Our Portfolio
JDC has served a broad range of clients over the years working on projects that encompass every area of business communications and PR. This is a sample of projects successfully undertaken by JDC. If you’d like to see more, contact us at info@duroskopr.com.
Chatham University
Founded in 1869, Chatham University has an enrollment of over 2,200 students across over 60 undergraduate and graduate programs in our areas of excellence: sustainability & health, business & communications, and the arts & sciences.
Like all institutions of higher learning, Chatham seeks to raise its profile and enhance its reputation through a wide variety of channels.
JDC has been a long-term communications partner with Chatham University in Pittsburgh. The agency works with the University’s marketing and communications team on a broad range of initiatives, including strategic communications counsel, local and national media relations, newsletter writing, executive communications and crisis communications.
Media relations work has resulted in hundreds of local and national placements throughout our time working with the University. From the Today Show to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; from CBS This Morning to Baking Business; from the Weather Channel to CNN; from the Chronicle of Higher Education to Vogue.
Check out some sample media placements in our media gallery.
Eckert Seamans
With 14 offices and 400 attorneys across the mid-Atlantic region, Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott was seeking a public relations partner with whom it could work to enhance the image of the law firm and raise the visibility of its offices and personnel. JDC launched a broad-ranging expertise positioning program for the firm, instantly increasing awareness of the expertise of attorneys throughout the region. Consistent media placements have been made in publications such as Workforce magazine, Corporate Counsel magazine, American Banker magazine, Legal Intelligencer, Law 360, Human Resources Executive Daily, Construction Executive; Hospitality Lawyer, Hotel Management, Hotel News Now, Food Safety Magazine, as well as daily newspapers, business publications, and radio and television outlets throughout the region.
See some sample media placements in our media gallery.
Talkwalker
Talkwalker is an international social media analytics firm, headquartered in Luxembourg. Having opened a New York office, the company was having little success in gaining a share of the conversation when it came to social media analytics in the U.S. Talkwalker engaged several PR firms – with few results – when the company called on JDC to assist in a short-term effort to put the company on the U.S. map, with a goal of raising its profile and enhancing the company’s reputation.
Through aggressive, proactive media relations using a combination of news jacking, expert positioning and thought leadership techniques, JDC delivered more than 1,000 results in top-tier media, as well as targeted trade and niche publications important to the company’s customer base. JDC identifies key media moments and events that are likely to trend on social media, while also keeping an eye on daily news to react to breaking news stories that resonate on social media. JDC also regularly conceived ideas and pitched opportunities for Talkwalker to gain a share of thought leadership through article placement in important trade publications.
Among the many successes are top tier media like The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, NPR, CNN, Fox News, ABC News, CBS Sports, People, NPR, The Washington Post, Forbes, NBC News, The Today Show, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Fortune and Reuters, and trade press, such as Ad Week, Ad Age, PR News, PR Week, MarTech, Marketing Dive, CommPro and more.
See some media placements samples in our media gallery.
Hondros College of Nursing
With several campuses in Ohio and Indiana, students at Hondros College of Nursing can earn a Practical Nursing Diploma and an Associate Degree in Nursing.
JDC has worked with Hondros on a variety of writing and media relations projects, helping to advance the storyline of the need for more nurses in the markets where they operate and nationwide.
Media success has included a broad range of news sources in the markets where Hondros has campuses, as well as in national trade publications.
See some sample media placements in our media gallery.
St. Mary of the Mount
JDC was engaged by design firm BD&E to assist on a broad range of projects related to the expansion of St. Mary of the Mount Catholic Church in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Pittsburgh. JDC created the tagline, Keep the Light Shining for the church’s capital campaign and wrote all promotional materials related to the campaign. JDC is also working closely with St. Mary of the Mount to promote its land swap for building a new community center adjacent to the Church.
Dermatologist On Call
A leading telemedicine company sought a PR partner to help launch a new APP created by the company to make its service more convenient for consumers. JDC wrote a series of press releases distributed nationally and focused media relations efforts in multiple markets, including Pittsburgh, Washington DC and Cleveland.
