Category: Webb PR

Webb Adds Three Governmental Clients

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Webb Strategic Communications has added three major governmental entities as clients – the Denver Mayor’s Office, the Regional Air Quality Council, and the Colorado Municipal League.

Webb was awarded the communications support contract for Mayor Michael Hancock’s North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative (NDCC), an initiative to strategically align six major redevelopment projects in a vital area of north Denver. Webb has won a two-year contract with the Regional Air Quality Council (RACQ) to motivate residents along the Front Range to help reduce ground-level ozone pollution. And the firm has also entered into an agreement with the Colorado Municipal League (CML) to provide assistance in the promotion and planning for Colorado Cities & Towns Campaign.

Webb Adds Account Manager, Launches Drug Abuse Campaign

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Webb Strategic has added 9News reporter Taunia Hottman as an account manager. Hottman is a veteran of CNN and stations in New York, Chicago and Kansas City, and she will provide strategic counsel to a mix of Webb’s clients.  The firm also launched “Take Meds Seriously,” a statewide social marketing campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the problem of prescription drug abuse, for the Governor’s Office last week.

Catfight Alert: Aiello/Webb vs. Andrew Hudson

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If you were getting tired of the Is-the-Michael-Hancock-story-really-a-story debate, good news. The proposed Gaylord Hotel development in Aurora is the newest catfight in town, and it is splitting Denver’s PR community. On one side are Wendy Aiello (repping Aurora) and Pete Webb (repping Gaylord). And on the other side is Andrew Hudson, who doesn’t want to see the Stock Show relocate from Denver.

And if you aren’t tired of the Michael Hancock debate, Big Media blogger Jason Salzman takes Denver media to task for running with a story that was broken by a guy using rampant rumors as a source.

2010 Denver PR Predictions – Pete Webb

~ Jeremy Story ~ 4 Comments

By Pete Webb
Founder, Webb Public Relations

  • A major “name” firm will close its doors, burdened by overhead and a shaky corporate client base.
  • A long-time TV anchor will leave the set.
  • “Social media,” “New media,” whatever it’s called in the current blogs, will grow as a pitching strategy.  We’ll never have to pick up the phone again; just Twitter the 22-year old on the desk, and if she’s not busy arranging her evening out, we’ll get a call back with interest in the story.
  • Media-rich news release strategies will be more in demand as TV struggles to get video and print struggles to get details.
  • At least one Denver TV station will abandon the “Denver pool” and decide it should be deciding where to devote its crews and photojournalists.
  • Fox31 will trim its photo staff and use Skype for live interviews.
  • “Green” will continue to be the elusive “next trend” for PR firms chasing the rainbow.
  • The Denver Business Journal will reinforce its 3pm newscast to become even more of a threat to the Post business page.
  • The McInnis-Ritter campaign will try to elevate the tone of political debate in Colorado, but obscure 527s and the nasty progressives and right-wing fringe will continue to roll grenades down the aisle.

Denver News Channels Unveil ‘Pool Coverage’ System

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It’s no secret that the news resources of local television affiliates are stretched thin. Layoffs have hit every station, and the Fox31/WB2 “marketing agreement” looks to be the future of local news. But it was still surprising to see the details that Pete Webb of Webb PR shared of a new “pool coverage” system that Fox31, 9News, KMGH7, CBS4 and Univision are implementing.

Starting today, the five stations will pool coverage of up to three events per day. The pool is on a rotating basis with each station responsible one day a week. The assignment desks will join a conference call each morning at 8:30 a.m. to determine which events will be covered by a pool representative, and the resulting raw video will be sent to all stations at 3 p.m. According to Webb, the arrangement “is intended for newsworthy events that all the stations would customarily cover on their own, such as gubernatorial news conferences, the Mayor’s State of the City, product launches, events.”

Says Webb, “My fervent hope is that we’ll see more enterprise reporting, now that crews are being freed up, but I’m not holding out much hope. More likely, viewers will see more of the same, with identical footage on each broadcast. That doesn’t reward creativity, enterprise, or just good old fashioned newsgathering, and it doesn’t reward the viewer.”

Webb Lands Several New Accounts

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If you run into Pete Webb this weekend, make sure he buys the drinks. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has re-upped Webb PR’s three-year contract to promote CDOT’s anti-drunk driving and seat belt use campaigns, and the agency also nabbed several new accounts, including Colorado Department of Human Services, Jacobs Entertainment (owners of the Lodge and Gilpin Hotel Casinos in Black Hawk), Nobel Energy and Eagle County Ambulance.

Webb Develops CDOT Web Site to Help Keep Revelers Safe

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Webb PR and CDOT have created a Web site, Plan Before You Party, designed to help holiday revelers stay safe. According to Jim Licko at Webb, “The site includes maps of bars and restaurants that are handing out free $5 cab vouchers to their customers, places to park your car overnight (without getting a ticket or towed), discounted hotels (if you don’t want to go home at all) and a listing of RTD park and ride locations if public transit is your choice. There’s even a link to find out when and where a sobriety checkpoint might be coming to a neighborhood near you.”