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Bayview real estate clients get attention for expertise

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 by Leah

Two Bayview PR clients were in the news last week, reflecting their status as leaders in the real estate industry.

John Rymer of Rymer Strategies, a national-level residential real estate expert, was quoted in a St. Petersburg Times story on how higher-end home sales are improving in the Tampa Bay area, while the Tampa Bay Business Journal featured Franklin Street, a fast-growing commercial real estate services company, in a Strategies section story.

We keep close track of the real estate market, tied to our involvement with the Urban Land Institute’s Tampa Bay District Council, where Kyle is the marketing/PR chair. Our work focuses on media relations, industry involvement, speaking engagements, and for our residential real estate client, The Strand, a condo under construction in Clearwater, aggressive Realtor outreach. An example of this was a mention in Charles Rutenberg Realty’s novel “News and Notes” video update, which told the brokerage’s 2,000-plus Realtors about The Strand last week.

In residential real estate, developers and builders who were smart or fortunate enough to keep cash through the crash are well-positioned, and there are signs that 2011 may show improvement in sales beyond foreclosures and short sales.

And in commercial real estate, though the market continues to suffer, there are plenty of opportunities, particularly in multifamily housing, where prices have fallen to an attractive level for buyers who can come in and quickly improve profitability by upgrading apartment management.

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New Bayview client raises awareness of identity theft

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 by Kyle

In raising visibility for our new client, ALIANT Bank, our strategy is to find ways to talk about how the Alabama bank helps its customers, tied to its leaders’ ability to speak as experts on financial matters.

For example, ALIANT Bank recently held informational events on avoiding identity theft for residents in the Montgomery and Alexander City areas. We worked with our PR partners at The Lollar Group in Birmingham to gain news media coverage by the ABC affiliate WNCF-TV (see below for news clip) and the Montgomery Advertiser in Montgomery, along with a news story in the Alexander City Outlook.

ALIANT serves the Birmingham, Montgomery, and Alexander City markets, and is back on a growth track, fueled both by its retail operations and its success in making business loans.

News coverage on ALIANT's identity theft seminar

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ULI housing forum draws attention

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 by Kyle

The outlook for the Tampa Bay area’s housing industry continues to be tough, but there are a few bright spots for the developers and builders who still have cash and are smart enough to find opportunities.

That was the message at last week’s Urban Land Institute housing forum at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Tampa. Among the panel members: Andrew Wright, managing partner of Bayview client Franklin Street Financial Partners, a fast-growing Tampa-based commercial real estate company.

Andrew used a Warren Buffett line to describe how tough times can show who’s smart and who isn’t. “When the tide goes out, you see who’s been swimming naked,” he said.

The event was covered by both the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times, each included other thoughts by Andrew on the state of the market in their coverage.

St. Petersburg Times column by Robert Trigaux

Tampa Tribune story by Shannon Behnken

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Success for Southwind Hospitality

Monday, June 28th, 2010 by Jesse

Florida Real Estate Journal recently featured Bayview client Southwind Hospitality, a full-service hotel management company, in “Tips for Lenders Choosing Hotel Management.” Southwind Hospitality has also seen results from recent coverage in the St. Petersburg Times and the Gulf Coast Business Review.

Southwind Hospitality has properties from the Bay area to Jacksonville (and its executives have hotel experience from around the country). They handle all management responsibilities for a property owner or for a lender – and they move quickly, providing a sales and marketing plan and budget within 30 days of takeover of a property. The company is presently focused on distressed and underperforming properties, such as those in receivership or foreclosure.

Southwind Hospitality, small but growing quickly, offers high-level personal attention, with the experience to handle accounting, e-commerce, front desk operations, yield management, sales and marketing, food and beverage services, and general hotel operations. As just one example of their success, earlier this year Southwind led changes at a Jacksonville Howard Johnson that resulted in a 65% year-over-year increase in occupancy.

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Success for GarageSaleTracker.com

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 by Jesse

Bayview client GarageSaleTracker.com is featured at Lifehacker.com, and has been mentioned on ‘The Today Show,’ in Woman’s Day, and on local TV affiliates across the country.

GarageSaleTracker.com, with the ability to narrow searches by location or item with a best-in-class user interface, is positioned to replace Craigslist as the go-to site for garage sale hosts and buyers.

In this economy, interest in garage sales has grown – visitors to GarageSaleTracker.com (founded in 2008) are finding thousands of listings (and counting) in all 50 states (listings spike on weekends).

GarageSaleTracker.com has also just launched an iPhone application that allows consumers to get details about sales as they travel from one sale to the next, with mapping and directions searchable via ‘my location.’ You can also find GarageSaleTracker on Facebook.

