Pardon Our Dust
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When the provider of a new on-road vehicle emissionsinspection option now available in traffic-choked Northern Virginia had troublegetting out the message about its services, it turned to McGuireWoodsConsulting and MWCAdvocacy to deliver the results it wanted.
MWC’s Virginia Government Relations client Opus Inspection,was looking for a way to raise consumer awareness of its new RAPIDPASS Virginia service in the Washington,D.C., suburbs where free time is scarce and residents measure their dailycommutes in hours spent in traffic.
RAPIDPASSVirginia is a breakthrough that allows motorists who are subject to the testingrequirements of Air Check Virginia to quickly and conveniently have theiremissions inspections fulfilled while their vehicles are in daily use on theroads.
MWC Advocacy put together a Jan. 7 media event in FallsChurch that featured Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Wardheadlining a group of state and local dignitaries. The event drew attentionfrom two major Washington television affiliates and Washington’s top-rated newsradio station as well as several regional and local print publications.
The focus of numerous favorable stories, however, turned outnot to be a VIP. The star of the show was the first customer to use RAPIDPASS Virginia. The firsthandnarrative of a real user about how theservice had made his life substantially easier resonated throughout thereporting from the event.
In a follow-up letter afterward, the client wrote to the MWCteam praising the work of Michelle Sattterlund (Government Relations), Mark Hubbardand Ginny Boland (both MWCAdvocacy) in putting together the event.
“Everyone did an exceptional job,” the client wrote. “Itresulted in very positive reporting and excellent interviews. Thank you for themany hours of groundwork that gained this very valuable earned media coverage.”