Communications fosters knowledge. Knowledge creates power. In the context of national, state or local public affairs, power can affect change, alter perceptions, advance an initiative or stop it in its tracks.

Widmeyer, ranked #6 among O’Dwyer’s Public Relations’ top 48 environmental and public affairs firms, understands how to create powerful communications programs and leverage them for our clients’ benefit.  We help clients engage clearly and effectively when public opinion, law or regulation is at stake.

Power Public Affairs

We call what we do Power Public Affairs, a focused, effective practice group built on four “engines” that drive the U.S. on a daily basis: Economy, Energy, Environment and Health & Wellness.  We define these core issues broadly, in much the same way they impact the country:

• Economy: including work for corporations, unions, manufacturers, associations, non-governmental organizations and other advocates engaged in economic development, finance, trade, economic policy and related issues – our experience includes working with the National Association for the Self-Employed, the National Center on Education and the Economy, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and the Middle East Investment Initiative.
• Energy: including work with utilities, associations, coalitions and advocacy organizations, power developers, transportation providers and other major consumers of energy – our experience includes partnering with GE Lighting, American Energy Innovation Council, Consumers United for Rail Equity and PPL Electric Utilities.
• Environment: including work on climate change, sustainability, water and resource use, and other complex issues related to the natural world – our experience includes the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, the Western Environmental Law Center, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• Health & Wellness: including advice, counsel, positioning and reputation management for organizations focused on health care delivery, disease prevention, wellness, health policy and regulation and related issues. Our experience includes client relationships with Pfizer, Nestlé S.A., Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, Brain Injury Research Institute, The John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

We help companies, associations, coalitions and organizations communicate about these critical issues in a 21st century context that includes a solid grounding in research, use of the latest digital communications tools and a fundamental understanding of the ways in which these core issues impact – and are impacted by – the world around us. We’re ready to help you harness the power of these engines for your organization.

Green Power PA

Widmeyer’s Public Affairs team is perhaps the “greenest” PA team in Washington, D.C.  We don’t just talk the talk when it comes to our own impact on the world around us, we quite literally walk the walk – all Power Public Affairs team members either walk to work or use public transportation. And through our home conservation and personal energy efficiency efforts, our collective CO2 emissions is only 28 percent of the emissions of the Average American household, according to the EPA’s carbon footprint calculator.  In fact, the Green Power PA Team’s efforts to reduce our own carbon footprints below the national average results in CO2 reductions equal to taking 180 cars off the road each year.  Now that’s taking your work home with you.

Client Portfolio

Nestlé S.A.
Widmeyer created the company’s first-ever report detailing the success of Creating Shared Value in the U.S. market, highlighting Nestlé in the United States’ five U.S. companies’ accomplishments in the areas of economic vitality, nutrition, sustainable practices and community engagement. This was the first time the five operating companies communicated their stories in a unified, streamlined way to key external influencers as well as to internal audiences.  In 2011, Widmeyer developed an updated version of the report and launched additional communications initiatives across the five operating companies.

American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC)
Widmeyer helped plan and conduct the launch of the AEIC: a new, high-profile coalition of seven CEOs seeking a renewed national focus on energy R&D. Widmeyer developed a brand, an identity, eye-catching ads and an introductory video along with a set of videos featuring all seven members (including Bill Gates, Ursula Burns and Jeff Immelt). We organized and managed the AEIC’s announcement event and release of its energy business plan at the Newseum, as well as the launch of the website, videos and social media presence. The campaign generated extensive national media coverage, and the effort helped secure a meeting with President Obama, as well as meeting with senior Members of Congress.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
CPSC was mandated by Congress to implement a national public education campaign to fulfill the requirements of section 1407 of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. The agency was tasked with developing a first-ever campaign to reduce drownings and entrapments in and around pools and spas by raising public awareness and industry compliance of the law. In response, Widmeyer built a focused public education campaign and message. We created a new brand, Pool Safely: Simple Steps Save Lives, new materials and resources to promote that brand including print and broadcast PSAs, an educational video, an aggressive social media strategy via Twitter, Flicker, YouTube, a new Widmeyer-developed profile for CPSC Chairman Tenenbaum on HuffingtonPost and a Communications Toolkit for use by partners in engaging with the campaign now and in the future.

By partnering with more than one dozen leading national public and water safety organizations, the campaign and its message is reaching target audiences and being reinforced over time. The campaign has been featured on NBC’s TODAY Show three times, and been covered extensively in national and local print publications including USA Today, The New York Times, Associated Press and on over 750 local radio and television programs. The print and broadcast PSAs have achieved nearly half a billion media impressions in just the first year of the campaign.

National Association for the Self-Employed
Widmeyer is helping give the nation’s self-employed and micro-businesses a voice in the national conversation about jobs and the economic recovery. This public affairs campaign is focused on targeted geographies and national and local broadcast news outlets. In the summer of 2010, Widmeyer created a creative online campaign to challenge misperceptions about this segment of the economy and its contribution to the overall economic health of the nation. The “Not So Bunny” campaign generated more than 22 million impressions and a higher-than-average click-through rate. The campaign and related earned media coverage is helping to move the policy goals of the nation’s smallest businesses up the priority list of Congressional leaders.

Additional Representative Clients
Association of American Publishers
Education Finance Council
Fannie Mae
Inova Health System
JPMorgan Chase, Chase Card Services
MedStar Health/Washington Hospital Center
Middle East Investment Initiative
National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
National Ocean Industries Association
Nurse Alliance of SEIU
PPL Electric Utilities
Shell Chemicals
United Brotherhood of Carpenters
U.S. Climate Action Partnership
U.S. Department of Agriculture