Kimberly Loehr

Information for the Media – Category #49 News or Feature Releases/Multiple Releases

Need for Quality Control Emphasized by Industry Experts, March 25, 2014; Fire Stations Seeing Few Lightning Related Losses Thanks to Efforts of Building Lightning Safe Communities Campaign, October 8, 2014

General Objectives:

Entrant, Kim Loehr suggested news topics and wrote releases on behalf of the Lightning Protection Institute (LPI) and the Lightning Safety Alliance (LSA) to: promote lightning protection specification in accordance with national safety standards of LPI, NFPA and UL; educate the public re: the importance of professional lightning protection installation and third-party inspection; promote the success of the Building Lightning Safe Communities campaign; communicate important case study information re: how destructive lightning losses to critical facilities (fire stations) can be prevented.

Media Contacted: Releases were distributed via PR Newswire US1 National Newsline. Releases were also boosted through website postings, social media posts and shares with nonprofit partners.

Audience: Engineers, construction management industry, general public, disaster mitigation specialists, fire safety professionals and insurance industry.

Theme & Timetable: To promote lightning protection in accordance with nationally recognized safety standards. Initial release was issued in March as follow-up to the LPI/ULPA industry conference and spring release was preferable timing for lightning season. Second release was distributed in October in conjunction with Fire Prevention Week (NFPA.org campaign) and Fire Safety Month to communicatethat lightning is a very real, yet often forgotten and underrated fire threat.

Budget: Releases were part of LPI/LSA’s locked in 10 release package ($4,000 w/PR Newswire yearly), so costs = approximately $400 of the budget.

Follow-up: Media types accessing the release included: newspaper, radio, t.v., trade periodicals, online services, blogger, consumer periodicals and freelance writers (clips provided). Kim contacted nonprofit partners at FLASH, I.I.I., IBHS, NFPA and fire safety groups to promote releases with their colleagues, media resources and through social media. Pitching to magazines resulted in postings/follow-up articles.

Evaluative Measurement: (clip report attachments provided in uploads)

Media hits include: Market Watch (758,000 visitors per day), Boston Globe (561,000 visitors per day), Bloomberg Business Week (407,00 visitors per day) and Bizjournals.com (389,00 visitors per day. Media placements also included numerous trade publication and newspaper posts, as well as magazine, blog and social media posts. March release saw 292 website posts (estimated 21,257,000 visitors per day) and the October release tracked 203 website posts (estimated 21,440,00 visitors per day.

Results Statement:

Engineers, specifiers, construction professionals, insurance groups and the general public have received valuable technical information re: importance of adhering to national safety standards for lightning protection systems and that installation is a specialized trade.
Editorial placement in EC&M magazine was important posting for March release as magazine is the technical authority for 130,000+electrical professionals, including 80,000+ subscribers in electrical contracting firms (reaching NECA and IEC member firms), 30,000+ subscribers in industrial plants and in commercial/institutional facilities with 100+employees (93% coverage of Fortune 1000 firms), and nearly 20,000 consulting electrical engineers.* (Readership stats as cited by EC&M magazine)
The October release strengthened partnership with NFPA by supporting Fire Prevention Week campaign and also saw a SocialPost audience of 6,018 followers.
The October release was also expanded for a case study article for Metal Architecture magazine’s February, 2015 issue. (Email transcript is attached with entry, as article not yet posted.)

First press release

Second press release

Kim Loehr – URLs

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/need-for-quality-control-for-lightning-protection-emphasized-by-industry-experts-252227341.html

http://lightning.org/fire-stations-seeing-fewer-lightning-related-losses-thanks-to-efforts-of-building-lightning-safe-communities-campaign/

http://ecmweb.com/news/need-quality-control-lightning-protection-emphasized-industry-experts

http://article.wn.com/view/2014/03/25/Need_for_Quality_Control_for_Lightning_Protection_Emphasized/

http://wvw.ipadlatest.com/news/Press+Releases/20141008/62332702/Fire-Stations-Seeing-Fewer-Lightning-Related-Losses-Thanks.htm

http://www.news.nom.co/fire-stations-seeing-fewer-12792345-news/

http://news.yahoo.com/fire-stations-seeing-fewer-lightning-related-losses-thanks-125000279.html

http://article.wn.com/view/2014/10/08/Fire_Stations_Seeing_Fewer_LightningRelated_Losses_Thanks_to/

http://lightning.org/need-for-quality-control-for-lightning-protection-emphasized-by-industry-experts/