the conference.

Results
Willow and the virtual call center industry have become media stars. In the year following the teleconference feature stories appeared in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, ABC’s Good Morning America, The New York Times, National Public Radio, Voice of America Radio, Reuters, Knight Ridder, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Arizona Republic, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kiplinger’s, Entrepreneur, and Computerworld, among many others.

Our efforts positioned Willow as the leader in home-based call centers and established the model as a viable option for Fortune 1000 companies, several of which have subsequently signed with Willow. The media program has also helped the company recruit thousands of home-based agents.



Financial Data Client: Establish Leadership in a Fast-Moving Industry

Challenge
Establish Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research, Inc. (HFR) as the leading global provider of hedge fund performance data.

Strategy
Over the past several years, demand for hedge fund industry data on the part of hedge funds, funds-of-funds, and journalists has soared and competition to supply that data has intensified. To establish HFR as the premier data source, MacMillan developed a powerful media relations program based on regular announcements of fund industry asset performance, and the release of targeted trend stories drawn from HFR data. We conducted intense press outreach that tailored pitches to the national business media and hedge fund trade publications.

Results
Today, HFR is the most frequently cited source for hedge fund performance data in the media. This visibility has made a significant contribution to HFR’s ability to sell its research in the marketplace.