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Pittsburgh Post Gazette Business
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DermatologistOnCall Offers Summer Sun Tips
DermatologistOnCall Offers New Mobile App
DermatologistOnCall Parent Iagnosis Reports Significant Growth
Dancing Classrooms
As a leading Social Emotional Learning program, Dancing Classrooms, brought JDC in to assist the organization in media relations and a reworking of its social media program. Within just a few months of coming on board, JDC successfully brought a wide range of social media pages under one umbrella and creating consistent messaging and on-target content for Facebook and Twitter. The agency also successfully placed a number of high-profile media in New York and around the country, including multiple network affiliates in the New York metro region. JDC is continuing to work with the non-profit, on which the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom was based, on traditional and social media programming.
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View Our Press Releases
Starwood Hawaii
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Hawaii called on JDC for its writing expertise. Working with the public relations team at Starwood Hawaii, JDC wrote and edited a series of projects, including separate newsletters targeted to the Meetings & Incentives and Leisure markets, a media roundup of news and events and a special book being published by the organization, Aloha Lives, that focused on Starwood associates and how the Spirit of Aloha is embodied in everything they do.
Bethany College
JDC was brought in by Pittsburgh design firm BD&E to assist with a full package of collateral material for (WV). Durosko wrote a series of admissions and capital campaign publications, including the college viewbook and capital campaign brochure. Durosko also provided copy for print ads and broadcast messages for Bethany. The publications have already won several awards.
Click on the links below to download PDF examples of this campaign.
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The Art Institutes Best Teen Chef
In an effort to jumpstart the young culinary program at The Art Institutes, Jeff created The Art Institutes Best Teen Chefcompetition – a cook off among high school students aiming for scholarships to The Art Institutes schools.
Jeff managed all aspects of this competition and won numerous awards for the event as well as for the media results of each year’s event. This competition has been featured in local, regional and national news media, including the CBS Morning Show, the Today Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, CNN, CNNfN, Fox News, CosmoGirl, Boys Life and YM magazines.
Each year, the Best Teen Chef competition garners media attention in print, broadcast, cable and Internet media, resulting in an average of 100 million media impressions, approximately three-quarters of a million dollars in media (ad equivalency) value and $1.5 million in publicity value.
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The Common Thread
Jeff created a unique community report when he joined EDMC, first for The Art Institutes group of schools and then for all schools within the EDMC System. The Common Thread featured students working in their communities – from designing websites and brochures to catering events to counseling children who were victims of abuse.
The Common Thread was an annual compilation of the best work being performed by students of EDMC schools across North America and provided evidence that EDMC schools were not only graduating students ready for the work world, but also good citizens engaged in their communities.
This award-winning publication was a winner with both the internal and external audiences. It served to show employees the great work that is being done around North America and served to join these schools as a system under the EDMC umbella. It was utilized by nearly every department of EDMC and its schools as a promotional tool. This powerful message of student success both defined EDMC and differentiated its schools from other career-focused institutions.
Send an email to jeff@duroskopr.com to receive a copy of The Common Thread.
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WL Port-Land
When Wagester & Lease, Inc. and Port-Land Systems Inc. combined operations, Jeff Durosko was asked by Pittsburgh design firm BD&E to create new brochure and ad copy for the merged company. The engineering and design/build contractor specializes in the storage, processing and handling of bulk materials.
Click on the links below to download PDF examples of this campaign.
View Our Media Creations
Signature Financial
JDC began working with Signature Financial Planning to create and promote media opportunities to help raise the profile of the firm and its personnel. The agency has generated a continuous list of news and feature story ideas, while also tapping into “in the news” topics that are trending today. JDC has also generated a series of social media posts for the company to help increase content available for followers. From U.S. News & World Report to Fox Business News; from WPXI’s Night Talk to Invesmentnews.com, Signature has burst onto the media scene as experts in high wealth management and related topics.
View Our Media Placements
US News & World Report – Should you be making Quarterly Tax Payments?
Fox Business – 5 Things to do if you’re near retirement
US News & World Report – 5 Reasons Women Need to Save More for Retirement
InvestmentNews.com – How Financial Advisors Would Reform Tax Code.pdf
US News & World Report – Countdown to Retirement
InvestmentNews.com – IRS Chief Says Affordable Care Act Not a Problem for Taxpayers
Robert Morris University
Jeff joined Robert Morris University (then College) as Director of Public Relations and Advertising and was charged with an image makeover of the small commuter school.
He developed and implemented all marketing communications activities, including crisis communications and a broad-based multi-channel image campaign, employing market research, advertising and public relations tactics. Jeff transformed a disjointed advertising program into a targeted and unified effort, increasing inquiries by as much as 100 percent and earning multiple national, regional and local awards. His comprehensive media relations program, focusing on expertise positioning boosted favorable survey responses about the college versus two of its local competitors from 27 percent to 76 percent over a four-year period.
