GroundFloor Media’s Get Grounded Foundation is accepting Spring 2017 grant applications from Denver-area nonprofits serving at-risk youth. Created in 2015, the foundation has awarded approximately $50,000 to date to a range of local organizations that directly support the healthy development of at-risk or neglected youth between the ages of 3 and 13 in Denver.
GroundFloor Media‘s Get Grounded Foundation has awarded its latest round of grants totaling $13,800 to three local community programs supporting youth services: Mount Saint Vincent, Autism Society of Colorado and Zuma’s Rescue Ranch.
A volunteer committee made up of individuals from the agency reviewed the grant applications for the spring 2016 awards. Applications for the fall 2016 grants will be accepted beginning Aug. 1, 2016.
GroundFloor Media announced that its new 501(c)(3), The Get Grounded Foundation, has awarded $15,000 to four local community programs supporting youth services: the Tennyson Center for Children, PlatteForum, Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center and the Denver Indian Family Resources Center.
Avanti Food & Beverage has selected GroundFloor Media (GFM) to promote the grand opening of Denver’s first collective eatery and restaurant incubator concept. The Avanti model allows both emerging and established chefs and restaurateurs to test concepts in a controlled environment that costs a fraction of what it would take to launch a traditional brick and mortar restaurant.
Located at 3200 Pecos Street in LoHi, Avanti will include seven self-contained eateries anchored by two bars offering craft beer—including 10 Dogfish Head Brewery taps and 10 rotating taps dedicated to showcasing the best of Colorado’s craft breweries, wine and unique cocktails.
GroundFloor Media has added Earth Balance as a client. Earth Balance makes a variety of plant-based, vegan products such as buttery spreads, nut butters and snacks. GFM recently helped Earth Balance announce its Responsible Palm Oil Commitment and is developing an ongoing national media relations campaign designed to raise awareness of the benefits of choosing a plant-based and dairy-free approach to eating.
The Arapahoe/Douglas Mental Health Network (ADMHN) has selected GroundFloor Media (GFM) to develop and launch a new brand name and identity for the organization. The branding efforts will position the organization with clients, doctors, counselors, health care partners and the community.
GroundFloor Media (GFM) has been retained by Tennyson Center for Children (TCC) to serve as the organization’s outsourced communications partner. GFM will provide the nonprofit with media relations and donor relations support, as well as strategic counsel related to social media and advertising. GFM and TCC have a long-standing relationship; TCC was GFM’s pro-bono client from 2003-2010, and agency founder Laura Love serves on the TCC board of directors.
Colorado had a record 28 companies make the Outside Magazine list of the Top 100 Best Places to Work, including my colleagues at GroundFloor Media who made the list at No. 4. The full list of Colorado communications/marketing/digital services providers is:
4. GroundFloor Media
18. TDA_Boulder
40. Sterling-Rice Group
48. Bluetent
55. Slice of Lime
80. Development Counsellors International
95. Backbone Media
GroundFloor Media has added Ben Hock to its digital strategy and design team. The addition strengthens GFM’s expertise for clients requiring digital and graphic design elements as part of their integrated communications campaigns.
St. Joseph Hospital in Denver has retained GroundFloor Media to help it with campaign strategy, media relations, message development, media training, social media strategy and platform development, internal communications and branding as the hospital prepares to open the doors of its new facility at 19th Avenue and Downing Street later this year.
Louisville, Colo.-based Door to Door Organics has named GroundFloor Media as its agency of record. GFM will develop and execute a national media relations program to increase awareness for Door to Door Organics among prospective customers, industry stakeholders and investors.
To paraphrase NBA basketball player/poet LeBron James, I am taking my talents to Market Street and joining the talented team at GroundFloor Media. And congratulations to two of my new GFM colleagues, Gil Rudawsky and Jim Licko, who have been promoted to vice presidents.
ColoradoBiz Magazine has named GroundFloor Media as a 2013 Top Company, and the firm has been recognized by Bulldog Reporter in its 2013 Bulldog Stars of PR Awards with a silver award for Outstanding Achievement for a Small Agency.
