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At Tunheim, we believe that building relationships with influencers is a vital best practice—so, we decided to sit down with our friend and expert on all things delicious, Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen. Over some delicious Friendsgiving fare, cooked by the food and lifestyle guru herself, #TeamTunheim chatted with Paa about what goes on in the complex world of a social media influencer

How did you get started in the blogging/ influencer world?
When I moved to the Twin Cities, I found a love for the farmers markets and became very inspired by the industry. The conversations that I was having with the farmers and vendors were so much more impactful than the conversations I was having in my day job. I started my blog and developing recipes back in 2011 as a creative outlet, around the same time that I found out I couldn’t eat gluten. After a couple years of balancing my day job with Heartbeet Kitchen, I realized that there really is some passion here and I was ready to take the leap. Five years ago, I made Heartbeet Kitchen my full-time job.

Influencer marketing has boomed in recent years, where do you think the future of this wide-spread tactic is headed?
I think the tides are going to turn a little bit. For one, I think reading long-form blogs is going to become popular again. And second, brands are going to start realizing that follower count is not as important as they may have thought, and that micro-influencers are a much more successful avenue to explore. It’s the people that have been around a long time and understand the influencer business that are much more valuable to partner with. These influencers have seen all these up’s and down’s and haven’t given up. There’s something to be said about staying through all those changes and still being successful.

Brand partnerships should be mutually beneficial. What requirements do you feel are necessary for this to be true?
A lot of it has to do with good communication. It’s important to be upfront on the expectations, and I think that’s typically what comes across from the brand, but as an influencer, you can and should give the brand your expectations and goals for the project. Ask them, “what do you need this content for?”, “who is your target audience?” and “where do you want to serve this content the most?” Something else that I think is important, is having a genuine support for one another. I am proud and happy to be working with you [the brand] and would hope you feel the same way about me.

For those who say the blogging/ influencer industry is becoming too saturated, what would you say?
Well, I do think that the talent on Instagram is saturated. There are few influencers that can do multiple things very well. Is the market saturated with high-quality influencers? No, I don’t think it is. Having the “whole package” is hard to come by, which is why I think it is important for brands to find well-rounded influencers to partner with.

“Authenticity” has recently become an industry buzzword in relation to the content that influencers share on social media platforms. At Tunheim, we like to use the words “real” or “human” as it relates to influencer-created content. Do you think being “real” or “human” is a crucial trait to be a successful influencer?
Yes, I do. For me, my brand is mostly food related, but I’ve never shied away from talking about normal things in my life. For instance, fostering kittens; it’s on my Instagram feed because it’s important to who I am and I want people to know that. When I see Instagram feeds that are strictly just food photos that all look the same, that’s not inspiring to me. It’s boring and I don’t really get to know the person. I think there’s a balance. I’m not afraid to share a lot of myself, but I also think there are things that should be kept private.

Do you think it is more effective when brands reach out to influencers for partnerships or vice versa? What is your approach?
It is important to do both, but I do enjoy reaching out to brands that I genuinely connect with on my own. It’s fun when I find something in stores, and I reach out and let them know how beneficial it has been for my kitchen—and to see if there is a possibility for a partnership. I think it makes the brands feel good when people are recognizing and authentically enjoying their product. It’s important to do it the other way around, too. Sometimes as influencers, we may not think we are good enough for a partnership…until a brand asks. Something that you can do, regardless of who makes the initial outreach, is to get on the phone and talk. Communicating solely on email, it can be difficult to translate personality, feeling and emotion. Speaking on the phone is much more personable, and that way the person on the other line can have a better idea of who you truly are.

Now for some fun ones! What is your number one tip for a successful Friendsgiving?
You don’t have to make a full turkey! Make the smaller bone-in turkey breast, two sides and then assign your friends to bring other items such as bread, dessert, salad or cheese. Always assign something specific, otherwise, if you just tell them to bring “something,” they will stress about it.

