Empower Media continues to grow with six new hires

Empower MediaMarketing, a full service multimedia marketing firm in Mt. Adams, continues to grow with six new hires.

This brings the company's total number of employees to approximately 180, said Empower President and CEO Jim Price. The company has been hiring at a quick pace in the last few months, adding 24 employees to its ranks in the first quarter alone. And the company is recruiting plenty of area talent as well; many of the new hires are from the Queen City.

Empower specializes in reaching consumers through a wide variety of media platforms. In-the-field consumer engagement and social media campaigns are behind most of the company's rapid growth, Price said. Clients include Red Robin, U.S. Bank, Meijer, Marzetti Company, Godiva Chocolatier, Long John Silvers, Bush Brothers & Co., Humana and Michaels Arts & Crafts Stores.

"What we have always done really well in the last 26 years is what we call one-way communication. That's planning and buying TV, radio and print ads. Combining that with digital media is very effective in creating two-way communication," Price said. "More companies are developing a social marketing strategy in combination with the traditional media space and that's where we really start to see results."

Besides developing engaging websites and social media campaigns, the company also contacts social influences like popular bloggers to promote their clients products and services. One campaign, called Chiquita Moms sought out influential bloggers and Tweeters with a kit that contained Chiquita Banana Recipe Cards, banana coupons, a Baby-Safe Chiquita Bowl, Cup, Spoon and Fork Set and more. Bloggers who agreed to receive the kit often wrote about them and some held kit giveaways.

In this campaign, as with other successful social media efforts, transparency is key to Empower's client work, Price said.

"(With Chiquita Moms) we reached out saying saying 'I am so-and-so with Empower Media and wanted to give this information, because I thought you might be interested in it.' There is no incentive, there is no money involved. It's purely up to them if they want to write about Chiquita, so it's very transparent," he said.

Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Jim Price, Empower Media Marketing President and CEO Jim Price

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