ColoradoBiz recognized exceptional businesses in 12 categories, and GFM was named the Top Company in the “Media, Advertising and PR” category.
GroundFloor Media has been named as the Best Place to Work in 2013 by Outside magazine. GFM ranked No. 1 out of 100 selected companies on the sixth annual list.
Outside’s “Best Places to Work” program celebrates the innovative companies setting a new standard for a healthy work-life balance. The list was compiled with the help of the Outdoor Industry Association and Best Companies Group. The yearlong selection process began with an outreach effort that identified a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit organizations with at least 15 employees working in an office in the United States.
GroundFloor Media has added Boulder Community Hospital to its roster of clients. GFM will conduct media relations campaigns for the hospital to promote its nationally-recognized orthopedics and cardiology service lines.
GroundFloor Media has added the Alliance for Early Success as a client. The agency’s digital team will provide strategic counsel, design, digital and website development services to the Alliance to create an updated website highlighting the organization’s research, policy and advocacy services, as well as to serve as an active forum for the Alliance’s grantees and grantors. GFM will also design a logo based on the organization’s new name, tagline and messaging.
GroundFloor Media has added New Direction IRA as a financial services client. GFM will manage media relations and thought leadership programs to increase awareness of the company’s investment education and record-keeping services for self-directed individual retirement accounts (IRA).
GFM also has been named agency of record by 34 Degrees, makers of all-natural, wafer-thin crackers. The firm will provide strategic planning services, as well as online content development and optimization.
Congratulations to GroundFloor Media’s Ramonna Robinson, who has been promoted to president of the firm. Laura Love is transitioning to the position of Chief Cultural Officer, where she will continue to manage the strategic direction of the agency.
According to Laura, “My focus will remain on our people, our clients, and our involvement with the community. In that spirit, I am also going to be leading the development of our new endeavor, the establishment of a foundation focused on children and family services. This new grant-making entity will serve as a formalized extension of the community service activities that GFM has been committed to the past 12 years.”
Congratulations to GroundFloor Media, which was named a finalist in the PR Week awards. GroundFloor was recognized in the PR Product/Service of the Year category for its “Online War Room,” and the winner will be named in March 2013. The finalists are:
Congratulations to GroundFloor Media, which was placed second overall in the Denver Business Journal’s 2012 Best Places to Work awards. Winners were chosen based on employees’ responses to a confidential survey about the organization’s leadership, planning, benefits, culture, training and development, as well as overall employee satisfaction. GroundFloor scored 99.63 out of a possible 100 percent, making it the second-highest ranking among all 40 finalists in four categories.
GroundFloor Media has added SlimGenics as a client. The Centennial-based client will leverage GFM’s background in health, wellness and consumer brands to raise the profile of its healthy weight management and preventive health care programs. Specifically, GFM will utilize its expertise in traditional media relations, community relations, reputation management and social media to increase awareness of SlimGenics in the company’s key markets, as well as nationally.
GroundFloor Media has added Oskar Blues as its newest client. The Longmont, Colo.-based craft beer company will leverage GFM’s background with national food and beverage brands such as Starbuck’s, Qdoba and several Coors brands to increase awareness locally, regionally and nationally about its innovation, creativity, growth and leadership.
GroundFloor Media has added Lauren Cook and Jon Woods as senior directors of social media and digital strategy. As part of GFM’s Digital and Social Media Strategy team, Cook and Woods will work with clients to develop and implement blogger and social media influencer outreach; online reputation management and crisis response plans; social media metrics, ROI tracking and analytics; corporate social media policies and data visualization elements.
Head over to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Friday, July 13, to watch as 10 young, impactful entrepreneurs pitch their companies solving social or environmental problems for one of three $50,000 equity investments. Entrepreneurs from the Denver Metrowill present to local visionaries and business leaders in front of a live audience.
The winners will be announced at the Made in Denver after party downtown in the middle of 14th street. Celebrate with a DJ, unique cocktails and delicious bites. Here’s to better cities, better entrepreneurs.
Are you an entrepreneur hoping to foster change in Colorado? Applications accepted through Monday.
