Sticking to Our Sports Roots

By: Holly Brochmann, Senior Account Director

Hope Beckham Espinosa’s work in sports goes all the way back to our founding in 1994, when Bob Hope – the former PR guy for the Braves – created the infamous Colorado Silver Bullets professional women’s baseball team. In the years that followed, HBE would go on to serve more sports-related clients than there is time to list them all, but notable examples include the Olympics, NHL, MLB, Billie Jean King’s Women’s Sports Foundation, the Atlanta Hawks, the late great Hank Aaron, The Friendship Games in Israel, Russell Athletics, and so many more. 

Although we have branched out considerably in the 30 years since, we have always maintained a connection to our sports roots. As February is a busy time for sports in this country, it seemed a fitting month to offer a nod to the clients we have today that are in the realm of athletics.

L.E.A.D. Center For Youth, our newest client, uses baseball and tennis to teach at-risk youth of Atlanta how to overcome three curveballs that threaten their success: crime, poverty and racism. Through the methodology of sports-based youth development, L.E.A.D. Center For Youth is inspiring and equipping black girls and boys with the focus they need to live sustainable lives of significance. The Center is run by C.J. Stewart, a former MLB outfielder and one of the top baseball player development professionals in the country, and his wife Kelli, a business woman and philanthropist. Both C.J. and Kelli are regular fixtures on Atlanta Magazine’s list of Top 500 Most Powerful Leaders in Atlanta.

The Atlanta Vibe are the latest on a lengthy list of women’s sports clients HBE has represented. The Vibe is Atlanta’s professional women’s indoor volleyball team and the city’s second fully professional women’s sports team. They are one of eight teams competing in the Professional Volleyball Federation’s historic second season in 2025, now well underway, and four of their players competed in the All-Star game this month. The Vibe’s impressive owner is Colleen Craig, who played volleyball at Cornell University and graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA. She worked in finance in New York, managing a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund and founded Rally Sports Management, which hosts volleyball clinics and tournaments for youth. Catch Atlanta Vibe home games at Gas South Arena in Duluth. 

If you remember the iconic “Magnificent Seven” U.S. women’s gymnastics team from the ’96 Olympics, you certainly remember Dominique Dawes. Dominique is still an active figure in the sport of gymnastics and was a media presence during the 2024 summer games in Paris. She not only runs the Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academy in her home state of Maryland, but she’s also a part owner of the Atlanta Falcons, a mom of four, and an advocate for health and wellness.

Last but not least is The Big Game Ball, a sports-themed annual fundraiser we organize each year for our longtime client, the National Down Syndrome Congress. The gala supports postsecondary education opportunities and honors universities that house inclusive programs dedicated to the education for individuals with intellectual disabilities. HBE proudly took home a 2024 PRSA Phoenix Award for this event, which was also nominated for the Best of Phoenix Award that year.

The Blessing on Knowing Jimmy Carter

By: Bob Hope, Chairman and Co-Founder

I’ve been to dozens of barbecues in my lifetime, but the one on January 15, 1977, was one for the ages.

I was sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck at a place called the Plains Country Club. I was eating barbecued chicken when a thought occurred to me.  The man sitting to my left on the tailgate would be the President of the United States in four days.  It was a surreal moment.

I had known Jimmy Carter for years.  This was my first time in his hometown of Plains.  I was the public relations director of the Atlanta Braves and had what I hoped was the bright idea of bringing the team there to visit for the final weekend before his inauguration.  After all, surely he would spend his last weekend as a private citizen in his hometown.

I was hopeful but there was no guarantee.  I had called the Plains mayor’s office randomly.  A lady named Maureen answered the phone.  I explained to her that our team had an annual Braves Carvan during the winter when a few players would travel to towns throughout Georgia promoting the upcoming baseball season.  We wanted to come to Plains but would need a Plains coordinator to work with us.  She said she would ask around about getting a local civic leader to work with me and would call me back.  She did.  She introduced me to our local coordinator, Billy Carter, brother of the president elect.  Billy set up an event filled weekend for us.  Instead of just going for one day, we would stay the whole weekend.  We had tours, the barbecue, a softball game between the Braves and Billy Carter All-Stars.  We even went to church on Sunday.

