With close to a half dozen technology trade associations in Washington, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) began to look for ways to stand out in the crowd – not only among the media and policy makers but among its current and prospective member companies. The association prided itself on being more think-tank than advocacy organization, ensuring its staff members were true policy experts who had credibility, influence and contacts to affect actual change for its member companies. What ITI needed, however, was someone to tell that story to key audiences. Which is why they turned to The Herald Group.

The Solution: In order to stand out among the crowd, The Herald Group revised ITI’s core messaging by introducing new platforms and compelling news angles to advance the association’s legislative priorities and differentiate it from competitors. The team broadened ITI’s bench of spokespeople, providing media training to the majority of the policy and government relations staff so that they were comfortable speaking to reporters and thus enabling The Herald Group to establish them as the go to resource for the influential reporters on top issues in the industry. Additionally, the team raised the profile of ITI’s chief executive officer through strategic and thought-provoking op-ed placements and one-on-one reporter briefings to position him as a subject matter expert for future stories.

Results: Very quickly, ITI became increasingly and consistently contacted by the top technology policy reporters, either for on the record or background discussions. ITI’s presence in media stories increased tremendously and the organization led all other technology trade associations in media coverage on top policy issues in both 2010 and 2011. Over the same two-year period, ITI broadened not only its roster of spokespeople, but its portfolio of coverage on technology issues, truly becoming the voice for the technology industry in Washington.