Ticket link: http://i4ccampaign.com/i4c-summit/
Odwyer is out with its annual revenue ranking of independent PR firms, and several Denver-area firms disclosed their 2011 numbers:
67. Linhart PR, $4.60 million (+11% from 2010), 29 employees
89. GroundFloor Media, $2.91 million (-3% from 2010), 13 employees
103. Catapult PR-IR, $1.04 million (+24% from 2010), 6 employees
GroundFloor Media has added Cindy Springsteen as accounting manager and promoted Kristina Reilly to director of business operations. Springsteen brings nearly 20 years of accounting experience to GFM. Prior to joining the team, she worked as the CFO of Explore Communications. Reilly joined GFM in 2005 as the operations manager. Since joining the team, she conducted the day-to-day financial management, client invoicing, HR and benefits management, and IT support.
If you had Bellco on your client prospect list, go ahead and cross them off: the credit union has extended its contract as a client of GroundFloor Media. Under the terms of the new contract, GFM will develop strategic communications programs to enhance Bellco’s community visibility and reinforce its reputation as a strong local banking option for individuals and businesses.
GroundFloor Media’s Jim Licko and Alexis Anderson have spent the past few days blogging from the SXSW Conference in Austin:
The NCAA has selected GroundFloor Media to market awareness of the fan events taking place in Denver in conjunction with the 2012 NCAA Women’s Final Four. GroundFloor Media will help bring attention to “Tourney Town refreshed by Coca-Cola Zero”, the “host city” and epicenter for all Women’s Final Four fan and community activities at the Colorado Convention Center through grassroots outreach, event promotions, advertising, sponsorships and social media initiatives.
GroundFloor Media has introduced what it calls an “Online War Room,” a secure, collaborative site that allows the firm and clients to strategize responses to various crises.
GroundFloor Media has been named agency of record by Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt, a self-serve, choose-your-own-toppings frozen dessert chain. GFM will provide strategic planning, traditional and social media strategy and execution.
GroundFloor Media client Youth Opportunity Foundation‘s biggest annual fundraiser is Mustache4Cash/Color4Kidz. The concept is pretty simple – individuals sign up to color their hair or grow a mustache for about four weeks, and ask friends and family to “sponsor” their efforts along the way. All of the proceeds benefit at–risk youth mentoring programs in Colorado.
To get you in the mood, GFM’s Jim Licko has created a video extolling the virtues of rocking a ‘stache.
GroundFloor Media has expanded its nonprofit practice to include new partnerships with Youth Opportunity Foundation and Colorado Youth At Risk. Both organizations aim to better the lives of Colorado’s at-risk youth through a variety of educational, mentorship and life experience programs.
Congratulations to Laura Love-Aden and the team at GroundFloor Media. They are celebrating the firm’s tenth anniversary by expanding its award-winning “Get Giving” community donation program to award a total of $10,000 – $1,000 for each year of service – to four local charities: Dress for Success, Colfax Community Network, Underwearness and Morris Animal Foundation.
GroundFloor also celebrated the anniversary with a party for clients, employees and friends at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
The USA Swimming Foundation has selected GroundFloor Media to lead the communications efforts for the national Make a Splash Tour with Cullen Jones, presented by ConocoPhillips, as well as national water safety awareness. Through the tour, Jones, a survivor of a near-drowning incident at age five and the first African-American male to hold a world record in swimming, is visiting six cities this summer to address the importance of water safety in an effort to reduce the number of U.S. drownings, particularly among minority youth.
Congratulations to GroundFloor Media, which was recognized at the 2011 SABRE awards for its “Get Grounded” employee volunteerism and community giving program, as well as for work with clients Motive, Qdoba and “Complete College Colorado.”
GroundFloor received a certificate of excellence in the community citizenship category for its “Get Grounded” program, and was named a Gold Award finalist for its work with Moxie and Qdoba, and a Silver Award finalist in the government agency category for “Complete College Colorado,” a statewide education campaign for the office of former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. that aimed to raise awareness about the importance of a college degree.
