By: Allison Ritter

Strategic Public Relations Planning for the Summer Months

As temperatures rise, so do opportunities for brands to refresh their public relations (PR) strategies. Summer presents a unique window for PR professionals to engage audiences through timely, seasonal messaging and experiential campaigns. Whether you’re launching a new product, boosting brand awareness, or strengthening media relationships, summer is the perfect time to get creative with your PR efforts.

1. Align with Seasonal Trends and Events

Start your summer PR planning by identifying seasonal trends, holidays, and local events that align with your brand. Think beyond the obvious—Independence Day and back-to-school—and consider niche observances like National Ice Cream Day or International Surfing Day. These can be perfect hooks for media pitches, influencer partnerships, or community activations.

2. Leverage Lifestyle Content

Summer is synonymous with travel, wellness, outdoor activities, and leisure. Tailor your content to reflect these lifestyle themes. Media outlets and bloggers often seek “light and bright” stories during summer, so adjust your tone and visuals accordingly. A beach-themed photoshoot or summer-ready product launch can be more compelling than a standard pitch.

3. Plan Around Vacation Schedules

Journalists, influencers, and even your internal team may take time off in the summer. Plan ahead by pitching media stories earlier than usual and building in flexibility for follow-up. If you’re launching a campaign in July or August, aim to have all assets and approvals ready well in advance. Avoid letting vacations stall momentum.

4. Embrace Experiential PR

Summer is ideal for experiential marketing. Outdoor events, pop-up shops, product samplings, and community festivals offer a chance for brands to connect with audiences face-to-face. Partner with local influencers to generate social media buzz and encourage user-generated content that extends your reach organically.

5. Refresh Your Messaging

Summer can be a natural time to pivot or reframe your PR messaging. Evaluate what has worked so far in the year and what needs a refresh. Maybe it’s time to introduce a new spokesperson, publish thought leadership content, or launch a seasonal campaign. Ensure messaging feels current, relevant, and aligned with your audience’s summer mindset.

In Summary

Strategic summer PR planning means aligning with seasonal interests, staying ahead of vacation slowdowns, and embracing fun, lifestyle-driven campaigns. With the right mix of timing, creativity, and preparation, your summer PR efforts can shine just as brightly as the season itself. 

By: Riley Dernar

You’ve probably heard the old saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” It’s the kind of advice your grandma might give when it’s pouring rain and you’re complaining about the weather. But honestly? It’s not just good life advice; it’s also a perfect metaphor for public relations.

In PR, the “showers” represent all the hard, messy, and often unglamorous work that happens before any wins are visible. Think crisis management, countless pitch emails, awkward client calls, and media no-shows—whatever it is, it can be frustrating when you’re deep in the process. However, if you persist, if you keep showing up and doing the work, the “flowers”—the significant wins, the glowing articles, and the new business opportunities—will begin to bloom.

Weathering the Storm: Why the “Showers” Matter

Nobody likes a rainy day (especially if you just did your hair), but without rain, nothing grows. The same goes for PR. Tackling the tough stuff—whether it’s preparing for a potential crisis, building relationships with reporters who aren’t returning your calls, or guiding clients through situations where the public narrative isn’t favorable—is crucial for laying the groundwork for future success. This work isn’t glamorous or Instagram-worthy, but it is essential.

Planting Seeds During the Rain

Another thing about PR (and flowers) is that you have to put in the effort before you see results. This means pitching stories even when the media landscape feels oversaturated. It involves crafting your brand story when no one is asking for it yet. It also means staying active on social media and consistently reaching out to your audience, even when engagement feels low. In short, you have to keep planting seeds and trust that, in time, they will grow.

Enjoying the Bloom

And then one day—boom—May flowers appear. A reporter finally picks up your story. A client’s event gets covered on local news. Your brand starts trending for the right reasons. Your team secures a significant feature you’ve been working toward for months. All that hard work during the rainy days? Totally worth it.

So, What’s the Big PR Lesson Here?

• Don’t run from the rain. Challenges are part of the journey. Face them head-on.
• Play the long game. Consistent effort pays off, even when you can’t see immediate results.
• Stay ready. Good PR means constantly planting, preparing, and nurturing relationships behind the scenes.
• Celebrate the wins. Take a moment to appreciate when things go right—you’ve earned it.

At the end of the day, public relations is much like gardening. You can’t control the weather, you can’t force flowers to bloom overnight, and you definitely have to get your hands dirty. But if you keep showing up, keep nurturing your work, and remain patient, those May flowers will come. Trust me—they’re even sweeter when you remember the effort it took to grow them.

By: Hilary Bumm

As International Women’s Month draws to a close, my colleagues and I have found ourselves reflecting on both the incredible progress and the awareness of the work that is still to be done. From our agency leadership to our women-led clients, all serve as beacons of empowerment and hope.

The stories are a testament to what happens when women are given the platform to lead with confidence. From Dominique Dawes, renowned Olympic gold medalist turned personality and business owner, to Precision 2000, a Latina-owned industrial concrete construction company, to cofounder Kelli Stewart of L.E.A.D. Center For Youth which empowers youth via baseball and tennis, to the Atlanta Vibe women’s professional volleyball league owned by Colleen Craig, and so many more, it’s awe inspiring how these trailblazers have turned challenges into opportunities.

The journey toward true equity is ongoing, and each success shines a brighter light on the challenge areas. Our collective strength, the power of our diverse experiences and the unwavering determination of women leaders remind us that while we have come far, our journey is not over.
As the calendar turns a page, let us carry the spirit of this month with us. Be it as a leader, a mentor or an inspiring client, together, we are forging a path to a more equitable future for all.

Author’s note
My journey began at a women’s college, Hollins University, a nurturing environment where academic rigor met empowerment. Surrounded by ambitious peers and inspiring mentors, I was encouraged to dream big, take risks and lead with empathy. The experience instilled in me a deep sense of responsibility for advocacy and uplifting others. It is my great privilege to have opportunities to do so on the daily, thanks to my role at Hope Beckham Espinosa.

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.

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!

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 100^th anniversary of the Olympics in Atlanta or more recently the 150^th 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.

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