Typically, we’d have five or six players on a caravan trip.  However, this time the whole team signed up as well as everyone in our office and some people I didn’t even know.  We had two bus loads heading to Plains.  The only concern was that no one would tell us if Jimmy Carter would be there.  Ted Turner kept asking me if he would be there.  When I told him I really wasn’t sure, he didn’t respond well.  So, I called Billy and told him I really needed to know if we’d meet with his brother, that if we didn’t, I’d probably get fired.  Billy responded that the Secret Service would like him tell us that Jimmy wouldn’t be there, but he went on to say that he could assure me I wouldn’t get fired.

In hindsight, sitting on the back of a pickup in a park was indicative of the man who would be the 39th President of the United States.

While he was President, I got to know his brother Billy and his mother Miss Lillian well.  They would come to games and I would visit them in Plains.  

I met Jimmy Carter when he was governor of Georgia.  It was a high-flying time for the Braves, and I was the public relations director, very inexperienced in my mid-twenties.  However, Hank Aaron was chasing the lifetime home run record of Babe Ruth.  It was a huge national story and about 400 news reporters were traveling to every game for a couple of years.  Jimmy Carter came to a lot of games, as did lots of celebrities and politicians.  I seemed to always be busy making special arrangements for our special guests.  Jimmy Carter just sorta showed up.  I was never quite sure how he got his tickets.  

Occasionally, he would walk into the stadium through the tunnel entrance unannounced before a game.  I’d scramble to get him tickets.  Once I saw him sitting in the grass watching a pregame ceremony.  I thought to myself that I should probably go over and sit by the governor even though no one else seemed to notice he was there.

He met with me once and asked if I would help him run for president.  My response was the typical “president of what?”  I was not a believer.  It just seemed too crazy to waste time helping him try to do something that seemed impossible. We had had some show horse governors.  He was not one of them – he just seemed too quiet and humble.  

I’d see him at events over the years after he served as President.  We, in fact, designed the logo that is used even today for the Carter Center.

I eventually served on the Board of Councilors for the Carter Center and would marvel at his knowledge of global issues as well as his commitment to do good with his life.

Eventually, he invited me to travel to Nepal with him to do election observations there.  He told me we would just go a couple of days over Thanksgiving weekend and fly on the Google jet.  Seemed safe.  However, the election was cancelled because of the civil war in Nepal.  When the election was rescheduled, I was asked if I still wanted to be an observer.  I agreed, but there was no Google jet and I spent two weeks in the Terai, the sub-tropical area along the border of India.  It still wasn’t completely safe.  I was given a “go bag” to escape a couple of days in the jungle if necessary.  It was daunting but the closest I will ever feel to being a James Bond-like character.  There were only 60 of us from around the world, and all had diplomatic backgrounds except me.  On the last night, President Carter hosted everyone for dinner.  I was told I had the seat of honor next to him and asked why.  I joked that he probably wanted to talk about baseball.  When we sat down for dinner, the first thing he said to me was, “How do you think the Braves will do this season?”

Four years later I went back to Nepal with him again.  By then I had been told many times that regardless of how hard the rest of us worked, President Carter would work harder.  That was very obvious.

My favorite line in poetry is in Rudyard Kipling’s “If”, voted the greatest British poem ever written.  It is a guideline to a life well led.  The line that I appreciate most and stands out to me is, “[If you can] walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch.” To me, that line sums up the Jimmy Carter I knew.

I view myself as very lucky to have known a truly great man. 

Enhancing Your Brand in the New Year

By: Mark Meltzer, HBE Executive Vice President

As we begin a new year, companies and organizations are setting new goals, looking to achieve more than they did in 2024.As they do, they should be thinking purposefully about how they can enhance their reputation, their presence in the media and in the community.

That’s what marketing and communications can do. By telling their story and participating in the community, companies can enhance their brands and increase sales.A great example is one of our newest clients, Cherry Street Energy. Founded in 2015, the company is growing rapidly but is still not widely known. Cherry Street is in the solar energy industry, but they don’t install solar panels on people’s homes (residential solar) or build fields of solar panels (that’s called community solar). What they do is commercial rooftop solar. They install, maintain own and operate solar power systems on the roofs of commercial buildings. And they already have an impressive list of clients, including Delta Air Lines, Porsche Cars North America, Gulfstream Aviation, Emory University, the City of Atlanta, Fulton County and Macon-Bibb County. Businesses buy the power from Cherry Street, so there is no capital outlay for the solar arrays.

