EIMA (EIFS Industry Member’s Association)
Managed crisis communication and brand building programs
Project
For two years, we worked with a national trade association of building product manufacturers to garner editorial and news content to expand positive awareness about the exterior insulation envelope of commercial and residential industry. A number of milestones were accomplished during that time.
Objective
We worked to inform and educate media and interested stakeholders such as architects/specifiers and building code officials.
Implementation
We were instrumental in alerting the industry to EIFS advancements such as the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory Phase I and Phase II NET facility studies, which provided third-party credibility that EIFS was a better wall cladding that than its competitors (hardy plant, brick, etc.); EIFS inclusion into the 2009 international building code; the merger between EIMA and the Association of Wall and Ceiling Industry; the announcement of Dave Johnston as EIMA’s new executive director. We also handled a crisis response by helping keep the lid on a potential firestorm of negative press in the wake of the Monte Carlo, Las Vegas hotel fire, which aided in protecting the brand/industry.
Results
Results included trade media placements in outlets such as Architectural Record, Building Design & Construction, Commercial Builder, Commercial Building Products, Commercial Property News, Construction Specifier, Engineering New Record (ENR), Green Builder, McGraw-Hill’s SNAP publication and Walls & Ceilings have been pulled out of the dark ages of EIFS perceptions and been given a steady diet of positive, useful EIFS information, not to mention a series of byline articles that have worked to position EIMA as an expert source and thought leader.
In 2009, our ROI was 200%+ of budget.