Favorite Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving tradition?
We always go around the table and say one thing that we are thankful for, and it really just helps everyone pause and take time to be grateful. Oh, and pumpkin pie .

Amanda Paa is a Minneapolis-based food and lifestyle blogger, whose blog Heartbeet Kitchen is a celebration of delicious recipes combined with tidbits of her everyday life. Paa grew up in New Ulm, Minnesota with a family who always cooked and ate together. Her passion for sharing food stories and experiences is rooted in her overall enjoyment of cooking and the positivity that it can bring to our lives. In 2014, Paa published her first cookbook titled, Smitten by Squash. Overall, her philosophy is that the best meals are those made with fresh, local, simple ingredients, and always what’s in season. Follow along on Paa’s foodie adventures via Instagram at @heartbeetkitchen, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Members of #TeamTunheim and Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen.

Paa in her element during a client B-roll shoot.

The post The Face Behind the Spatula: Amanda Paa, Heartbeet Kitchen appeared first on Tunheim.

Health care campaign focused on preserving MinnesotaCare through integrated digital advocacy

Tunheim and our client, the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA), were awarded Modern Healthcare Magazine’s Digital Campaign of the Year on Nov. 2 for work performed in 2019. Tunheim and MHA earned the recognition for an advocacy campaign to extend Minnesota’s provider tax, which helps fund MinnesotaCare, a state health care program that provides affordable health care for low-income Minnesotans.

The Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards recognize healthcare’s best advertising, marketing, promotion and communication campaigns on and across all media platforms. Tunheim implemented the multifaceted public affairs campaign that included digital advertising, paid and organic social media posts, grassroots and grass-tops advocacy and partnerships. The campaign successfully engaged with more than 68,000 Minnesotans and resulted in the 2019 Minnesota legislature passing the continuation of the provider tax with no expiration date.

“Tunheim is proud of our work with MHA as they continue Minnesota’s long tradition of advocating for health care coverage to all the state’s residents,” said Sarah Hinde, Senior Consultant for Tunheim. “The campaign reached its desired objectives in a short amount of time by mixing traditional public relations tools such as grassroots and stakeholder engagement with innovative digital tactics, including social media microtargeting and the use of integrated advocacy programming.”

By combining tried-and-true engagement strategies with cutting-edge technology and precision targeting, the campaign was able to outperform expectations while maintaining maximum efficiency.

“MHA’s top legislative priority in 2019 was to secure the continuation of the provider tax,” said Wendy Burt, Vice President of Communications for MHA. “It has been a longstanding priority of hospitals and health systems to ensure health care coverage for low-income Minnesotans. This digital campaign supported our advocacy efforts at the State Capitol and enabled Minnesotans to easily contact key legislators to ask for their support of the provider tax.”

Share your comments and reactions below.

Members of winning team from Tunheim and the Minnesota Hospital Association

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By Stan Alleyne

We’ve all heard the phrase “diversity matters.” We’ve read articles, attended training sessions and asked friends of color uncomfortable questions about their beliefs and backgrounds. Without a doubt, understanding and embracing different cultures, races and beliefs enriches our work and should add value to what we offer our clients or companies.

For many, the challenge is figuring out how to go beyond periodic insightful conversations and annual training sessions and conferences. How do you embed diversity and inclusivity into your daily workplace practices and culture?

Click here to read the full O’Dwyer’s article.

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Nominations for the award were accepted from mid-December through mid-February. After receiving more than 70 nominations, the editorial team selected 10 honorees. The honorees will be featured in the September 22^nd Weekly Edition of the Biz Journal and celebrated at an awards event on September 14^th.