What Cherry Street does is even more important because Georgia is facing a power crisis. Georgia will have to double the power it generates in the next 10 to 15 years if it’s to handle the power needs of all of the AI data centers that are in the economic development pipeline. And there’s no way nuclear or natural gas can meet the need alone. Cherry Street’s rooftop solar arrays can generate 25 to 50 percent of that demand, without transmission constraints posed by Georgia’s current power grid. That’s why telling Cherry Street’s story is so critical. The more that companies, governments and educational institutions hear about Cherry Street, the more its business will grow, and in the process, it will help solve Georgia’s energy crunch.

We look forward to sharing its story with the media and public and also introducing them to potential partners. Helping our clients grow and enhancing their brands is what we do. We hope we can help you with your needs in 2025.

Happy New Year!

Hope Beckham Espinosa Turns 30

This month marks Hope Beckham Espinosa’s 30th anniversary. Much has changed in the last three decades – both in business and in the world. Our founder Bob Hope reflects on our evolution as an agency, and how we have thrived through it all.

Half the world’s population was yet to be born 30 years ago.

Lion King and Forrest Gump were the top movies and remain popular today. Cell phones flipped. The IBM Simon was introduced as the first smart phone.  There was no World Series in baseball for the first time since 1904 because of a player strike. O.J. Simpson led police on a bizarre chase in a Ford Bronco.  SONY introduced the Play Station. The QR Code was introduced. The inventor of high brightness blue LED won the Nobel Prize.

Two notable businesses started in 1994.  Hope-Beckham Public Relations, which is now Hope Beckham Espinosa, was formed by friends Bob Hope and Paul Beckham.  The other was a young guy named Jeff Bezos who started selling books online and called his new company Amazon. Both have done well, and I am proud to have been around for three decades and enjoy a wonderful ride with a terrific company.

We started with a handful of projects, the largest being the creation of a women’s professional baseball team for Coors Light, the Colorado Silver Bullets.  That team is now on display in six different places in the Baseball Hall of Fame….pretty good for something that started as a beer promotion. We’ve worked for some of the top companies in the world and have traveled the world, doing business in places like Taiwan, Bahrain, Israel, England, Central America and Canada. We’ve worked on the Olympics, the Super Bowl, World Series, soccer, and an assortment of golf tournaments. We’ve worked with top celebrities like Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, Elton John and most recently Dominique Dawes. We’ve designed a theme park for Coca-Cola for the Olympics and even the world’s largest peanut for the National Peanut Board.

When I worked for Ted Turner, he’d talk about the “magic touch,” the ability to take the ordinary and turn it into the extraordinary.  Our people have done that time and time again. Our attitude has been to say yes and then ask what the question is. We’ve worked along companies in their worst times like Enron and Arthur Andersen, and also in their best like with Coca-Cola during the 100th anniversary of the Olympics in Atlanta or more recently the 150th anniversary of Wellroot Family Services, formerly known as the Methodist Children’s Home.  Or perhaps working to host events honoring a baseball legend attended by the President and other legends. We’ve helped figure the best way to encourage 3,000 factory workers to get vaccinated by creating huge vaccination rallies almost overnight. We’ve helped organizations do good, creating major events for many worthwhile charities to tell their stories and raise money to build their capacity to do even more good.

My original partner, Paul Beckham, died four years ago, suddenly and unexpectedly, leading to a new chapter in our history. Hope-Beckham became Hope Beckham Espinosa when Paul’s partnership interest was replaced by Gina Espinosa, the leading public relations expert on the growing Hispanic market in Atlanta and the Southeast.  New horizons are opening for us.  We continue to do what we’ve always done but are reaching out to a new population with new expertise. Three decades can be a lifetime or simply time to grow up and mature in preparation of taking on new and greater challenges.  We know more than we’ve ever known before and are excited to work with both old and new clients doing work that will flourish with our “magic touch.” It sounds a lot more hopeful than selling books online.

