The Challenge:
Giving a 30-year-old Sustainable Outdoor Furniture Brand the Fresh Media Coverage They Deserve
Here’s what the client has to say about our work:
“Hiring The Content Factory was the key to getting our brand in front of top-tier media outlets. They helped us secure coverage with influential outlets like Architectural Digest, Southern Living, Country Living, Forbes, CNN, HGTV, Better Homes & Gardens, Vogue, USA TODAY, and more.
Jason, Kari, Brian, and the TCF team had a winning track record in PR which is why we sought and vetted them carefully. What we were pleasantly surprised with was the white glove treatment we received, not just during onboarding but to this day, three years later.
Their socially-conscious team is like a natural extension of ours and they work hard to learn our voice while helping us craft and polish our messages. TCF keeps us up-to-date on the best practices of the ever-changing media landscape and they provide the professional tools, expertise, and personnel to keep our brand top-of-mind with consumers.
If you’re looking to get your company featured in the top media outlets that matter most to your existing and potential customers, I suggest hiring The Content Factory.”
Here’s how we earned these kind words:
When POLYWOOD approached us in 2019 they had everything going for them – except for a PR portfolio befitting of their stellar reputation.
The Indiana-based outdoor furniture brand had been in business since 1990 and was still run by the same visionary who founded the company on his dream of creating a more durable, more sustainable form of furniture made from recycled plastic lumber.
The organization was growing exponentially with a second facility opening in North Carolina. They had thousands of excellent product reviews, interior design celebrity ambassadors, and a solid presence on major e-tailers like Amazon, Wayfair, and Overstock.
They had an in-house creative team providing killer video, photo and render content. They had a modern professional B2C website, an SEO-friendly blog, a respectable social media presence with healthy advertising budgets, and a gifted C-suite who were willing and able to share their story with the media.
Rarely does a potential client approach The Content Factory with so many boxes already checked.
…Yet despite all of these assets, our initial research showed that they had generated barely any earned media PR placement.
So, Team TCF hopped on a plane to Chicago and rented a car to drive to the small lakeside town of Syracuse, Indiana to meet the people behind this classic American brand.
We wanted to see firsthand how they made this iconic furniture and how we could help them tell their story in a rapidly changing PR landscape.
The Solution:
Leaning on TCF’s reputation in the green PR space, while creating a custom-tailored earned media strategy to help the POLYWOOD team tell their unique story in the way they wanted to their target audience
The first thing we did after leaving those initial meetings at POLYWOOD’s headquarters was to reach out to the influential writers and editors that we’ve worked with for years to let them know about this fantastic company and its eco-friendly products. There’s something so satisfying about watching mountains of recyclable plastic trash transformed into stylish, durable award-winning patio furniture – we just had to tell our trusted media partners about the brand and translate for them various ways in which these heirloom-quality products could be of interest to their readers.
With a few quick PR hits under our belt in addition to coverage in the niche industry trade outlets that they’d already enjoyed, we were able to begin building a relatable PR story for a brand that had inexplicably flown under the media’s radar for too long.
We parlayed the early wins into larger and more frequent wins the following month, then more placements the next month, and so on.
All of this was set against the backdrop of an unprecedented time in media, early 2020, so our outreach had to be nimble and empathetic yet bold enough to move the needle in a time when many businesses were struggling to keep their doors open, let alone grow.
Because this heritage brand believes in the concept of “value over time,” they were wisely willing to play the PR long game with TCF.
Consequently, we managed to take their AVE (the industry standard Advertising Value Equivalency of earned media placements) from $475k in 2019 to $99,142,539 for the business year 2022 alone.
Below are a few of the things that The Content Factory has done to help POLYWOOD meet its public relations goals:
- Worked with the C-suite and creative departments to develop media talking points that align with the brand’s pillars and ethics
- Written, published, and pitched numerous press releases to alert the media to new products, partnerships, and milestones
- Curated countless highly-targetted lists of journalists to ensure pitches were reaching the right readers
- Helped coordinate media tour outreach and promote the content that resulted from these successful events
- Coordinated efforts with POLYWOOD’s social media and SEO teams to deliver cohesive effective messages to the public
- Filtered hundreds of PR queries to ensure the best opportunities were continually brought to the attention of POLYWOOD and its ambassadors
- Vetted PR opportunities that came directly to the brand’s site to save the client time and effectively focus their internal resources
- Promoted all relevant media placements through the agency’s social channels tagging the journos and outlets to foster those relationships and share your success with our media followers
- Provided public relations consultation on an ongoing basis to ensure best practices are being utilized across the marketing plan and that the brand’s message is being delivered consistently and refreshed as needed
- Worked with the client to select and implement the best affiliate marketing platforms to remain competitive in the PR space
- Publicized high-level brand partnerships including collaborations with Martha Stewart and Country Living Magazine
The Results:
TCF organically increased
POLYWOOD’s earned media footprint to the point where they now appear monthly on “best of” lists with influential outlets
In addition to meeting POLYWOOD’s main objective of helping them tell their sustainable brand story on a wider scale, TCF also strengthened and developed relationships with the industry trade press who routinely report on the brand’s new eco-friendly product lines.
POLYWOOD won the Green Award at the prestigious Arts Awards program in 2022 based on their environmentally responsible supply chain, green manufacturing, and business practices and a prolonged commitment to sustainability in their company philosophy. In 2023 they added to their accolades when the Indiana Chamber of Commerce named them among the best places to work in the state as well as a finalist in the state’s “Coolest thing made in Indiana” tournament.
It’s been The Content Factory’s honor to help this iconic American manufacturer get the recognition they deserve for the tireless and innovative work they put into running a zero-waste facility. POLYWOOD processes over 100 million pounds of recycled plastic per year that might otherwise end up in landfills and waterways while consciously crafting the world’s finest “forever furniture.”
And while many brands of this stature might be content to rest on their laurels, this blue-collar Indiana team continues to innovate, perfect, and (to quote a Wayne Gretsky line the team is fond of) “Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” The Content Factory is excited to play wing on that top line helping POLYWOOD score even more of their PR goals in the future.
Become a TCF Success Story
Want to see your business featured in outlets like Entrepreneur or USA Today? The Content Factory can make you (more) famous with quality media coverage in high-authority digital outlets. Stop by our Digital PR Services page to learn more, then to get started.
