Situation: Dramatic changes in the legal profession have created significant new demands on law schools. Georgetown Law, founded in 1870 and one of the most selective educational institutions in the country, wanted to ensure that it was communicating its values and advantages effectively.
 
Challenge: The key was to understand the drivers of the law school selection process – a complex decision with a hefty price tag – and find a way to differentiate Georgetown in a crowded and competitive environment.

Response: Armed with findings from extensive internal and external research as well as competitive analysis, we devised a compelling narrative for the school to use with key stakeholders. We also provided guidance on reorganizing the communications function.

Result: We delivered a comprehensive “Communication and Principles and Guidelines” booklet; helped lay the foundation for a website redesign (currently underway) and facilitated the search and successful hiring of an executive director for the department.

Agency: Mahony Partners: Richard Mahony, Neil Gluckin, principal consultants

Situation: Over the course of its nearly 100 year history, The Beth Abraham Family of Health Services had grown from a single nursing home in the Bronx serving primarily Jewish immigrants to a diversified $750 million health care delivery network comprising nursing homes, community heath care centers, home care services and more.

Challenge: After numerous acquisitions over the years, the company’s strengths as a regional organization lay hidden behind a welter of local identities, while the reputation of the parent had lost its luster.

Response: A new name based on painstaking multi-cultural research and testing broadened the organization’s appeal across the numerous culturally diverse communities it served.

Result: The company’s awareness and reputation strengthened rapidly, while a flexible brand architecture made it possible to preserve the valuable equity of local brands and win the support of employees.

Agencies: Riley Weiss, BrandLogic (now Tenet Partners); brand development, corporate identity and communication support, Neil Gluckin VP of Marketing and Advertising

Situation: The reform of New York’s Medicaid program in 2010-11 dramatically changed the face of healthcare in the State – and CenterLight’s business along with it.

Challenge: It was essential to inform employees throughout the New York metropolitan region about the changes, the reasons for them and how CenterLight would respond. The information was far too dense and complex for PowerPoint presentations or printed material.

Response: Working with Root Inc., a company that helps its clients develop change management engagement programs, we created a customized “Learning Map” to use as the basis for highly interactive small-group information ”games.”

Result: All employees participated and most viewed the program favorably. Even senior staff acknowledged learning things about their business they had never understood before.

Agency: Root Inc.; concept, briefing and development: Neil Gluckin, VP of Marketing and Advertising

Situation: To fulfill its obligation under the deed of sale, the Town of Wilton, CT, was required to restore a 200-year old family homestead, preserving its architectural integrity and making it safe for use by the public.

Challenge: The Friends of Amber Farm, a not for profit organization, needed to raise $500,000 to qualify for matching funds from the town that would allow the final phase of construction work to be completed.

Response: To serve as a key element of the fund-raising effort, we created a combination “case statement” and positioning brochure that provided detail on both the project and the farm.

Result: The booklet generated numerous gifts, including one donation of $20,000. The overall campaign succeeded in raising the funding needed to continue and complete the restoration.

Concept: Jeanne Robertson, Development Director of Ambler Farm; text: Neil Gluckin, President of the Board of the Farm; Design: Marge Heminway, Maida Design

Situation: In planning the roll-out of a new health plan, CenterLight needed to understand what new features to include in the product design.

Challenge: Most consumers don’t have a firm grasp of what their health insurance provides them, or of what the benefits actually mean. A complicating factor was that CenterLight serves primarily frail elderly patients who are typically not fluent English-speakers.

Response: We commissioned qualitative in depth interviews with, among others, patients and their families (in English, Russian, Spanish and Mandarin) to learn how much they knew about their health plans, and what new services would be appealing.

Result: The most important finding: most patients were unaware that CenterLight was their health care provider. This underlined the urgent need for a dramatically new client relationship management and communication strategy.

Research design and interviews: Hawk Partners; strategy, sample design and question guide, Neil Gluckin, VP of Marketing

Situation: After acquiring Dillon Read, S.G. Warburg, Swiss Bank, Paine Webber, Brinson Partners and other financial institutions, UBS saw the need to consolidate its disparate holdings under a global masterbrand.

