Situation
The Chicago Manufacturing Center, a public-private consulting group offering a wide range of services tailored to the needs of small and midsize manufacturers, first approached McPhilimy Associates in 1996. The company and its CEO wanted to increase their profile and become the leading resource on Illinois manufacturing with the media..

Solution
McPhilimy Associates has worked closely with the CMC since 1997, continually placing the organization in both the local and national media. McPhilimy Associates has positioned the Chicago Manufacturing Center's CEO as one of the foremost experts on manufacturing in the country, with a Forbes article featuring her work with the numerous companies she has helped compete in an increasingly global marketplace and Crain's Chicago Business labeling her one of its elite "40 under 40." 

McPhilimy Associates focuses on more than just CMC's leadership; its media efforts have kept CMC as a whole in the spotlight. For instance, in 1999, the still young organization received national recognition with the McPhilimy-coordinated "Manufacturing Counts" gala. The event, which was attended by then-Illinois Governor George H. Ryan and acting U.S. Undersecretary for Technology Kelly Carnes, "put CMC on the map" according to one attendee, with media attendance including the international news service LaPrensa, Chicago's CBS affiliate WBBM-TV, Chicago's FOX affiliate WFLD-TV and print media such as the Chicago Sun-Times and African-American paper N'Digo. 

Now McPhilimy Associates is positioning the CEO as a nationwide resource on the hot-button topic of globalization. As the result of a week-long pitch effort alone, McPhilimy Associates coordinated interviews with the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and the nationally syndicated television program First Business.

Results
Since beginning its work with CMC, McPhilimy Associates has generated more than 100,000,000 media impressions, coordinated nationwide coverage and boosted the profile its client. Though the goal was to become the foremost local resource on manufacturing, McPhilimy Associates has gone even further, guiding CMC into the national spotlight. As a writer at Forbes put it after working with the agency on a CMC article, "From a journalist's perspective, I have to say you are one of the best PR professionals I have yet to work with. You get it."