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An Intern’s Education

Thursday, May 6th, 2010 by Kristine

Experience is a funny thing. To many, it’s just life. To some, it’s “what they get when they don’t get what they want.” But, to college students, it’s a necessity—we know we must have it in order to be successful some day.

Enter Bayview Public Relations: an emerging Tampa Bay public relations firm. A company composed of three principal practitioners with a variety of opportunities for a qualified student studying public relations.

From the expected press release-writing, pitch idea-brainstorming, research-conducting and customer-relating, to the more innovative video editing, event planning, social networking and blog writing (wink), my internship with Bayview Public Relations has allowed me to practice traditional public relations techniques and explore, firsthand, the changes the field is undergoing each and every day.

Assisting with the EnviroFocus Technologies groundbreaking allowed me to witness the importance of creating detailed events—with everything planned from the order of speakers to the color-coordinated linens and invitations—targeted toward highly specific audiences.

Communicating with buyer prospects for GuardianLion, has given me a better understanding of the importance of an open dialogue between company and consumer.

Creating focused media and community outreach lists for multiple clients has driven home the point that good old-fashioned research is still a must.

My experience at Bayview Public Relations has allowed me to witness that, contrary to some beliefs, public relations is not at all a dying field, and certainly not one of slick and shady spinsters. Rather, it is a field that’s being reborn by creative professionals who are finding innovative ways to communicate with their clients’ target markets. Authors can’t publish text books fast enough to keep up with the new frontier this field is traversing.

Kristine Kodytek is an intern at Bayview Public Relations for the Spring 2010 semester. She is graduating in May from The University of Tampa with a degree in advertising and public relations.

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“Journalists are liars” and other notes from the front lines

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 by Missy

During a recent message and media coaching session with more than 130 leaders of an international nonprofit, one sentiment was prevalent: the media is an adversary.

Instead of looking at a media interview as an opportunity to share the organization’s mission and positive impact in the community, many of these leaders thought that the media was out to misconstrue the facts and give the nonprofit a black eye.

Some of the attendees had negative experiences in the past, which shaped their beliefs that one must always be on defense with the media. In many cases, a media interview is like a business transaction.

The reporter has a job – creating a factually accurate, interesting story – and needs the interviewee’s help to achieve that goal. The interviewee has a responsibility to provide the journalist with worthwhile information, background, trends, illustrations and interesting examples.

If it’s like a business transaction, treat it like one.

Do your homework. What does the journalist know about the topic? How has it been covered in the past? Become familiar with the reporter and the news outlet.
Look at it from their perspective. Why should their readers care? Why is it interesting? What does it mean? Why does it matter?
Always return phone calls and emails promptly. If you were offered an opportunity from a potential business partner, you’d very likely answer right away. If you’re not the right person to talk to, tell them who is.
Prepare for possible questions, especially the tough ones. If you’re asked about a problem, talk about the solution.
Answer their questions honestly. If you don’t know the answer, say so. The truth always comes out. Just ask Tiger or Toyota.

Posted in Industry Commentary, Media Relations | Comments Off

Some thoughts as we launch

Thursday, March 18th, 2010 by Missy

Of 21 top public relations agencies listed in the Tampa Bay Business Journal 2010 Book of Lists, only three have opted to use “Public Relations” or “PR” in their company name. Those words simply conjure bad thoughts for some people – a bit of that is deserved, much of it isn’t.

For one, anybody can slap a ‘PR’ on their business card – there are a fair share of slick-talkers, spinmeisters, yes-men, and schmoozers claiming a share of the industry banner.

Other misperceptions are gleaned from film and TV – at best portraying a very narrow segment of the business, and often misrepresenting it entirely (internal meetings on strategies and objectives aren’t usually compelling entertainment).

A few negative perceptions might be earned – any profession has bad apples. Some agency bull artist pulls out all the stops for a fancy new business pitch, but then half-baked strategies are passed along to less-experienced staff. Or a flurry of substance-less press releases are blasted to carelessly compiled lists of media and constituents. The activity reports might look impressive, but needles aren’t moving.

Despite and because of these things, we ultimately decided that ‘Public Relations’ will be front-and-center in our branding. We’re going to embrace opportunities to address negative perceptions head-on, and help spread the word that public relations is an important and credible profession.

Good public relations not only generates measurable bottom-line value for clients – it benefits all parties because it guides organizations to be helpful, to be honest, and to offer useful information to people. Good PR helps organizations listen and respond, identifying key areas and addressing them. Good PR fosters communication that is clear, candid, and productive – to help move organizations forward, in line with the needs and wants of society.

And society is changing rapidly, so as is our industry – we’ve got new and emerging ways of communicating, a very different news media landscape, plus reset economic standards. As the industry reinvents itself, we hope it collects more positive connotations – we’ll be here doing our small part to help.

This blog is a forum to discuss issues and trends impacting public relations, along with sharing client and agency news and other things we or you may find interesting…