Responsible for all publications, Robert Morris transformed its alumni newsletter to a four-color magazine format in Jeff’s first year at the helm, and created innovative publications like “Voices” a student recruitment magazine.
Jeff also was part of a team that orchestrated a visit from then President Bill Clinton in 1996, garnering local, national and global publicity as a result.
Charged with increasing inquiries and enrollments among adult learners in a geographic region nearby the RMU campus, Jeff created a campaign, “Magnify Your Employees’ Potential,” targeted to local human resources professionals and which included print, radio, event and direct mail elements and resulted in an increase in inquiries and served to also feed into the positive imaging work being done through the comprehensive image campaign.
Jeff’s work at RMU helped the college make the jump to university status just a few years after his departure.
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Strategic Communications
JDC has assisted many companies with setting a strategic focus for their communications programs. One of the nation’s largest providers of proprietary education brought in JDC to assist with a wide reaching strategic communications overhaul, including planning, strategy and implementation. JDC created a comprehensive communications strategy for the company as well as a number of targeted materials, geared specifically toward individual markets.
JDC’s work focused on setting up standardized processes by which schools could engage in public relations and promotional programs as well as to collect pertinent information from faculty, staff, alumni and others.
In addition, JDC implemented a pilot program for six schools located in Atlanta and Los Angeles to teach school leaders how to seek out publicity opportunities for students and faculty, create community partnerships and focus on alumni success.
JDC has worked on crisis situations ranging from bomb scares and contagious illness on campus to preparation for NCAA violations and campus leadership facing a no-confidence vote from faculty. JDC possesses an expertise in not only handling crises but also being prepared in the event of a situation, making it the right firm to call on at any time.
Partnerships
One of the strengths Jeff has brought to every position, and now to his clients, is in creating, building and maintaining solid partnerships with a variety of constituents.
Jeff worked to position The Art Institutes at the forefront of technology innovation by creating comprehensive co-marketing programs with leading technology companies such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Adobe and Macromedia. From student contests and trade show partnering to national technology tours and case studies, Jeff’s work leveraged existing relationships into win-win situations for both the technology organizations and The Art Institutes, creating value for all.
Also while working with The Art Institutes, Jeff oversaw all national contests and promotions, including relationships with Americans for the Arts for a national poster contest, Elle Girl Magazine for a fashion design competition and Kitchen Aid and the Komen Foundation for Cook for the Cure.
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Employee Communications
Throughout his career, Jeff has been involved in creating innovative and effective communication programs targeted to internal audiences, including employees, faculty, staff and students.
From serving as editor of the nationally distributed Ketchum News, creating and managing the first-ever internal newsletter for Price Waterhouse to creating comprehensive employee communications programs for Robert Morris University and Education Management, Jeff’s experience has been deeply rooted in meeting the needs of this most important of audiences.
Among the key programs run by Jeff were the downsizing and reorganization of all internal pieces at Robert Morris. When he took over at RMU, Jeff found a myriad of disconnected newsletters from departments all over campus. He took those publications and created one centralized news source for all employees of the school.
At Education Management, Jeff was promoted from VP of Public Relations to VP of Corporate Communications specifically to create and manage a first-time effort at employee communications. He created a framework for critical internal communications programs to integrate multiple diverse organizational cultures and create a sense of common purpose, including e-newsletters, a front page to the employee intranet, CEO phone-in series and luncheons. Under his direction, a broad ranging plan for employee communications and recognition was created just prior to his launching JDC.
Today the firm works with a number of national and local organizations in creating innovative employee communications programs, writing and producing internal publications and managing employee portal projects.
Events & Promotions
Jeff’s work to promote The Art Institutes academic programs through promotional events and media relations work included a number of projects in addition to the nationally renowned Art Institutes Best Teen Chef cook-off event.
Jeff pursued a partnership with Americans for the Arts to create The Art Institutes/Americans for the Arts national poster contest to raise awareness of the graphic design program. The calendar produced each year, featuring winning work, is one of the most popular promotional items used by admissions personnel at Art Institutes schools.
A goal of creating a national promotion for The Art Institutes popular fashion programs resulted in The Art Institutes “Teen Innovators Fashion Search,” presented by Elle Girl Magazine, another effort created by Jeff during his time with EDMC.
