What does winning really look like? For our clients and our Martin Waymire team, it looks a lot like 2018. Here are just a few examples of how we and our clients won in 2018 as we work to make Michigan a better place.
Voters Not Politicians – YES on Proposal 2 Redistricting Reform
Our team was proud to help manage the YES on Proposal 2 campaign to a landslide victory on November 6. The campaign was launched by Voters Not Politicians, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization that formed to establish an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw state legislative and congressional district maps. Thousands of volunteers worked to get the amendment on the ballot, which ultimately passed with 61 percent of the vote.
Martin Waymire started with the campaign in September 2017. We assisted with campaign strategy; earned and digital media; securing national, state and grassroots funding; stakeholder outreach; and volunteer organizing. Volunteers with the effort dedicated their time, talent, and resources to make it a success, with homemade clipboards, hundreds of educational events across the state, and accountability events to make sure that the will of the people was upheld.
We also welcomed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for a rally before the University of Michigan versus. Michigan State football game in East Lansing and hosted former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ahead of Election Day in Detroit, who later appeared with President Barack Obama at a rally in support of Proposal 2 and other campaigns in Michigan. The campaign was covered in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Hill, Huffington Post, The Washington Post and NPR. We also earned endorsements from Crain’s Detroit, Detroit Free Press, Port Huron Times Herald and other Michigan publications. You can review highlights of news clips generated here. Here are a few we are particularly proud of:
Passage of Senate Bill 541 – Pew Charitable Trusts & Michigan Council for Child and Maternal Health
We were proud to help improve access to dental and oral health care services across Michigan by providing communications services to support the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 541.
Michigan has a serious problem when it comes to access to dental care, particularly preventative services that can save our citizens and state millions of dollars a year. In fact, 77 of Michigan’s 83 counties have at least one dental shortage area. Our team worked with Pew Charitable Trusts and the Michigan Council for Child and Maternal Health over two years to seek passage of SB 541 to establish a mid-level dental service provider, commonly referred to as dental therapists. We are proud to say that late last month Gov. Rick Snyder signed SB 541 into law, making Michigan the eighth state in the nation to adopt dental therapy.
We were charged with helping the coalition garner earned media coverage, including a series of opinion editorials that won a first-place Pinnacle Award for editorials/op-ed columns tactic in the Central Michigan Public Relations Society of America PACE Awards competition.
Franny Strong Foundation & MHA Foundation Awarded Grant to Help Improve Immunization Rates in Michigan
Of course all of our clients are our favorite clients, but the I Vaccinate campaign in partnership with the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services and the Franny Strong Foundation holds a special place in our hearts. Now in our second year of public education to increase childhood immunization rates in Michigan, we are starting to see data that show immunization rates are on the incline, despite significant amounts of misinformation. We are proud of the work we continue to do on the campaign with the rock stars at Brogan & Partners to help educate parents on the importance of immunizing their children.
One goal from the beginning of I Vaccinate was to create a toolkit to empower primary care providers to have productive, informative conversations with parents about immunizations. In 2018, we were proud to help secure a $469,000 grant from Michigan Health Endowment Fund to the Michigan Health & Hospital Association Foundation and Franny Strong to kickstart this important project.
McLaren Groundbreaking
Years of work and collaboration between Michigan State University and McLaren Greater Lansing culminated in a groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 17, 2018 for a $450 million hospital. Hundreds were in attendance (and thankfully the weather cooperated for a mid-winter event!), and we were honored so many leaders from across the community were on hand to celebrate this next chapter in McLaren’s strong legacy in Lansing.
When fully complete, this comprehensive health care campus will be home to more than 1,000 physicians, researchers, educators and other members of the academic and medical team. The current estimated timeline to open the facilities is early 2022. An estimated 2,500 construction jobs will be created in the development of the health care campus. McLaren expects to add an additional 80 employees to its current workforce of more than 2,000 employees when the campus opens.
Awards, Awards, Awards
Martin Waymire and our clients also won fifteen awards for public relations excellence in 2018. They include:
- I Vaccinate: First-place Pinnacle Awards for public service campaign, website tactic and social medium tactic, as well as the People’s Choice Award for Tactics.
- FixMIState: First-place Pinnacle Award for pubic affairs campaign, Merit Diamond Award for the “Restore the Michigan Infrastructure Fund” campaign, Award of Excellence in video and winner of the People’s Choice Award for campaigns.
Thank you to all of our clients who gave us an opportunity to serve them in 2018. Please reach out if our team can help you exceed your goals in 2019!
