Our Success Stories
World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS)
WWASPS was a highly controversial association of schools for troubled teenagers, operating in remote parts of the United States, Costa Rica, Mexico and Jamaica.
Challenge: St. Charles Communications was tasked with turning the tide of negative national media attention on the member schools that had gained speed with a very critical New York Times series of stories by reporter, Tim Weiner.
Results: After visiting a number of schools to ensure media reports were not correct, the St. Charles team began to proactively invite the media into the schools and allow full access. ITV (UK TV production company) visited Casa by the Sea in Mexico and reported very positively after this approach was taken. The BBC visited Tranquility Bay in Jamaica and reported in a balanced manner after a senior student gave a tour. The New York Times visited Academy at Ivy Ridge after a riot there and wrote a very balanced story.
After WWASPS was disbanded in 2005, two of the schools continued to engage St. Charles separately because of the work we’d done turning the tide of negative publicity.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL): US Department of Energy (DOE)
DOE was tasked with building two large, net-zero energy office buildings employing groundbreaking design and materials on the NREL campus in Golden, Colo. during a recession. The project had to be OK’d in congress where it was criticized by many US representatives – it was controversial because of the expense involved.
Challenge: St. Charles was tasked with presenting the project as one worth the cost because of the groundbreaking science involved and the positive impact on the environment.
Results: We employed a “local first” strategy aimed at garnering as much positive attention for the project as possible locally and to ensure Coloradoans took pride in the buildings. I then took the local exposure to the national media that resulted in two major features in the Wall Street Journal and a front page of the Science section story in the New York Times, as well as a feature on Fox News.
Jeff Baker, who oversaw the project for the DOE, was awarded a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America medal at the White House because of the perceived success of the buildings. The award was conferred by Michelle Obama.
Beacon Biotech/Food Safety (BFS)
Beacon Biotech and spin-off Beacon Food Safety employed technology that allowed pathogens to be detected in one drop of blood or liquid. BFS sought to monetize the technology for the food safety industry by creating a device to detect food-borne pathogens such as e-coli, listeria and others.
Challenge: BFS needed either a major injection of capital or a joint venture with a major food industry hygiene company in order to move forward. St. Charles was tasked with garnering media attention for the technology in order to attract capital or similar.
Results: We took advantage of a food scare story in Rocky Ford, Colo. in which a cantaloupe melon was found to be contaminated with listeria. Because of this story, the media was interested in technology, also from Colo., that would have detected this pathogen before it made its way into the food chain. TV stations, including Fox News nationally, covered the technology as did the Denver Post, Denver Business Journal and other local outlets. BFS was soon receiving calls from potential investors and signed an agreement with a publicly-traded food hygiene company to develop a device.
Empower Stadium at Mile High
St. Charles Communications was hired as the public relations consultant for the building of what is now Empower Stadium at Mile High on behalf of the builder, Turner Construction.
Challenge: Mile High Stadium was the iconic home of the Denver Broncos from the 1970’s through to the team’s first two Super Bowl Victories in the late 1990s. After voters gave the go-ahead for the Broncos to build a new stadium, Turner Construction won the bid and hired St. Charles Communications to garner positive exposure for the project through completion.
Results: A multitude of media stories both locally and nationally resulted in a national Gold Bulldog Award for the PR campaign. In addition, Turner Construction built the atrium and new library for Columbine High School after the school shootings there and St. Charles was asked to represent the families of the victims with the media. We negotiated an exclusive for some family members on the Today Show, with Katie Couric (then-anchor) interviewing them from the new school atrium.
Tiftickjian Law Firm
Jay Tiftickjian had just finished a stint as an assistant district attorney in Adams County, Colo. He decided to set up his own law firm specializing in DUI defense.
Challenge: For a limited fee, St. Charles was tasked with garnering exposure for Jay Tiftickjian on any matter related to DUI or criminal defense in order for him to grow the firm.
Results: Because of our doggedness and Jay’s willingness to be available 24-7, Jay soon became the go-to expert on DUI or criminal defense for the media in Colorado. He appeared on KOA radio, 9News, News4, 7News, and was regularly interviewed by the Denver Post and national outlets such as the New York Times. Coverage can be found here: https://www.criminallawdenver.com/our-firm/press/. Jay doubled his firm’s revenue during the period I represented him and now has five attorneys (he started out on his own).
Cell>Point
Cell>Point is a small biopharma company that’s taking some interesting cancer detection and treatment products through FDA clinical trials, a very long process. In 2012, Cell>Point was running out of capital.
Challenge: St. Charles was asked to go head to head with a New York-based national agency to see who could generate the most media attention for the company and its products nationally in a three month time period.
Results: During the “test” period, we generated stories on Fox Business and Fox News. The New York agency produced nothing. We thus continued working with Cell>Point and continued generating local and national media stories until it signed a licensing agreement with a major Chinese pharmaceutical company in 2014.
Capital 33
Capital 33 is a spin off from St. Charles that was formed to introduce US-based companies to London’s AIM market (a public market owned by the London Stock Exchange Group).
Challenge: St. Charles client Cell>Point was in need of capital and had tapped all its existing investors in the United States. The company needed a pool of new investors and a mechanism to raise capital outside the US.
Results: We took the CEO on a road show to London to introduce him to UK and European investors and to the London Stock Exchange Group. While AIM in the end did not prove suitable given Cell>Point’s valuation requirements, we formed Capital 33 as a vehicle to introduce other US-based ventures to London and its investment pool/AIM. The London Stock Exchange visited Denver and we held a seminar alongside international law firm Dorsey & Whitney, international accounting firm Crowe Horwath and local investment banks.
University of Denver – Daniels College of Business
St. Charles was hired by the dean of the Daniels College of Business (Daniels) in 2015 to help turn around an enrollment crisis and re-engineer the office of communications and marketing (OCM).
Challenge: Graduate enrollment had plunged from about 800 students in 2013 to about 350. OCM was ill-regarded around Daniels and the university thanks to chronic under-staffing, neglect and a director who had been fired after a YouTube video that went viral (involving an incidence of “parking rage”).
Results: Key programs turned around so that the full time MBA is up about 33 per cent since we began our work. We also launched a new Daniels web site that took a lot of work and cooperation by the staff. The site was universally heralded by Daniels staff and deemed the gold standard by university marketers.
TeamSnap Re-launch
Back in 2008, team sports were organized using the phone tree and emails – producing very confused and agitated parents and coaches!
The Challenge: St. Charles partnered with a local video production company to invest about $50,000 on developing a beta site/smartphone app for the management of children’s sports teams. There were no apps being used nationally at that time and we saw a need for better and easier organization for parents and coaches to use.
Results: We developed the app and I took on the task of finding investors to help grow the resultant company. Upon meeting with potential investors we were told that we’d need to find a suitable CEO given that I didn’t have enough experience with tech start-ups. Through the Boulder Innovation Network we found experienced tech executive, Dave DuPont, who was looking for a start-up he could sink his teeth and some capital into. Dave liked my idea and through his Harvard Business School connections found TeamSnap in Portland Oregon.
TeamSnap had about 30,000 users but was about to implode because of a major shareholder dispute. Dave moved in, restructured the company and injected himself in as CEO. I became a seed-round investor and advisor. TeamSnap is now the dominant team and league management app/software, is venture backed by Silicon Valley VC’s. It has more than 25 million users worldwide.
“I’ve known and worked with St. Charles as a journalist and have always found their pitches concise and newsworthy. In today’s age of electronic pitches, they take the time to explain and follow-up – and most importantly the stories they pitch are timely and newsworthy.”
– Radio Personality