The importance of news industry has everlasting impact on the lives of people. This medium has the power to make a tangible impact on larger sections of society through the stories it can tell. To deliver efficient public services having good platform is important. In 2001, Donna Loughlin formed LMGPR to provide strategic public relations (PR) services to emerging tech companies. Donna is a PR veteran known for her tenacity and creativity in leading public relations programs for early-stage technology innovators taking them from start-up to IPO and often acquisition.
“LMGPR’s goal is to create a strategic partnership with its clients where public relations and communications become key tools for helping clients achieve their business objectives.”
Being Exposed to Media from Young Age
Donna’s biggest influence was growing up in the pre-digital age in the newspaper industry. At a young age she was exposed to news reporting, publishing, and the print process, mostly from her father and his brothers. By the time she was a teenager she had experience working for a community paper, then book publishing. She also worked on a local radio station doing advertising writing and audio recordings. These experiences and her non-stop curiosity about how things work ultimately led her to getting a degree in communications and journalism.
Making the Impossible Possible
The pivot in Donna’s career was when she went from publishing to the technology sector and her senses were ignited. The tech industry is always advancing and how things work and impact everyone’s lives fascinates Donna. She is inspired by influencing change in how one can work and live with the advancement of technology one story at a time. Making the impossible possible intrigues her the most about working with visionaries and futurists.
Creating Real Business Results
LMGPR means — Leadership, Momentum and Growth. LMGPR is a platform of great storytellers, influencers, and markets shapers. The platform is formed on a belief that the right story and the right audience leads to real business results. Donna believes that creating a great story starts with a journey of discovery, research and being relevant. She is an award-winning storyteller and PR influencer working with visionaries changing how people live in the future. She is also known for her results-oriented PR programs, dedication to her clients, and constant enthusiasm for new innovation.
Innovative PR Approach
With LMGPR, Donna has secured more than a dozen personal and agency awards from global organizations. LMGPR has received numerous industry awards based on its continuous PR leadership, creativity, media relations and innovative PR approach. Donna believes that client engagement is about listening and learning, and not just a transaction. She is highly skilled in every aspect of public relations and delivers high impact results that drive Leadership, Momentum and Growth.
Delivering High-Impact Results
Prior to establishing LMGPR, Donna worked with several tech companies and started her career in publishing as a reporter/editor working on science and math publications. She spent a decade working in corporate public relations positions taking companies from stealth to IPO in a variety of B2B and B2C technology markets. At the time, there were a lot of big and mid-sized agencies in the market, but none providing a strategic approach to launching companies in less than 6 months, let alone 90 days. These are the phases that its clients engage with it in and how it quickly accelerates its business model. As a result, LMGPR is able to deliver high-impact results that match its business goals over and over. At this point, it has launched over 500 companies and secured more than a million articles.
Moving Beyond Traditional Press Release
LMGPR works with visionaries and futurists that are often working from labs and think tanks well before products go to market. Sometimes these conversations start with napkin conversations or a series of white board talks. Then it starts crafting the story board and apply the story to the science to make it tangible. Once it creates a story, it determines the medium in which to tell the story, often moving beyond the traditional press release.
Video is one medium for good storytelling that can take a customer on a unique experience. LMGPR often ties video with other interactive digital assets like a short podcast series or byline series. Then they make a digital press kit which becomes a key knowledge center repository of all digital assets for educating both the media and consumers and giving them a hands-on experience.
Inculcating Creative Process in Telling the Story
No two customers have the same needs as they are at different phases of their business. It starts with the company and product vision, then LMGPR stands back and looks at the market need, challenges, and business goals. Once it has all this information collected, it can start the creative process in telling the story. Since it works with emerging markets, the first phase after story creation is often market analyst briefings. The market analyst is important as it is the pulse of the industry and know who other players that are might be in stealth also.
Paving the Future with Implementation of Advanced Technologies
LMGPR has continuously evolved with the emerging tech markets. The last few years it has amplified its transportation, AI, robotics, and sustainability product portfolio, bringing some of the most amazing products to market. The convergence of technology has happened quite rapidly. The intelligence once in cars is now in smart tractors, motorcycles, and one’s home.
Additionally, there is an advancement of AI and deep learning in post COVID-19 wellness and environmental products. Bringing these products to market requires a lot of education and LMGPR is delighted to work with companies paving the future. Donna is also hosting a podcast series, “Before It Happened,” which is an up-close and personal series on visionaries and the future they imagine. These are the idea makers shaping their life and work, and they get a glimpse into their world before they created their big idea.
Being Informed, Fearless, Agile and Relevant
Donna tries to strive by the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” outlined in Stephen R Covey’s book and “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. These books have been great coaching tools during Donna’s career. She considers it is important to be fearless, agile and relevant. She learned the latter on the job with some amazing mentors.
Seeing Diversity in PR
69 percent of the PR industry professionals are women, making it a great career choice for the next generation. Donna says to entrepreneurs that not only this career offer choices in working for corporate, agency or freelance, it’s also very kind to those wanting families. There are certain sectors such as technology that the client base is 80 percent male, making it an interesting dynamic. Donna would like to see more diversity in PR industry and the college degrees that enter the field. She states that the College internships are a great place to start exploring career option.