Hispanic Heritage Month Highlights How Hispanics Impact the Culture & Economy of the United States

Each year, the conversation around Hispanic Heritage Month highlights the contributions of Hispanics to the culture and the economy of the United States. However, not many know how significant those contributions are. 

To highlight those numbers, Bank of America recently released its 2024 Metro Atlanta Latino Gross Domestic Product report, in partnership with the Latin American Association, Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and World Affairs Council of Atlanta. And the findings were remarkable.

Latinos in metro Atlanta produced a GDP of $37.9 billion in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. Latino GDP grew three times as fast as non-Latino GDP.
 
Statewide, Latino GDP in Georgia totaled $52.2 billion in 2021, or about the size of the entire states of Vermont or Wyoming.

Latino population grew faster, the number of Latinos with bachelor’s degrees grew faster and the number of Latino homeowners grew faster than their non-Latino counterparts. Sometimes much faster.
 
 “Atlanta area Latinos are drivers of economic growth in the region and a critical source of resilience for the region’s economy,” said Al McRae, president, Bank of America Atlanta.

And that’s despite the pandemic, which hit Latinos harder than any other group.
 
The fact that Latinos are driving economic growth across the metro area might come as a surprise to metro Atlantans who view them as key contributors mostly in the agriculture, landscape, construction and hospitality industries. They are big contributors in those sectors. But they’re also big in finance/insurance and real estate, in information technology, in professional/business services and in government services.

Latinos also are increasingly a part of Atlanta’s executive ranks and its C-suites, a trend that is only going to continue, because the number of Latinos in metro Atlanta holding a bachelor’s degree grew at a rate 2.2 times that of Non-Latinos, from 2010 to 2021.
 
So, more Latinos — and more well-educated Latinos — are working their way into the fabric of Atlanta’s economy. As the report notes, “A young and growing Latino population is laying the foundation for Atlanta’s continuing growth through the twenty-first century.”

Here are the population numbers. There are currently more than 700,000 Latinos in metro Atlanta and more than 1 million in Georgia. Nationwide, the 65 million Americans with Latino heritage represent one fifth of the country’s people. In Atlanta, Latinos are expected to grow from 12 percent of the population currently to 21 percent by 2050, according to The Atlanta Regional Commission. 
 
The makeup of the Latino labor force here is overwhelmingly second- and third-generation Americans, according to the BofA report.
 
“These children and grandchildren of immigrants are combining the extraordinary and selfless work ethic of their elders with rapid educational attainment to propel not just Latino GDP but overall GDP growth in the Atlanta Metro Area, the state and the nation.”

The geography of the nation’s Latino population is pretty interesting. Georgia is one of 10 states that contain 76 percent of the country’s Latino population, as of 2021. Along with Georgia, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas were collectively home to over 47 million Latinos. But the growth in the Latino population is strong in other states. The three fastest-growing states by Latino population from 2015 to 2021 were New Hampshire (with 36.0 percent growth of the Latino population), Maine (30.1 percent), and Montana (27.1 percent). These three are followed, in order, by Vermont, Tennessee, and Idaho. 
 
“The distribution of Latino population growth is clear evidence that the economic impact of U.S. Latinos touches every corner of the nation,” the report notes.
 
Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to reflect on the significance of investing in the Latino community. At HBE, we are a multicultural agency equipped with the knowledge and experience to help you identify the most effective ways to engage with this important group.

If you’d like to learn more, you can read the full report here: https://latinogdp.us

The Importance of a Good PR Plan During the Fall

by Allison Ritter

As the leaves change color and the air turns crisp, businesses and organizations must adapt their PR strategies to align with the unique opportunities and challenges that the fall season presents. A well-crafted PR plan during this time can significantly enhance brand visibility, engagement, and overall success. Here’s why a good PR plan is essential during the fall:

Seasonal Relevance and Timeliness

Fall is synonymous with college football and the MLB playoffs, both of which capture the attention of millions of fans. Leveraging these sports events in your PR campaigns can create timely and relevant content that resonates with your audience. Whether it’s hosting viewing parties, sponsoring local teams, or creating sports-themed promotions, aligning your messaging with these popular events can make your brand more relatable and engaging.