 “[Kathy] is a true business visionary who pushes everyone around her to do better, every day. She is the go-to advisor when times are difficult, a constant leader in times of change and a professional that dedicates her time, ideas and resources to better the communities in which she lives and operates in around the globe.” – Lindsay Treichel, nominator

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Sleep Number began its search for a communications agency earlier last year in an effort to put greater emphasis on its brand story – particularly how the company’s innovations can markedly improve sleep quality. After an extensive search, Tunheim was chosen for its all-encompassing approach that combined strategic insights with its ability to translate those insights into fresh and impactful results.

“Tunheim’s extensive retail experience, creativity and media relations expertise are a good fit for our needs,” said Melissa Barra, Chief Strategy and Customer Relationship Officer for Select Comfort.

Known for working with clients interested in “Rethinking,” Tunheim has deep expertise in a broad set of industries and specializes in helping clients navigate complex change, most especially helping them rethink how they must work to be understood by their stakeholders.

“We are thrilled and honored to partner with Sleep Number and are looking forward to contributing to their success,” said Kathy Tunheim, President and CEO of Tunheim. “At Tunheim, we are eager to team up with organizations looking to disrupt their category in new ways, which is why we feel this is an ideal match.”

With growing awareness of the important role that sleep plays in health, performance and overall wellbeing, Sleep Number is working with Tunheim to raise visibility of Sleep Number’s broad range of products that deliver on the promise of quality sleep.

IPREX partners participating in the winning proposal included: Crossroads, Eisbrenner, French ǀ West ǀ Vaughan, Hanser & Associates, Makovsky, and Walt & Company.

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Around five years ago, we knew, and realized these things to be true:

• Our culture was mired in a system that rewarded people with titles and office space;
• We were frustrated with our position in the marketplace;
• Our service offering was not as highly valued as [we] thought it should be; and
• Clients hated the pricing model our industry was clinging to

It was time to ‘rethink’ our culture, business model, and service offering.

On the business front, we were in a challenging spot in terms of our positioning: seen as a ‘traditional’ PR firm, a service offering that was interpreted as a team to ‘execute,’ rather than provide high-level strategy, and pricing compensated by the hour versus value.

Faced with this harsh reality, and in-the-midst of the Great Recession, our leadership committed to transforming our business. And while transformation in this new disruptive era will never be complete, we are proud to share we have made great progress.

Hey, Coach
Rethinking the supervisor model, we realized it was a reactive system that relied too much on expecting our team members to figure out on their own how to thrive in the business and be rewarded for excelling. We scrapped supervisors and performance reviews and moved to a coaching model. Instead of only looking back and searching for faults, we pivoted and agreed to look forward with our team members. Forcing ourselves to rethink a system that was once a dreaded annual ritual has turned into an ongoing, year-long conversation that inspires all of us to continuously improve.

Off with office space
Perhaps, nothing is more emotional in the professional world than office space.  We had a real estate problem. Four years ago, Tunheim was a collection of offices that circled the rim of windows around our office. We literally took a sledgehammer to it. It wasn’t about new colors and new furniture (we did that, too); rather, we focused on building new space to deepen collaboration, cause incidental conversations and greater sharing of insight and thoughts. We moved from a very quiet floor full of single offices and corner suites to a more open plan designed to ignite greater collaboration.

Back to the Future
As for our service offering, rethinking took us back to the future. Nearly 30 years ago, Tunheim opened our doors as a strategic communications consultancy. Our very first assignment as a company was to reimagine and redesign a corporate communications function for a Fortune 100 company. Initial clients included big organizations navigating difficult change. Over time we morphed into a national consumer and B2B public relations agency, then we amassed great talent focused on public affairs issues. But as the level of disruption grew to dominate business, and the pace of change threatened our clients’ ability to keep-up with it – we realized it was time to pivot back to our sweet spot – consulting.

Over the last five years our talent and growth has shifted to be more focused on consulting and less on traditional public relations. Our total revenue for 2016 increased by 11 percent over 2015. We’ve grown incrementally over the last few years without any acquisitions; rather, our focus has been on client intimacy and creating a workplace where our employees want to work and feel challenged.

