Case Studies

Problem 

Health In Harmony (HIH), an international nonprofit dedicated to reversing global heating by protecting rainforests, faced significant challenges in gaining media coverage. The organization struggled with the entrenched nature of media silos, in which reporters focus on specific “beats” such as healthcare or environmental issues. This made it difficult to generate interest in HIH’s intersectional story, which touches health, conservation, and Indigenous affairs. Additionally, the remoteness of HIH’s project sites in Indonesian Borneo, the Brazilian Amazon, and Madagascar pose logistical challenges.  

These sites require multi-day travel and significant resources to access, with safety concerns and variable weather conditions further complicating media visits. Language barriers also add to the complexity, as effective communication between media and local communities necessitate translation services. 

Action 

Teak Media + Communication collaborated with Health In Harmony to address these challenges through a strategic approach: 

1. Media Relations: 
   1. Raise awareness about HIH’s mission and efforts to combat global heating by preserving rainforests. 
   2. Draw media to HIH’s rainforest sites, highlighting the interconnectedness of human health, wildlife, forests, and the Earth. 
   3. Conduct continuous outreach via press releases, pitches, and information-gathering calls to educate reporters about planetary health and HIH’s work. 
2. Thought Leadership: Position rainforest communities as experts in forest conservation, elevating their role in addressing the climate crisis. 
3. Media Training and Preparation: Develop messaging, speaking points, and facilitated media training for HIH spokespeople. 
4. Logistical Support: Create visitor portals, facilitate unique travel needs, arrange translators, and secure approvals from local authorities for media interactions. 

Solution 

Teak Media + Communication has secured hits in ProPublica, Nature Medicine, Science and Atmos. These hits also lead to syndications in nearly 20 other outlets, including Apple News and MSN. Results over the years have included New York Times, Glamour, The Hill, USA Today, Salon, Newsweek, Fast Company, Popular Science, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and many others. CNN is also expected to publish a piece in early August. 

Zeroing in on the power of even just one hit, ProPublica’s article lead to: 

• $125,000 for the organization within weeks of publication.  
• $2,400 in recuring monthly donations 
• 68 new monthly donors 
• 16,800+ impressions on Twitter 
• 134% increase in page views (26,000) the highest monthly total in the history of HIH 
• 250 new Instagram followers 

Impact rooted in numbers (readership, donors and funding) inspire us to continue to push the important connection between human and planetary health, but transcending media silos and helping reporters see and understand the bigger issue is what made these series of placements so impactful. 

For example, ProPublica Reporter Caroline Chen published a 12-part Twitter thread making a case for health reporters covering climate change that received more than 1.5M views, and tens of thousands of likes and RTs. The post was also shared on the ProPublica Instagram account. 

In earning these media hits, we are promoting planetary health, potential solutions and Health In Harmony in a way that will be realized for years to come. 

In the spring of 2023, Teak Media won a PR industry award for its stellar and impactful news coverage generated on behalf of Health In Harmony.  

We also go deeper to promote the important marine conservation work that Aquarium scientists conduct locally, nationally, and internationally with North Atlantic right whales, sharks, sea turtles, bycatch, cod, haddock, and other species. Working in concert with the Aquarium’s internal marketing and communications team, we have been able to provide more bandwidth to help promote prominent scientific work, on-the-ground assistance with breaking news, rescues and rehabilitation care of endangered sea turtles, lectures and special events that raise the public profile of Aquarium staff, and a myriad of stories that tell the story behind the scenes. As a result, we have generated consistent media attention in The New York Times, Associated Press, The Washington Post, Newsweek, CNN, Fast Company, Popular Science, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, NPR, National Geographic, and essential local media outlets. Thought leadership is a key component of our work with the Aquarium by booking President and CEO Vikki Spruill on high profile local television and radio shows as well as stories in major newspapers. This also helps with the overall perception of the Aquarium with donors and civic leaders. Teak’s placement of a story on the front page of “Science Times” in the New York Times – and subsequently international editions – resulted in donations and grant pledges of more than $350,000 to the Aquarium. Many of the contributions were from unsolicited first-time donors who were inspired by the story. In 2021, Teak was also instrumental in an honorable mention win for the SeaAhead program, featured in Fast Company magazine’s “World Changing Ideas” issue.