Increased Media Opportunities

The fall season often sees an uptick in media activity, with journalists and publications looking for fresh, seasonal stories. By having a proactive PR plan, you can pitch timely stories, press releases, and feature articles that align with the interests of the media and their audiences. This can lead to increased media coverage and greater exposure for your brand.

Holiday Shopping and Consumer Behavior

Fall marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season, with consumers starting to make their holiday purchases. A strategic PR plan can help position your products or services as must-haves for the upcoming holidays. By highlighting special promotions, gift guides, and holiday-themed content, you can capture the attention of early shoppers and boost sales. 

Strengthening Community Relationships

Fall is a great time to strengthen relationships with your community and stakeholders. Hosting or participating in community events, charity drives, and local festivals can enhance your brand’s reputation and foster goodwill. A well-thought-out PR plan ensures that these efforts are communicated effectively, highlighting your brand’s commitment to social responsibility and community engagement. 

Conclusion

A good PR plan during the fall is not just about maintaining visibility; it’s about leveraging the unique opportunities that the season offers to connect with your audience in meaningful ways. By being timely, relevant, and strategic, you can enhance your brand’s presence, drive engagement, and achieve your business goals. Need help developing a good PR plan, call us. HBE can build your brand an exciting and robust PR plan for this fall and beyond. 

Public Relations and the Olympic Games

by Riley Carney Dernar

With the 2024 Olympics about to start in Paris, I started thinking about how public relations is similar to the Olympics. Both involve strategy, skill, and timing to shape perceptions and create memorable moments.

Strategy and Preparation

Just like athletes train hard for their events, PR pros meticulously plan their strategies. They analyze trends, anticipate challenges, and craft messages that hit home with their audience. Similarly, Olympic athletes train rigorously, study their opponents, and perfect their techniques to perform their best. Both rely on thorough preparation and a well-executed game plan.

Global Stage and Spectacle

The Olympics is a worldwide event where athletes compete for glory. In the same way, PR campaigns often aim for international reach, using media and digital platforms to spread their message. Both showcase talent, innovation, and cultural diversity, captivating audiences around the globe.

Excellence and Achievement

Both PR and the Olympics are all about striving for excellence. Athletes aim for gold medals and set new records. In PR, success means enhancing brand reputation, managing crises well, or launching successful campaigns that resonate with customers. Both fields celebrate achievements, whether it’s a perfect campaign or a podium finish.

Adapting to Challenges

The Olympics face logistical challenges that require flexibility and adaptability. Similarly, PR pros deal with crises, public scrutiny, and a fast-changing media landscape. The ability to adapt strategies in response to unexpected situations is crucial in both PR and Olympic competition.

Uniting Communities

The Olympics bring people together across cultures and backgrounds, fostering camaraderie and national pride. Effective PR campaigns can also unite communities around shared values, causes, or experiences. Through storytelling, advocacy, or corporate social responsibility initiatives, PR builds connections that resonate with diverse audiences.

Public Relations and the Olympics share a lot of similarities. Both require dedication, strategic thinking, and a commitment to achieving goals despite challenges. Whether you’re watching athletes compete for medals or launching a PR campaign, the similarities highlight principles of success and achievement.

HBE gets rolling with a thrilling new client

by Mark Meltzer

I’m really excited about a client we’ve just started working with — the World Roller Derby League.

This Los Angeles-based league is a startup, but one with unlimited potential. The founders are the top people in the world of Roller Derby, with deep knowledge of the skaters and the sport. They’re also the folks who produced Fear Factor and American Ninja.

They’re starting up at the highest level, and they intend for it to be the big leagues of Roller Derby, with events across the U.S., Mexico and globally. Think WWE or Ringling Brothers, which operates several traveling circus troupes.

Their timing couldn’t be better. Women’s sports have become hugely popular, and should be even more so with the Olympics coming next month in Paris, showcasing world class athletes like superstar swimmer Katie Ledecky.

The NFL and the NBA are pulling away from network TV, and others like ESPN are looking for good sports programming. A TV executive we spoke with said there is very legitimate demand for Roller Derby on TV.

The new league has asked us to help put it all together. HBE’s job is to help find good partners: TV people, arenas, sponsors and potential team owners.

