Public Relations

NY Institute of Entrepreneurship

GETTING NOTICED

What do you do when you have a terrific business idea, but you need help getting it off the ground? If you're one of the more than one million people in the Empire State who opens a small business each year, you turn to help from an organization with small business expertise.

In 1999, the New York Institute of Entrepreneurship (NYIE), a new, Albany-based non-profit organization with expertise in providing education and business assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurs, needed help of its own getting up and running.

The NYIE turned to the public relations expertise of Rueckert Advertising for help in publicizing its varied services throughout New York state.

REFINING THE MESSAGE

As the written word remains the most powerful communications tool, we started our relationship by helping the NYIE rewrite its marketing materials. This included an overview brochure, which described the Institute's on-line educational programs, technical programs and financial assistance, as well as a pocket folder, used specifically to solicit corporate donations.

With these communications materials in place, and the office now up and running, the Institute was in a better position to start publicizing its programs and services to the general public.

As BizTech, a web-based, entrepreneurship curriculum in which students learn how to start and operate a business and write a business plan, was one of the first NYIE programs ready to be rolled out statewide, Rueckert Advertising began pitching stories about the youth business program in cities across the state where the program was being held. We also set up interviews, involving NYIE officials, with local media outlets.

RESULTS

Media interest not only in the BizTech program — but also in the NYIE's mission - was high from the get go. In a little over four months, Rueckert Advertising secured the Institute more than 1.5 million media impressions nationwide. Stories about the NYIE ran in outlets from Entrepreneur Magazine and National Public Radio to countless daily and weekly newspapers, business publications and local TV stations throughout New York state.