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 for several years, while also supporting clients like Virginia Spirits in its optimization efforts. SEO goes well beyond identifying the right keywords to have on your pages: there are both content and technical implications that have to constantly be monitored and adjusted to keep your business ranked where you want it. Episode Highlights The importance…
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 we communicate, how we communicate and what our clients expect is so different in 2025. We started with media relations as our focus, but what the media is today is light years away from what it was back then. We charged Casey Prentice and an internal team to ask and answer the questions, “Are we…
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…
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…
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…
From a young age, Breyana knew she wanted to work in communications. She once dreamed of becoming the next Oprah, majoring in broadcast journalism before realizing her passion lay behind the scenes—building relationships, telling meaningful stories and shaping narratives. That realization led her to public relations, where she thrives on connection and creativity. For Breyana, the excitement of PR comes from seeing her work in action. Whether it’s landing a media placement or watching a piece of content resonate with an audience, she thrives on…
Social media news posts are hard to write, especially in today’s climate, because social media news IS the news and things change quickly. It’s hard not to get political about this post when almost every story below is a short step away from a political landmine. There are enough examples of Supreme Court cases, presidential pandering and “eat the rich” storylines below, you’d think we were giving you the plot of a new Netflix drama. But alas, this is real life. Here are the four…
For our final episode of the year, we’re going back to the podcast roots by pairing up two Hodgers in conversation. It only seemed appropriate to close out our latest season with a conversation with our founders to talk about all the Hodges’ happenings our team has been going through this year. In this episode, you’ll get the TL;DR version of the journey we’ve taken as an agency over the last 12 months, and you’ll get a sneak peek at what’s to come in 2025….
Jon and I recently had some fun strolling down memory lane as we recorded an episode of our Teaming Up podcast. The topic was our early December move to our new expansive offices in Scott’s Addition, abandoning the familiarity of our Shockoe Bottom home where we have held court for 19 of the agency’s 22 years. Moving, as most of you know, is not for the faint of heart. When we first pulled up stakes from our Shockoe Slip office, it was out of necessity – we…
Cue the music: happy birthday to us. This week, we’re blowing out four candles on The Phil’s b-day cake, marking an anniversary with many slices of gratitude to go around. The timing feels particularly appropriate, coinciding for the most part with Giving Tuesday. After all, when we created The Phil, we saw it in many ways as a gift to Virginia’s nonprofit community, a community that was long on heroic stories and short on places to tell those stories. Back then, we envisioned The Phil…
In the competitive world of travel and tourism, successfully promoting a destination demands a strategic fusion of storytelling, relationship building and innovative marketing techniques. Winning campaigns go beyond simply showcasing attractions; they create an emotional connection that resonates with potential visitors. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to attend the PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference in Greenville, S.C. Engaging with and hearing from industry experts—including travel journalists, influencers and fellow PR professionals—left me feeling inspired for my own client work. It also highlighted the…
Each month, we bring together a curated list of networking and educational events happening throughout the Richmond region. This November, dive into a calendar packed with coffee meetups and happy hours to fuel your networking goals! We hope to see you at an event in November soon! November AMA Coffee Chat Hosted by AMA Richmond Friday, Nov. 1 from 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. at The Smoky Mug, 15 E Brookland Park Blvd. Learn more and register for this event. HYPE Happy Hour at Cabo…
