Griffin Integrated Marketing honored for Hurricane Ike crisis work with an AMA 2009 Crystal Award

Nearly nine months after Hurricane Ike battered the Texas Gulf Coast, we were awarded 2009 Crystal Award from The American Marketing Association’s (AMA) Houston Chapter for our crisis/situation management work surrounding the storm.  Winners were announced Saturday, May 29 at the Intercontinental Houston Hotel.

From left to right: Deanna Wilke, Account Manager and Mandy Pierson, Office Manager, accept the 2009 AMA Crystal Award on behalf of the agency.

Other finalists in the PR/crisis/situation management-single event category included CenterPoint Energy and VT2 Studios.

“This award is a great reminder of the Griffin team’s ‘can-do’ spirit, even during tough personal times.” said Gwen Griffin, managing director of the agency.  “Not only was our office damaged during Hurricane Ike, many of our employees faced personal property losses.  Still, we were able to come together remotely, roll up our sleeves and quickly provide an extremely valuable service to the entire Bay Area Houston region.”

In September 2008, we helped raise awareness of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike in the coastal Bay Area Houston (BAH) region, which had been nearly shut out of predominant, post-storm editorial coverage.  In one day’s time, we coordinated a full-scale press conference for the region that featured 11 out of the 13 regional mayors and numerous other key business leaders.  The press conference helped these elected officials and business leaders update their residents on recovery efforts, as well as inform other cities and governmental entities outside of BAH on the state of the region.

The one-hour press conference resulted in extensive television and print coverage, including two television stations which aired the press conference live in its entirety.  The editorial coverage spawned two critical meetings with the Federal Emergency Management Agency that help speed much-needed assistance to the area.

We are very proud and honored to receive this award!

Houston Business Owners Weigh in on the Economy

The economy! It leads most local and national newscasts and is a hot topic for discussion at office water coolers, local coffee shops and family dinner tables. But, how does the national consensus fare in Houston?

Griffin Integrated Marketing recently posed several questions to more than 300 Houston-area business owners, company officials and city leaders to get their feelings on the economy. The results were quite interesting:

• Nearly 67% of respondents expect the current recession to end within the next 18 months.
• 66% of respondents expect their revenue streams to remain the same or possibly even increase in 2009.
• Only 12% of respondents are considering layoffs. But, nearly all are looking for ways to “buckle down” and cut costs.
• Overwhelmingly, respondents said they plan to continue promoting their businesses, working hard to maintain existing business relationships and marketing themselves to attract new business. A few pointed out that they will begin investigating joint ventures and partnerships, as well as looking for “more innovative measures” for reaching customers.
• When asked what they are most worried about in today’s economy, the largest group said it was the public’s lack of confidence in the U.S. financial market. The second largest concern was availability of capital and declining investment values. Businesses must have access to cash flow to continue operations.

In the end, the majority of respondents cited consumer confidence and stabilization of the markets as the primary means of fixing the economy. A close second? For Americans to learn to live within their means, be more responsible and allow the market to correct itself without government interference.

We’ll see how that advice unfolds in the months to come! Thanks to all who participated in our survey.

What’s keeping you awake at night?

Griffin Integrated Marketing is conducting a brief online survey to determine “what is keeping you awake at night” relative to the economic recession we are in.  I’ll be posting a series of polls throughout the next few weeks.  When you stumble upon them, please take a moment to answer. 

Here’s the first one…