Public Relations

Efficiency Maine

Efficiency Maine needed a way to increase awareness about energy conservation and their organization among high school students. Burgess created a "Maine Energy Idols" online music video contest. Through a mix of social media, direct mail, web, radio and press coverage, word about the contest spread and entries rolled in. Local TV and radio stations promoted the contest and winners were featured on morning shows where they talked about their entries and energy efficiency, and received their $1,000 grand prize checks. The contest more than 260,000 print and TV impressions.

Portland International Jetport

To celebrate the official start of construction on the Portland International Jetport's $75 million terminal expansion, Burgess developed a press campaign around its groundbreaking. Messaging focused on the role PWM plays in the regional/state economy and the fact that the construction project is not being funded with taxpayer dollars. Widespread media coverage was achieved in both statewide and regional outlets and more than 30 segments were aired on Maine TV news stations, in most instances being the leading story. Gross impressions for TV topped 1.4M. Readership for major media outlets neared 900,000.

Catholic Charities

Catholic Charities turned to Burgess for help promoting their annual "Walk for Recovery" events in Portland and Auburn which co-insides with the National Drug and Alcohol Recovery month (September). Burgess implemented public relations support by drafting media alerts; event listings, a press release and arranging two morning show appearances on local TV stations. The public relations endeavors were successful as the walk garnered strong media coverage and both walks had large turnouts of interested people.

MCCCP

Burgess created an awareness campaign around a mini tour of Maine by CoCo, a 40 foot long, 4-foot-tall, 3,500 lb. interactive replica of the human colon with Maine Comedian Tim Sample as CoCo's host. More than 20,000 people visited the exhibit at Maine's two largest malls. The exhibit was covered by all of Maine's TV stations and major daily newspapers, as well as many weekly papers. The MCCCP reported a 300% increase in calls to their Colon Cancer hot line.

Mercy

When federal funds were awarded to Mercy Hospital's Recovery Center to implement an innovative substance abuse treatment program, Burgess was there to spread the news. Mercy partnered with Youth Alternatives Ingraham and Crossroads for Women to maximize the availability of treatment to those with limited resources in the Portland area. Burgess collaborated with Mercy to tailor messaging, create media kits, contact the press and hold a press conference to announce the new partnership. Local media attended the conference including local news outfits WCSH 6 (NBC), WGME 13 (CBS) and Maine Public Broadcasting Network, all resulting in media coverage.

Efficiency Maine

Efficiency Maine needed help generating awareness and interest in their energy education curriculum for middle school students known as PowerSleuth. Burgess was responsible for the development of curriculum's lesson plan design, website and promotional efforts to launch PowerSleuth. A launch event was planned at Yarmouth Elementary School to co-inside with direct mail outreach to teachers announcing the curriculum was readily available. To leave a lasting impression for the curriculum, Burgess created the "PowerSleuth Fox" to be the face of the lessons. The fox made his debut at Yarmouth Elementary School and has since become synonymous with the curriculum and Efficiency Maine.