What We Do
Strategic Communications
While everything we do is strategic, if you’re looking for foundational communications support, like crisis communications, speechwriting, audits, custom trainings or copywriting, we’ll set you up for success.
Media Relations
Newsrooms continue to shrink, which makes earned media a prized tactic. Through our relationships with local, regional and national reporters, we help make connections to have your story told broadly.
Content Marketing
Owned media gives you control. Through email marketing, blogs, social media, website copy and podcasts, we’ll help you write those messages and promote them to the right people at the right time.
Paid Promotion
With a savvy paid promotion strategy, through social and traditional media, you can increase the likelihood of having your message heard by the right people at the right time.
Crisis Communications
Crises are inevitable. We help manage communications strategy and messaging at a critical time. We also help write plans that help you prepare for a crisis ahead of time.
Creative Services
We provide strategic comms through earned, owned and paid media: Creative Services bridges all three. Strong design brings brands to life through collateral design, social graphics and video.
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Our Clients
Our Focus Areas
Education
From pre-K to higher ed, our education experience has been rewarding at every level, helping to tell stories on how our clients are making a difference in students’ lives. Now that feels good.
Nonprofit
Our nonprofit clients hold a special place in our hearts. We get to build awareness and drive donations, all while bettering the communities we live in.
Econ. Dev. & Retail
We firmly believe that generating interest in local businesses and communities drives economic impact and supports quality of life. We can help shape and share those stories.
Tourism & Hospitality
We help small and mid-size destinations, hospitality brands and craft industries make headlines, capture attention and welcome new visitors through a variety of PR strategies and tactics.
B2B & Logistics
Most businesses have customer targets that are more precisely defined. Developing B2B campaigns that leverage trade media, trade shows and content strategies is one of our specialties.
Advocacy
We may not be able to change the world, but we love working with clients who are out to change a little part of it. Our advocacy clients have a passion and fire that’s contagious.
Case Studies
Hodges Embraces Earned-Owned-Paid Approach to Support Higher Education Brand Reputation Strategy
Leveraging an EOP tactical mix to build reputation and boost enrollment, Hodges generated millions of impressions for Virginia’s Community Colleges that increased likelihood to enroll.
Results:
- Enrollment increased 4.3%
- Likelihood to enroll increased 19 points
Integrated Marketing Program Leads to Increased Sales, Tourism and Awareness of Virginia’s Burgeoning, World-Class Spirits Industry
The Virginia Spirits Board distributes funding to expand spirits distilling research, education and promotion of the growing of grains and the production of spirits in Virginia. In 2023 the Board partnered with The Hodges Partnership to form the Virginia Spirits Board Marketing Office (VSBMO), charged with developing and executing an ongoing fully integrated marketing and branding program for the Virginia spirits industry.
Results:
- Sales of Virginia-made spirits in Virginia ABC stores increased 12%
- Sales during Virginia Spirits Month increased 25.47%
Hodges Leads a Statewide PR Effort to Support Critical Workforce Development Program
Using an EOP approach, emphasizing community relations to recruit early educators, Hodges supported Virginia Early Childhood Foundation in the hiring of 100+ early childhood educators.
Results:
- 729 total leads generated
- 100+ hires made at early childcare employers across Virginia
National Disaster Relief Organization Raises Profile and Serves More Than 20 Million Meals
Mercy Chefs, a Virginia-based disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization that serves chef-prepared meals in national emergencies and natural disasters, wanted to raise awareness to increase donations and, ultimately, meals served to people in need. The organization turned to The Hodges Partnership for ongoing media relations support.
Results:
- Since 2018, Mercy Chefs has served more than 18 million meals, compared to only 2 million meals in the organization’s first 12 years in operation.
Increasing Web Traffic and Contacts Through an Integrated Content Marketing Strategy for Virginia Telehealth Network
Virginia Telehealth Network (VTN) is nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to promote and enhance telehealth efforts in the commonwealth. VTN launched its Equity & Telehealth initiative and worked with The Hodges Partnership to design an equity-focused series of web pages, develop ongoing blog content and strategically convey that content to the right audience through paid social media and email newsletter campaigns.
Results:
- 54% increase in web traffic
- 121% increase in email newsletter signups
- 429,395 impressions and over 4,500 clicks from paid social media advertising campaigns
The Gong Blog
Episode 36: Search Engine Optimization with Anne-Stuart Teter, Addison Clark
In our latest episode of Teaming Up, Adrienne Maxwell teams up with Addison Clark’s Anne-Stuart Teter to explore all things search engine optimization. Addison Clark has been behind Hodges’ SEO…
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A ‘different’ Hodges…the reflection.
The third part of the year-long process was to examine whether we were still a public relations firm. Our industry has changed so much since our founding in 2002. What…
Read MoreEpisode 35: Supporting Local with Diana McMahon, InUnison
As you can see, Hodges has been busy getting our new brand up and running, so we were a little bit behind launching the newest season of Teaming Up – but we’re back! In this episode, Diana McMahon, vice president of InUnison, joins Meg Irvin, APR in conversation about all things local (and in our case, all things Richmond). The pair talked about InUnison’s mission to support locally owned, independent businesses in central Virginia, while also breaking down some of the benefits and advantages of…
Read MoreA ‘different’ Hodges…the brand.
True confession. We bought our original “h” logo for about a hundred bucks. Neither Josh nor I can remember who designed it, but we think it was the boyfriend of someone we knew. We do remember that he handed it to us on a floppy disk though a car window in downtown Richmond. Thanks to Tony Scida, the colors of the logo changed over the years from blue on blue to adopting the greens, yellows and blues that ZZ Top-bearded Chris McCray used to design…
Read MoreA ‘different’ Hodges…the space.
We knew for about a year that we’d have to move The Hodges Partnership out of its long-time home in Shockoe Bottom. Our lease was coming due and the building owners wanted to convert the historic building and its neighbors into residential units. But for us it was more than that. We had run out of functional space. We had little collaborative space. And Shockoe Bottom never took off. The decision to move was easy. But what we wanted to accomplish was more than just…
Read MoreAbout Us
The Hodges Partnership is a full-service PR agency based in Richmond, Virginia. Using an earned, owned, paid media approach, we provide strategic communications, content marketing and creative services, shaping the PR strategy you need. Our relationships and team continuity are proof points to our ability to build and maintain trusted partnerships that stand the test of time.
Our core values are built on being Collaborative, Inclusive, Bright, Driven and Genuine. It’s these core values that have helped us foster long-term relationships with our clients, and with our own people. You get the public relations services and the team you need.
Who is Hodges?
The name of our agency comes from Dodgers great and former Mets manager Gil Hodges. No, he didn’t start the agency, but his quiet heroics and values of decency and fair play inspired the real co-founders (who grew up in the New York area) to honor Gil by naming the agency for him. A decorated Marine serving in the Pacific in World War II, Gil had a prodigious career at the plate, with a career .273 batting average, 1,921 hits, 1,274 RBIs and 370 home runs over 18 seasons. Beloved by Dodgers fans, he was perhaps the only player never to be booed by the Ebbets Field crowds. During one hitless streak, one Brooklyn priest told his congregation, “It’s too hot for a homily. Keep the Commandments and say a prayer for Gil Hodges.” Among his greatest feats was managing the Miracle Mets to a World Series in 1969, a team that had finished 15 games below .500 the year before. Mostly, Gil was revered for his character and quiet discipline. Fifty years after he retired as a player, Gil was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2022.
