Issue Expertise
Public Health and Healthcare
We care about the health of our communities and have dedicated much of our life’s work to helping clients successfully communicate important messages to at-risk populations. We began working with public health officials more than 20 years ago on a campaign to get kids to stop smoking. Today, those efforts have moved to the battle against underage vaping, and our principals are considered national leaders in these efforts. Beyond tobacco and vaping, we have worked with the media to message the full range of public health concerns, like the risks presented by opioids, work to curb sexually transmitted diseases, and the ongoing campaign to improve vaccination rates nationwide. We work with state health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and others daily to develop and deliver messages to key audiences. A campaign jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Arizona’s Department of Health Services employed multi-media and grassroots tactics to promote an increase in positive birth outcomes among Black men and women, through the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices. Likewise, we tackled meth use in Utah with a campaign speaking to a most unexpected target audience - women in their childbearing years. There isn’t a public health issue we won’t pursue if it means an opportunity to help save lives.
Transportation & Infrastructure
Our experience communicating transportation policy, programs, and projects spans almost three decades. We have directed messaging for federal and state transportation agencies, created advocacy campaigns in support of proposed freeway corridors, and managed proactive and crisis media outreach related to funding decisions, system failures, and alignment controversies. Members of our team have built campaigns to drive public input on new road projects, explained the abandonment of high profile urban freeway corridors, and directed messaging in politically-charged union disputes. Our work in transportation has supported road building agencies, global transportation infrastructure builders, transit agencies and providers, aviation organizations, and advocacy groups pushing messages on Capitol Hill. Simply put, if it drives, flies, or floats, we’ve managed it in the media and with target audiences.
Energy
We support customer education and involvement campaigns when utilities need to engage their customers about energy conservation, transmission, and safety. We also have worked to soothe community concerns about plans to build a new natural gas-fired power plant in their neighborhood, explaining the project, building connections between residents and local project teams, and going door to door to make sure everyone could say later they were informed about plans for the plant. The result was a successful project and no significant community opposition. We understand the importance of energy to the vitality of communities and work to help enhance communication between providers and customers, so families, businesses, and economies can thrive.
Housing
We have advocated for affordable housing and new and expanded communities with national and local media outlets, community groups, and residents where zoning and permitting issues are often a chief concern. Our campaigns have taken us to communities as far west as Arizona, where we have helped explain new development expansions and annexation plans to restless citizen groups, and helped clear the messaging path for victory on all assignments. We also have helped manage media and policy crisis that impact federal and state regulations governing the range of housing options available to Americans.
Stadiums and Tourism
We like a good game, and have helped many professional sports teams and their host communities develop the campaigns needed to win at the ballot box and in council hearing rooms. Members of our team have managed messaging for campaigns to fund and build stadiums and arenas for professional football, baseball, and basketball teams. We have helped communities message their process to voters and guided team messaging in support of those efforts.
Voter Education
We have supported voter engagement our entire careers. Today we continue to help promote the ideals of elections free from the influence of big money donors, a message we first promoted with great success almost 20 years ago. We create the ideas that attract media attention, giving new life to stories they might otherwise consider old news. We offer tremendous experience creating unified, local community action plans. We have worked recently to localize the U.S. Census Bureau message to numerous local communities for the 2020 census count in partnership with local business groups, community-based and faith-based organizations, and multicultural and LGBTQ groups. And we deliver results, winning awards for our work at the national and state level recognized for achieving client communication goals, moving target audiences to act, and more importantly, getting voters more involved.
Climate and Environment
Reducing waste streams and encouraging more people to take note of our world’s changing climate are two of the issues we have messaged and managed for local and national clients. Members of our teams have created local campaigns to introduce recycling to cities without curbside pick-up services, and most recently have helped create messages and train activists pushing for climate-saving policy change. We helped California launch a state-wide recycling campaign and then maintained it for several years. Currently, we are conducting localized community action plans under a unified “WeWork For Earth” theme to be used by numerous local communities that receive recycling and waste hauling service from Republic Services. Finally, our RIESTER Foundation is dedicated to preserving special habitats and communities, globally and locally.
Education and Families
Healthy families are vital to thriving communities, and we have helped clients address nutritional and health care needs of their residents. For two decades, we have created campaigns to provide healthcare to children of working poor parents under the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, and to make sure they had enough to eat, supporting outreach on behalf of the Women, Infants, and Children food program managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We also are proud to work for the U.S. Census Bureau as it reaches out to people who are often missed in its decennial surveys, to ensure they and their communities get the benefits they deserve based on where they live and work.