Why us? We have a lot of experience in sports. HBE started 30 years ago as the owner of the Colorado Silver Bullets, a women’s baseball team, managed by Phil Niekro, that has its own exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. 

We’ve also managed Olympic activations for Coca-Cola.

HBE Chairman and co-founder Bob Hope testified before Congress on Title IX, the landmark legislation that fueled the growth of women’s collegiate sports, and he served on the Women’s Sports Foundation with tennis legend Billie Jean King.

Bob has also helped ownership groups land several sports expansion franchises, including the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins. He knows how leagues are set up and how teams and leagues share revenue.

Mostly, the league wants somebody who knows who to call, and that certainly describes Bob.

And if the league is interested in how Mexican wrestling works, well, we have a few contacts there as well.

If you’re interested in getting involved with the World Roller Derby League in any way, please let us know. This is going to be a lot of fun and, I think, very successful.

Unleashing Success: Public Relations & Puppy Raising

by Hilary Bumm

There are surprising parallels between these seemingly unrelated endeavors. Leash up and explore how PR mirrors the art of raising a puppy.

Building Trust

In both PR and puppy raising, trust is paramount. In PR, trust forms the foundation of relationships between a brand and its audience. Similarly, when raising a puppy, trust is established through consistent care, training and bonding. Just as a brand must deliver on promises to maintain credibility, a puppy owner must fulfill their responsibilities to cultivate trust with their furry companion.

Communication

Effective communication is key in both PR and puppy raising. PR professionals craft messages tailored to different audiences, ensuring clarity and resonance. Similarly, puppy raisers use verbal commands, body language and positive reinforcement to communicate with their canine companions. Both require patience, consistency and flexibility to successfully communicate.

Adaptability

In the dynamic world of PR, adaptability is essential to navigate changing landscapes, trends and audience preferences. Likewise, raising a puppy requires adaptability to their evolving needs, temperament and environment. Flexibility, creativity and resilience are crucial in both realms to adjust strategies and approaches as circumstances evolve.

In conclusion, there are striking similarities between PR and puppy raising. Whether crafting a PR campaign or training a puppy, the principles of trust, communication and adaptability must be harnessed to achieve optimum results.

Emojis at Work: Yes or No?

by Holly Brochmann

Emojis: You either love ‘em, or you hate ‘em. If you’re indifferent, you probably lean toward the latter category. In this digital era that thrives on impersonal forms of communication, emojis can inject personality into a text or email. They can convey humor, sarcasm, annoyance, or an array of other sentiments when words alone cannot. They are also fun, whimsical, and often even silly. So what about the use of emojis in a professional setting. Are they unprofessional? 

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question, at least in my opinion. It’s mostly a matter of personality and personal preference, though it can be a bit tricky when opposing viewpoints collide. As someone who has big emotions and is also in the business of communications, I’m on Team Love ‘em. With the help of emojis, there’s less room for misinterpretation of an intended tone in a message. For example:

1. I’m so mad at you

2. I’m so mad at you ????

The words are exactly the same, but the emoji completely changes the tone of the statement. Number one comes across as pretty literal – perhaps I actually am mad at you. But in two, it’s pretty clear that my “madness” isn’t genuine, and that my good humor about the situation is intact.

In a personal setting, even if my communication is with someone I don’t know very well, I have no problem letting my personality show through the use of emojis. I’d say I use them in at least 85 percent of my personal messages.

In a WORK setting, however, these are the general guidelines I follow:

  1. With colleagues or industry peers who know me well, emoji away.
  2. When communicating with someone new and I am in a position of authority, I’ll use them, but not in abundance and only as needed. I’m not worried about coming across as unprofessional – it’s more important to me that my tone and intended meaning are accurately communicated.
  3. When communicating with someone new and THEY are in a position of authority (a superior, client, job interviewer, etc.) I follow their lead – if they use them, I will, too. If they don’t, I don’t. In this case, I feel it’s better to err on the side of caution. I don’t want to be seen as frivolous or unprofessional if that’s how they view emojis.

At the end of the day, the use of emojis doesn’t warrant a huge debate. Yet I still took the time to write this blog because emojis are a detail, and to me, details matter.

What’s your opinion about emojis at work: yes or no?