Client Profiles—Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch

Thomas/Boyd was hired as part of a regional strategic team reporting to Merrill Lynch world headquarters in New York City to address issues relating to the construction of a 1.2 million square foot corporate campus in Hopewell, NJ. Initially, Merrill Lynch was warmly welcomed into the state and community. Along the way, sentiment turned, leaving Merrill Lynch in a defensive position, and in a sense the “poster child” of suburban sprawl.

Media accounts had gone virtually unanswered, leaving one-sided stories to prevail. Contact with local and state government leaders had gotten strained and distant. Our job, after assessing the situation was to move into a period of action. The initial action items primarily consisted on establishing a local “face” for the company in the eyes of the media and with key influencers. Pro-active, versus strictly re-active media tactics were deployed as were government relations efforts.

A community relations plan was developed and ultimately the recommendation of hiring an in-house community relations manager was adopted. The community relations plan centered on much of the information and area intelligence gathered by the public relations team.

After two years of planning and implementing, the media relations efforts were successful, resulting in fair and balanced coverage, where it had once been overwhelmingly favorable toward the opponent’s side.