We invest heavily in external development and professional organizations to ensure our talent has access to development opportunities. Our membership in IPREX gives our team access to talented professionals working in 115 offices around the world. We send staff at all levels to meetings around the globe with these colleagues, host and participate in webinars and training opportunities, and have access to our partners for insights and recommendations based on our client needs.

As we look at our business today, we still have clients in consumer endeavors; we have large B2B multinationals; we are still involved in complex public affairs and community issues, and we have a thriving business in sports and immense events like Ryder Cup, Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four and in 2023, the World’s Fair.

But, our role today is different.

We are strategic partners to our clients. We are dedicated to what we call ‘The Business of Rethinking.’ Internally for us, and externally for our clients, it can be very messy stuff. But the journey is extremely rewarding.

The post Tunheim Named ‘2017 Best in Business – Small Employer’ by the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce appeared first on Tunheim.

To get to the bottom of the 93 percent question, we went directly to the expert in effective and authentic communication – a specialty acting coach.  Anthony Vincent Bova is my colleague at Tunheim, but spends most of his time in New York City aiding two types of clients: free-spirited actors wanting to improve their onstage performance and C-suite executives wanting to be more effective in their business role. 

As an authority on authenticity, he trains both types of clients the same … teaching them not to act!  Guess which group ends up acting more?

“High performers in business are very bright people, and they also tend to be highly adaptable individuals,” says Bova.  “After years of climbing the corporate ladder, and assuming the ‘mask’ that is required to be successful in each new role, the instincts that got you to the top can lead to a diminished return. Once leaders learn to put down the masks, their communication becomes much more authentic – and more openly received.”

So what’s the ROI on putting down the masks?  If your personal communication effectiveness – communicating clearly and authentically to those around you – improves by 10, 20 or even 50 percent, how does that translate? Consider:

• Fewer meetings because you’re understood the first time
• Better working relationships because your partners feel you authentically understand their needs
• Higher productivity out of teams because they are clear on expectations
• Higher level of credibility in leadership
• Higher sales
• Higher retention in workforce, as well as shareholders  
• And at home … fewer arguments over minutia!

“Communicating authentically is not enough.” says Bova. “It’s not okay to be authentically disempowered, unclear, indecisive or nervous in the majority of your communication.  It’s vital to understand how to authentically change that.”

Tunheim is hosting an event with the Ellevate Network with Anthony Vincent Bova on September 15. 

Join us to hear how Anthony’s approach to communicating authentically can help you in your own business communications. You’ll also have a chance to inventory your own communication effectiveness and assess what an increase in your approach would mean to your personal ROI. 

Will you join me at this Ellevate Network event? Register now.

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Lisa George is principal of Iris and has exceptional experience working with global clients such as BMW Group-Middle East, Panasonic and the Dubai Airshow, among others. Iris has a team of bilingual consultants with an in-depth knowledge of the global communication landscape. Their focus on strategy, innovation, and accountable delivery has attracted a wide variety of clients ranging from B2B and B2C services to aviation and consumer electronics.

Iris PR is our first Middle East partnership established through IPREX, Tunheim’s global communication network. IPREX is the world’s second largest independent agency network with more than 100 offices in major markets worldwide.

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“We’re very happy to be a part of an organization which, like ours, is engaged in the globalization of service delivery,” says Tunheim CEO Kathy Tunheim. “Together with our IPREX partners, we have built one of the few large-scale networks, maintaining our edge by evolving into an information-rich and fast-moving operation that combines global strategy and on-the-ground implementation. As a closely-knit peer group, focused on best practices, we’re looking forward to learning from ICCO.”

Founded in 1983, IPREX now has 70 partners operating 115 offices in major markets worldwide, with combined annual revenue of $250 million. With 1,800 staff, IPREX and its partners work across the spectrum of industry sectors and practice disciplines.

Read more about our new ICCO membership at iprex.com/iprex-news.

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