Are ethically challenged former journalists corrupting us virtuous public relations practitioners? And are political campaign-style dirty tricks becoming more commonplace in corporate public relations campaigns? Journalist Tom Foremski investigates scratches the surface.
UPDATE: GroundFloor Media’s Gil Rudawsky, a former Rocky Mountain News editor, argues that “all of us in PR will pay for (the Facebook/Google/Burson debacle) with a sustained black eye and a loss of credibility.”
If you, like me, wondered how Linhart PR could afford to hire Paula Berg away from Southwest Airlines and then send her out of town every week so her potty mouth and semi-secret smoking wouldn’t corrupt the other employees, we have the answer: Linhart PR is crushing it when it comes to revenue.
#70 – Linhart PR – $4.11 million – Up 35% from 2009#90 – GroundFloor Media – $3.00 million – Up 15% from 2009#135 – Catapult PR/IR – $0.84 million – Up 2% from 2009
GroundFloor Media has named Jeremy Bloom’s Wish of a Lifetime and SafeHouse Denver as its 2011 nonprofit, pro bono accounts. GroundFloor will work with both organizations to develop strategic positioning, implement targeted media relations programs, and offer social media support across a variety of media.
GroundFloor Media has expanded its Get Giving community program to include creative agencies and client partners to collect donations for Warren Village. The effort will run through early December and participating organizations include Bradley Consulting Group, BusinessWire, CCT Advertising, LiveWell Colorado, Motive – A Hybrid Agency, Radius Media Holdings, Relish Studio, Westwood College and Young Americans Center for Financial Education. They are collecting items at their respective offices for approximately four weeks, and GFM employees will gather the donation boxes from each company in early December and deliver them to Warren Village.
GroundFloor Media picked up two 2010 MarCom Awards for its work with Qdoba Mexican Grill and Westwood College. GFM won a platinum award for the Qdoba “Putting the Q in Community” campaign, which combined cause marketing and social media as part of a nationwide grassroots effort. GFM also won a gold award for its work creating Westwood College’s social media program.
GroundFloor Media has been brought in by Barnhart to conduct a social media program for its client, the Wyoming Department of Travel & Tourism. The GroundFloor Social Media team (GFsM) will conduct a Digital Snapshot™, a customized social media audit, and develop a strategic social media plan for the Wyoming Department of Travel & Tourism.
GroundFloor Media has declared June “Revisit Your Communications Plan” month, and Jen Wills offers eight steps to creating a better communications plan.
ColoradoBiz is out with its annual ranking of women-owned businesses, and four public relations firms made the list:
#4. Vladimir Jones – 2009 gross revenues of $61,158,000
#59. Linhart PR – 2009 gross revenues of $3,315,000
#61. GroundFloor Media – 2009 gross revenues of $2,957,000
#100. Catapult PR-IR – 2009 gross revenues of $834,000
GroundFloor Media vice president & managing partner Ramonna Tooley has been elected to the Board of Directors of SafeHouse Denver. SafeHouse Denver serves victims of domestic violence and their children through both an emergency shelter and a non-residential Counseling and Advocacy Center.
The Colorado Health Foundation has selected GroundFloor Media as its agency of record. GroundFloor will support the foundation’s traditional and social media campaigns.
GroundFloor Media has signed two new clients: Brassica (BroccoSprouts) and The Medical Center of Aurora. And after pausing their PR efforts in 2009, three former GroundFloor clients have renewed their relationships: Bellco Credit Union, Young Americans Center for Financial Education and Seattle-based Point B Solutions.
GroundFloor Media has added Alexis Anzalone as social media/public relations manager and Kimmie Greene as senior public relations manager. Anzalone formerly worked at Formula PR in San Diego, where she managed both traditional and social media programs. Greene’s background includes Level 3 Communications, where she managed media and analyst relations for new product launches, network expansions, financial earnings and corporate acquisitions.
GroundFloor Media has promoted Jim Licko and Amy Moynihan to account directors. Licko and Moynihan will work closely with president Laura Love and VP/managing partner Ramonna Tooley to manage and oversee client accounts.
