Previously known as Steiner/Lesic Communications, the firm has a wide range of experience directing communications campaigns for Ohio and national clients.

Ohio Department of Taxation: The 2006 Ohio Tax Amnesty Program
During a six-month period, we worked collaboratively with Young Isaac Advertising in Columbus to assist the Ohio Department of Taxation with its six-week 2006 Tax Amnesty Program. This program offered delinquent taxpayers, both in Ohio and out-of-state, the opportunity to catch up on unpaid tax bills with half interest due and no penalties.

We developed an overall strategic marketing and communications plan that included the creation and placement of paid and earned media and integrated grassroots efforts. Our communications approach started with a targeted campaign to tax professionals – both CPAs and tax attorneys. Next, our efforts focused on taxpayers – both individuals and businesses located in and outside of Ohio. We successfully recruited and formed a grassroots network of statewide business and tax groups and associations, who served as tax amnesty advocates in communicating to their members and to taxpayers about amnesty. We also worked with the Governor’s Office and legislative leadership in planning and executing the official “launch” of the program with a well-attended news conference at the Ohio Statehouse. Outreach to the General Assembly was also conducted and tools were made available to those members so they could effectively communicate to their constituents about tax amnesty. We then communicated to the public through consistent messaging and collateral materials including a web site, direct mail, media kits, b-roll and sound bites television news package, and grassroots kits. In addition, we managed meetings and events to educate grassroots supporters and statewide media. Paid media included print, radio and television advertising, as well as targeted advertising in trade media. Our strategic and comprehensive approach resulted in significant earned media exposure across the state through print and electronic means. Efforts produced approximately 210 print and more than 60 electronic stories during a four-month time period. Placements included news stories, guest columns, positive editorials, as well as speaking opportunities on various television and radio news shows. The successful campaign generated $66.7 million in recovered taxes for the State of Ohio, far surpassing the initial goal by more than six and one half times.

Early Childhood Projects for Franklin County
For Franklin County and the United Way of Central Ohio, we have developed key marketing and communications outreach around two projects; Start Smart and the Franklin County Parent Education Project. The multi-faceted Start Smart project focuses on the improvement of early care and education. Since the program’s inception, our efforts included the creation and implementation of a strategic community relations and marketing program including outreach to media, parents, caregivers and elected officeholders. We developed a web site, parent education materials, community and annual reports and paid radio advertising. The Franklin County Parent Education Program focuses on reducing the potential for harm to children in child care settings. We developed parent outreach materials, a paid media radio campaign and executed earned media efforts. For both projects we work closely with the Franklin County Commissioners office and the County Department of Job and Family Services. Both projects also include outreach to elected officials at the local and state level. We create quarterly reports, annual reports, letters and other outreach to the Franklin County legislative delegation, as well as to city and county officials. Our efforts help advocates to influence public policy relating to early care and learning for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Community Hospitals Project
In 2002, a group of 30 orthopedic surgeons unveiled plans to build a $38 million, 30-bed for-profit “boutique” hospital in an affluent suburb of Columbus. The four not-for-profit, full-service hospital systems – Children’s Hospital, Mount Carmel Health System, OhioHealth and The Ohio State University Medical Center - recognized that a proliferation of boutique hospitals would siphon revenue from the most lucrative service lines that help subsidize the cost of providing unprofitable services (like emergency/trauma care), thereby eroding the community’s access to all of the needed health care services. The hospitals retained Steiner/Lesic to help them create and sustain a serious public dialogue about this threat to the community’s health care and to seek a legislative. Our efforts in Ohio became a model for efforts at the national level that resulted in a two-year moratorium on the building of boutique hospitals and a study of their impact on health care.

PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America)
In late 2002, the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs began an initiative petition drive to place prescription drug price control legislation before Ohio lawmakers. Steiner/Lesic Communications, along with Jenny Camper Communications as sub-contractor, were retained to manage the communications and coalition strategy and execution. We worked as a team with PhRMA staff at the federal and state level, as well as with lobbyists and advocates in Ohio. The project involved a statewide legal effort to challenge petition signatures. It also involved outreach to editorial boards, media and key healthcare stakeholders to increase awareness of how price controls would seriously harm the drug industry. In a three month period we put in place a 40-member statewide healthcare access coalition. We launched a breakthrough new service that provides patients with a clearinghouse of information about prescription drug assistance programs offered by the industry. The advocacy and communications efforts were key in the eventual negotiation that took place between the Coalition and PhRMA, resulting in a new statewide prescription drug discount program soon to be offered to seniors and uninsured Ohioans.

State Issue 1: The Drug Offenders Amendment
Facing a well-funded, well-tested national campaign, we defeated a ballot initiative to change Ohio’s constitution on sentencing drug offenders. We created a large, diverse, statewide grassroots coalition in opposition, including political leaders of both parties; developed a compelling message, based on polling and research; devised a strategic plan relying heavily on earned media; carefully integrated limited paid media; exposed the initiative’s hidden weaknesses; used collateral materials effectively, especially the Web site; and reversed a widely held perception among key audiences, including media, that the initiative was unbeatable. The defeat at the polls by a vote of 2-to-1 positioned Ohio nationally as a “firewall” against similar measures.

Cleveland Lakefront Planning Project
For Cleveland Lakefront Partners (the City of Cleveland, Cleveland Tomorrow, Cleveland Neighborhood Development Corporation and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association), coordinated yearlong communications for the ongoing lakefront planning project by actively engaging residents, diverse neighborhood and interest groups and other stakeholders in a public involvement process. Dozens of community meetings garnered thousands of comments about how to connect Clevelanders with their lakefront. Broad media coverage and significant community participation helped spur momentum and an emerging consensus for a lakefront plan.