Taking local efforts national was one of the hallmarks of Jeff’s tenure as VP of Corporate Communications with EDMC. Among the promotions conducted under his direction were Cook for the Cure conducted with Kitchen Aid & the Komen Foundation; and “Webraising,” a national effort for Art Institutes students to build websites for small non profits in their communities.
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RISO, Inc.
RISO Inc., a manufacturer of office equipment with U.S. headquarters in Boston, contracted JDC to conduct a number of outreach activities.
JDC’s work to introduce a revolutionary software product for schools across North America included a capabilities brochure and tradeshow media relations.
As one of the “Greenest” of all office equipment manufacturers, RISO sought to promote that status to its key customers in the education space as well as its nationwide dealer network. JDC created a full package of materials, from an educational brochure for school administrators to a teacher takeaway piece. In addition, a series of sales team e-postcards was created as well as a sticker for every RISO duplicating machine.
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Cortiva Institute
Cortiva Institute is a family of massage therapy schools, located in six major markets around the U.S. JDC was brought in to assist the organization in creating great success stories about its graduates to raise visibility online and to provide content for web pages and social media.
JDC worked closely with Cortiva’s marketing team to identify graduates and students with solid success stories and to work with employers of Cortiva graduates to show why they hire Cortiva alumni.
This effort resulted in the identification of an average of five to six new stories each month that were written and distributed in a variety of fashions.
In addition, JDC wrote comprehensive features on trends in massage therapy that appeared in newspapers nationwide and on news websites throughout the world.
School presidents reported on a regular basis that a “walk in” prospective student had found the school based on a story they read online or in local media, thus Cortiva was able to secure new students based on this effort.
Click below for some writing samples from the Cortiva effort.
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DeVry University
JDC has worked with DeVry University for most of the agency’s existence – from public and media relations to case studies; from internal communications to alumni outreach, JDC has been involved in a wide variety of projects for the national education institution.
Additionally, JDC wrote, edited and produced an employee magazine, The Educator and a student-focused e-publication, Connections. The agency has also produced an alumni newsletter, The Link.
JDC’s depth of experience in the field of education has made the agency a great partner for DeVry.
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Kilimanjaro Education Foundation
JDC was recently selected by KEF to provide pro-bono services to the organization, which strives to improve education and to build school facilities for underprivileged children in Tanzania and other countries bordering Kilimanjaro. Read the press release.
JDC works with KEF to create press releases, case studies and conduct media relations activities to assist in fundraising and increased awareness for the organization. In addition, JDC completed new print materials for KEF.
View Our Press Releases
Brentwood Bank
JDC has partnered with Brentwood Bank for nearly a decade to provide public relations, employee communications and writing services for the organization. From case studies and press releases to media relations, speech writing and employee communications materials, JDC has provided it all. During this period, Brentwood Bank has expanded and grown exponentially to become one of the top community banks in the region and
The New Pittsburgh International Airport
When the Greater Pittsburgh Office of Promotion was contracted by Allegheny County to direct the publicity and special event programs connected to the opening of the new Pittsburgh International Airport in 1992, Jeff Durosko was hired to the new position of Airport Communications Manager.
Jeff was brought on board to launch a new communications programs and create awareness for the new airport. Specifically, he was charged with national and international media relations, information services, including press materials, photography and video, publications and video news releases.
In the area of media relations, Jeff produced numerous quantifiable achievements, including contact with 500+ media outlets, 3 media tours, 4 AP wire stories that led to 200 articles across 150 newspapers, and 60 stories from video news releases and b-roll packages sent to 660 U.S. television stations. His work resulted in major placements in international aviation journals, such as Aviation Week & Space Technology, Aviation Daily, Commercial Aviation News and Airports International. Coverage in travel and business publications included: Frequent Flyer, Business Flyer, Sales & Marketing Management, Meeting News, Travel Weekly and Successful Meetings.
Major media placements included The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, NBC Nightly News, USA Today, CNBC, The Today Show, ABC Radio Network News, CNN and CBS This Morning, the Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, Time’s International edition and the Christian Science Monitor.
Before reaching out to the media, Jeff had to create a number of key pieces and he started by conducting extensive research and developing a full package of 14 background papers on various aspects of the airport in less than two months. He also developed a series of publications in support of the airport opening.
Jeff was also part of a team that recruited and trained more than 1,000 volunteers to facilitate successful Public Open Houses attended by more than 400,000 tri-state area residents.