Jack O’Dwyer may think he is clever by removing agencies that don’t pay him enough from his agency rankings, but I’m going to one up him. From now on, every time I mention an agency – regardless of whether they want me to – I am sending them an invoice for $50. Be warned.
And if you are interested in knowing where local agencies placed on the O’Dwyer’s list released today, here they are:
• 67 – Linhart PR – $2,760,555 – Down 3.7% from last year
• 72 – GroundFloor Media – $2,607,370 – Up 5.3% from last year
• 118 – Catapult IR/PR – $834,397 – Down 5.9% from last year
(Ka-ching. I just made $150.)
GroundFloor Media VP and Managing Partner Ramonna Tooley will headline PRSA’s monthly luncheon with a presentation titled, “PR in a Digital World: What’s in your Toolbox?” Tooley will present some of the digital PR strategies her team recommends to clients to stay competitive in a digital world and share examples from a variety of industries including nonprofit, food and beverage, and sports and entertainment. Details are:
PR in a Digital World: What’s in your Toolbox?
Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. MST
The Curtis Hotel, 1405 Curtis St., Denver, CO 80202
PRSA Colorado Members: $35; Students: $28; Non-Members: $49
By Laura Love and Ramonna Tooley
GroundFloor Media
We’re looking forward to 2010 as the year that social media earns a well-deserved seat at the proverbial table. We all witnessed social media hitting the mainstream in 2009, as organizations embraced tools like Twitter and Facebook as part of their strategic communications plans. It will be no surprise to see social media as a respected formal “PR tool” in the overall strategic communications mix in 2010. That being said, we see a few trends emerging in the New Year including:
The Colorado Fall Home Show has selected GroundFloor Media to lead its public relations programs for its 2009 event. GroundFloor will conduct media relations and social media campaigns to raise awareness of the organization and its 2009 event.
Congratulations to Laura Love and the crew at GroundFloor Media, who are celebrating the agency’s 8th birthday today.
GroundFloor Media has joined Public Relations Global Network, an international network of 40 independent public relations agencies representing six continents.
Former Rocky deputy editor Gil Rudawsky has joined GroundFloor Media as a senior public relations manager.
GroundFloor Media has joined Public Relations Global Network, an international organization of independent, owner-operated public relations agencies that collaborate to serve clients.
GroundFloor Media has hired Kimberly Langston as senior public relations manager. Langston’s experience includes Swedish Medical Center and Ocean Journey (now the Denver Aquarium).
Among those offering their thoughts on the demise of the Rocky Mountain News are Metzger’s Lisa Greim (a former Rocky business reporter who offers a touching eulogy for the paper), Webb PR’s Pete Webb, GBSM’s Steve Silvers, GroundFloor’s Ramonna Tooley and Pure’s Larry Holdren.
GroundFloor Media’s inaugural “Get Connected” panel discussion takes place on Wednesday, Feb. 18, and will focus on communicating difficult news to key audiences during challenging times. Panelists will include Gil Rudawsky, deputy metro business editor of the Rocky Mountain News; Lynn Kimbrough, communications director, Denver District Attorney’s Office; Ken Keymer, former president and CEO of VICORP Restaurants Inc. and former president of Noodles & Company; and Jim D. Leonard of Faegre & Benson. Email GetConnected@groundfloormedia.com to get the details. Space is limited.
Bellco Credit Union has selected GroundFloor Media as its agency of record for its community-relations program.
By Laura Love
Founder & President, GroundFloor Media
The PR agencies that survive and thrive in 2009 will vehemently disregard the old saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” The rising tide of social media and non-traditional integrated communication programs will usher in a new paradigm for PR professionals. Agencies that aren’t willing to ride the waves and put the “public” back in public relations will ultimately drown.
Congratulations to GroundFloor Media and JohnstonWells, both of whom were named by the DBJ as “Best Places to Work in Denver.”
Andrew Hudson has created JobsGobble, a quarterly job-seeker seminar, job fair and networking party, and the inaugural event is Wednesday, November 12, at the Denver Athletic Club. The event includes a CEO Roundtable featuring GroundFloor’s Laura Love, Webb’s Pete Webb and Cactus’ Joe Conrad, followed by a networking party and jobs fair. Details and registration are here.