By the time Teak Media was introduced to the organization, it was transforming into a nonprofit with a new name and a new focus on the principle that those who cause the most disruption in Boston – the gang involved – can also be the solution to ending violence and urban poverty. The concept is that by helping the gang leaders, or “core influencers,” get into and graduate from college, they could go on to earn jobs that would pay a living wage and then become positive, rather than negative influencers in the city. Others would follow them to college, rather than into street gangs. Homicides and violence would be reduced. Whole sections of the city would open up to business development. While statistics were showing that the model was working in Boston, the organization was not used to explaining what they were doing in a way that encouraged government, corporate and individual support.

Teak Media helped shape the critical messages that conveyed the bold brilliance of the organization, and most importantly, the results it achieves. In 2016, College Bound partnered with an ad agency that came up with the name “Boston Uncornered” for a pilot program of the organization with a significant and controversial addition – paying the formerly gang involved $400 a week to stay in college so they could focus on the education, rather than on their poverty. Teak Media has helped build awareness of Boston Uncornered as the nation’s only corner-to-college solution to end generational urban poverty. In the summer of 2019, Teak worked to turn a volunteer photography exhibit into an outdoor art installation on Boston Common that positioned portraits of corporate and city leaders next to the formerly gang involved. The exhibit showed that we are more similar than we are different, and we all have challenges that can be overcome with support from others. It drew tens of thousands of visitors over four weeks and was instrumental in getting legislators and other officials to understand the importance of the organization as a national model to ending gang violence. In addition to Boston and New England-based media attention, like the Boston Magazine Influencer column and many stories in WBUR and the Boston Globe, Teak Media has secured attention for Boston Uncornered in national media outlets like CBS This Morning Saturday, Fast Company, NBC Nightly News, the Washington Post, Atlantic City Lab, NPR, the New York Times, Newsweek and Christian Science Monitor.

In June 2020, Teak was instrumental in developing and promoting an online fundraiser that brought in more than $650,000 and attracted 107 media placements that reached 93.12 million people. Social media efforts generated 316 new followers, 216,400 impressions, with a five percent average engagement rate per post and a potential reach of 10,123 people.

Research shows that consumers want to shop responsibly and sustainably, but they don’t know exactly how to do so. OEKO-TEX® is a solution. OEKO-TEX® is a worldwide association of 18 independent research and test institutes that sets standards for safer textile and leather production and products.  When Teak Media + Communication partnered with OEKO-TEX®, the goal was two-fold: promote consumer education and awareness of OEKO-TEX® certifications and bolster the reputation of OEKO-TEX® as a thought leader in safe and sustainable textiles. Teak conceptualized and executed a holistic communications strategy to help U.S. consumers better understand why safety and sustainability certifications matter and how to spot OEKO-TEX® labels on everything from towels and bed linens to children’s pajamas. Teak refined key messaging about OEKO-TEX® and why its work matters, leveraged owned media like the OEKO-TEX® website and blog, grew the OEKO-TEX® social media presence, expanded audiences through social media influencer campaigns, and secured media mentions in key consumer press. Teak’s partnership helped grow OEKO-TEX®’s Twitter following by 28 percent. In addition, Teak developed OEKO-TEX®’s first influencer campaigns in the U.S., expanding the brand’s reach to more than 1M new users across social media platforms, educating consumers about OEKO-TEX® labels.  Media relations work resulted in an increase in OEKO-TEX® visibility in mass market consumer media outlets – where they previously did not have a presence – to educate readers in Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, GQ, Marie Claire, and Sierra Magazine among others.

Since its inception in 2009, Capital Good Fund has financed more than 6,000 loans for $12.5 million to residents of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois, and Delaware.  Since starting with Teak in September of 2019, Teak’s efforts have raised the national profile of the organization in major outlets including Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Forbes, and Fortune. One KERA public radio story Teak placed after the launch of Capital Good Fund in Texas and the resulting @NPR tweet generated more than 200 loan applications, half a dozen investor inquiries, and several donations in the first 48 hours after it was posted. The media coverage of Capital Good Fund’s launch in Illinois Teak generated in media outlets like the Chicago Sun Times, NPR affiliate WBEZ , Illinois Public Radio The 21^st. and WBBM NewsRadio  also directly led to clients applying for loans. Teak has also raised community awareness of Capital Good Fund in other states where it serves including stories in the Boston Globe,  Miami Herald and Providence Business News.

Approach

Teak promoted the Scooper Bowl, an annual four-day ice cream festival held on Boston’s City Hall Plaza; Jimmy Fund Golf, made up of dozens of golf tournaments in New England that together have raised more than $100 million; the Jimmy Fund Walk, the highest grossing walk-a-thon in the country; the theater collections program; the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, through which runners raise money for the institute by participating in the Boston Marathon; and the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC), the nation’s most successful athletic fundraising event.