Vanderbilt Engineering School
During our engagement we created and executed a successful public relations strategy for by discovering and placing important stories for their ISIS research center, other programs and research centers, and widely read Opinion-Editorials for the Dean and leading professors. When we began the assignment, the School had focused most of their coverage on military applications, and they were in need of expanded branding and publicity for other research projects, specific professors, the Dean, and community outreach with their local paper, which had been neglected for some time. We formed new relationships with leading journalists and School leadership, made the research and professors more accessible to the media, and helped write and place the editorials to increase their visibility. Examples include stories about The Internet of Things focusing on the expertise of the School and the director of the research center, an artificial intelligence program used in the local middle schools, and a new technology to detect bomb making equipment. We produced many highlights such as the Gizmodo story titled, “How Vanderbilt’s Secret Software Lab is Saving America,” a bylined story on “Top 10 Tech Trends Everyone Should Know” we helped write and place on the front page of Yahoo! Tech with more than 1 million views, and stories in Wired, Popular Science and other media. The stories resulted in more invitations for the faculty to speak at industry events, more national, international and local visibility for the professors, the school and the university, and satisfied research partners including the Department of Defense, Google and Boeing who were mentioned in some of the stories.