The Denver Area Veterinary Medical Society and the Dumb Friends League have selected GroundFloor Media to handle their Chip Your Cat campaign.
The Wildlife Experience has selected GroundFloor Media to help promote its Animal Grossology exhibit, which “offers hands-on interactive exhibits for all ages and includes the themes of slime makers, vomit munchers, blood suckers, dookie lovers and other gross stuff.”
Get Smart Schools, a new nonprofit education reform organization in Colorado, has selected GroundFloor Media as its agency of record.
Morton’s The Steakhouse has selected GroundFloor The PR Agency to promote its 30th anniversary celebration in Colorado.
GroundFloor Media has picked up SmartyPig as a client.
GroundFloor Media has picked up the SABRE award for “Best Boutique Agency to Work For.” Grammatics aside, it is quite an honor, and follows the agency being named by the Denver Business Journal as the “Best Place to Work in Denver” in the small company category last November.
Among other things, GroundFloor was recognized for its low turnover rate of approximately 6 percent, which got us thinking about which Denver agency has the highest turnover. If you think you have a contender, email us and let us know.
Chalk another one up for GroundFloor Media. CH2M HILL picked the agency to handle PR duties for its Enterprise Management Solutions business unit.
Congratulations to VisiTech PR and GroundFloor Media, which have been named finalists for 2008 SABRE awards. VisiTech is a finalist in the Trade Show category for its work with Stockholm-based client Net Insight, and GroundFloor Media is a finalist in the Social Marketing category for its work with the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment.
Congratulations to GroundFloor Media, which was the only Denver-based agency to make the cut in Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani’s PR Spammers Wiki, a cut and paste Gmail filter that will instantly block hundreds of PR addresses based on their domain name. Trapani is following in the footsteps of Wired’s Chris Anderson in publicly outing those they believe to be spamming. As card-carrying flacks, however, we know what a bunch of complaining know-it-alls reporters can be, so we applaud GroundFloor Media for pushing pitching to the limits on behalf of its clients.
GroundFloor Media has introduced a social media offering that “is aimed at helping … clients expand their audience reach by leveraging the inherent viral capabilities of popular social media mediums like blogs, social networking sites, podcasts, vlogs and more.”
Vicorp Restaurants, parent company of Village Inn and Baker’s Square, has filed for bankruptcy protection. The company lists $37.7 million in outstanding loans and $15 million in unpaid debts to suppliers and other vendors. Let’s hope GroundFloor Media, which won the Vicorp business a few months ago, demanded payment upfront.
If you see Gwin Johnston around town, make sure she buys you the drink. O’Dwyer released its annual rankings of PR agencies, and the Denver-area agencies disclosing their 2007 numbers were:
102. JohnstonWells — $3.04 M in 2007 revenue (+36%); 24 employees
106. Linhart PR — $2.85 M in 2007 revenue (+35%); 18 employees
118. GroundFloor Media — $2.30 M in 2007 revenue (+37%); 11 employees
137. Turner PR — $1.80 M in 2007 revenue (+20%); 12 employees
164. Catapult — $0.95 M in 2007 revenue (+3%); 6 employees
We’ll have to wait for the next Denver Business Journal list of PR firms to see where the holdouts (we mean you, Schenkein, GBSM, VisiTech, MGA, Metzger, et al.) are. Overall, the O’Dwyer list is encouraging. Most agencies are showing good growth, and JohnstonWells topping $3 million in revenue locally is a milestone.
GroundFloor Media has picked up two new clients: Fuser and Rally Software.
Among the Denver agencies hiring this week are 104 West, Catapult, GroundFloor Media, VisiTech and Peter Webb.
We are a little more than three weeks away from the release of the Denver Business Journal’s 2007-2008 Book of Lists. As we get ready to see which agencies grew and which contracted, here’s a recap of 2006-2007 DBJ Book of Lists rankings:
Seattle-based consulting firm Point B Solutions Group has selected GroundFloor Media to develop a national strategic public relations plan. No word on the value of the deal.
Denver Public Relations Blog 