CONTACT: Dominic Moretti Loyola University Chicago (815)555-2842 dmoretti@luc.

edu

SEVERANCE WEAVES A STORY THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

Sheffield Marketing Partners John Severance presents on marketing innovation

CHICAGO (Mar. 1, 2012) The future of marketing and media tactics was discussed in a presentation made by John Severance at Loyola University Chicago on Tuesday, February 28, 2012. Mr. Severance described the innovative yet simple philosophy of his firm saying, We look at ourselves as storytellers. Severances firm has continued to succeed and has successfully served a variety of clients including the Department of Defense. _________________ On February 28, 2012 John Severance, cofounder of Sheffield Marketing Partners presented his firms work to Loyola University Chicago students enrolled in Professor Robert Korneckis Public Relations Writing course. Mr. Severance discussed the unique strategy applied at Sheffield of using storytelling to achieve the marketing and PR goals of his firms clients. Mr. Severance began by describing how the landscape of media and marketing is changing, which for a room filled with Loyola communication majors, was a topic received with great interest. Severance described how his company has seen success creating social media content for clients that aim at telling a clear, memorable, and meaningful story as the means to a successful marketing campaign. A significant portion of the presentation featured Sheffields work with a company called Grainger. The content of the Grainger campaign focused on delivering a message that would be viewed by and understood by every member of a large, national corporation. Following Sheffields characteristic 60-second or less standard, a storyline was formed and an incredibly successful campaign was launched. Graingers message regarding the five-year plan of the company was translated into simple symbols and characters, which was then disseminated to each employee. The result of Sheffields campaign was simple yet exactly what Grainger needed. After viewing the story, nearly every Grainger employee was able to repeat the story and explain the mission and factors of Graingers five-year plan.

Mr. Severances work at Sheffield only began in 2006 when he and co-founder, Joe McCormack decided to follow the trend in the changing roles of social media. Before graduating from St. Louis University with degrees in Literature and English, Severance spent a semester studying abroad at Oxford University. Severance described that it was his time at Oxford that encouraged him to sharpen his reading and writing skills after not being able to hold his ground during conversations with the townies at the local pubs. Before Sheffields founding, Severance worked at Ketchum where he began his work in the public relations field. Severance noted that Sheffield is currently in the process of leaving its current boutique location in the suburbs to move to a larger West-Chicago location. Facts About Sheffield Marketing partners provide social media content development for companies seeking to express a clear and concise message within their organization. Their services often involve a major company announcement or change that requires immediate and simple clarification. For more about Sheffield: http://sheffieldcompany.com/about-us/ Multimedia Links Sheffields work is based on the principle of delivering powerful content in less than 60 seconds. The company has produced content for the Navy Seals and the Special Ops division of the U.S. military. The companys work was recently featured in an issue of the Harvard Business Review.

Relevant Links (past PR) http://www.dominicmoretti.com/PR/firstSMPR.pdf http://www.dominicmoretti.com/PR/secondSMPR.pdf Tags Sample tags: Sheffield+publicrelations+social media Sheffield+publicrelations+industry future ###