Challenge: Acquired companies bitterly resented the loss of their identities; other parts of the organization continued to operate blithely under the UBS name they’d always used. The firm needed to find a way to integrate the organization under its “One Firm One Brand/One Future” strategy.

Response: We developed an internal education and training workshop for all staff with brand communication responsibility. We ran the program in the U.S., Europe and Asia over a two-year period, reaching 2,000 “Brand Influencers” and selected outside suppliers and advisors.

Result: We achieved significant internal acceptance for the new brand system and later developed a version of the training for new hires and “brand experience” consulting support for business units throughout the organization.     
    
Concept and content development: Neil Gluckin, Executive Director, Brand Strategy, with support from other members of the Brand Strategy team

Situation: In 2002, the Swiss banking giant UBS committed to be a lead sponsor of Alinghi, a Swiss challenger for the 2003 edition of sailing’s prestigious America’s Cup.

Challenge: UBS wanted to promote its sponsorship in the U.S., where the bank was virtually unknown and where competitive sailing has an elite but limited following.

Response: We created the UBS Challenge, a series of competitive regattas in six attractive wealth management markets from coast to coast. The winners of the regattas would compete in a finals in Newport, Rhode Island, sailing against boats manned by America’s Cup sailors, including members of the Alinghi team. Ancillary promotional programs extended the events into local school systems.

Result: Extensive favorable press including television coverage and European distribution plus a well-attended multi-day regatta and hospitality program in Newport.  The event strategy gave cost-effective visibility to the UBS name and its Alinghi sponsorship among well-targeted audience segments.

Event concept and management: Scott Macleod, Octagon Sports Marketing; Program management: Melanie Wright, UBS; communication strategy and branding: Neil Gluckin, UBS

Situation: In 1987, the Federal Reserve Board allowed J.P. Morgan to engage in equity underwriting and to enter other previously prohibited securities businesses.

Challenge: As the firm quickly hired large numbers of professionals to staff its new trading desks, few of them were able to talk to their clients about the breadth of Morgan’s new capabilities or its strong corporate values.

Response: We created a set of “Marketing Notes” to serve as a just-in-time informational resource across the organization.

Result: Morgan employed these documents for recruiting, client discussions, conferences and training, among other uses, and subsequently adapted the format to present information about other products and services.

Design: Godfried Konings, J.P. Morgan; concept, copy and editing: Neil Gluckin VP of Global Marketing Communication

Situation: By the early 1990s, Morgan’s blue-chip corporate clientele could raise capital more easily and less expensively outside traditional bank lending channels.

Challenge: Keep its products and change its customers, or do the opposite? To retain its blue-chip relationships, Morgan had to move away from commercial lending and become an investment bank in the face of intense and deeply entrenched “Bulge Bracket” competition.

Response: As part of its transformation, Morgan developed a distinctive photojournalistic ad campaign -- shot on location in ambient light with no posing -- designed to highlight the firm's authenticity and credibility.        
    
Result: Morgan’s new image reinforced its steady climb in league table rankings.     

Creative Director: Gerben Hooykaas, J.P. Morgan; Copy and campaign strategy: Neil Gluckin, J.P. Morgan; Photography: Peter Zander

Situation: CenterLight Healthcare operated the country’s largest Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), but no one knew it at a time when the need for healthcare for the aged was growing.

Challenge: Serving distinct ethnic communities comprising, among others, Russians, Hispanics, Haitians, Chinese, Albanians and African-Americans, CenterLight needed to frame a value proposition for its distinctive health plan that would be relevant – and compelling -- across cultures.

Response: Extensive multi-cultural qualitative research helped illuminate an important – and painful – shared space: aging parents felt guilty about being a burden to their children; children felt guilty about not being better able to manage the conflicts between caring for their parents, their own families and holding down a job. At a time when love was most needed, anger and resentment blocked the way.

Result: CenterLight’s multi-lingual “Peace of Mind” campaign addressed the situation head on, showing how the PACE program resolves a critical emotional problem for the elderly and their children while delivering positive health outcomes. Print, broadcast, radio and transit got the message out quickly and effectively and had a particularly favorable impact on employee morale.

Agency: Gravity Media; research, campaign direction: Neil Gluckin, VP Marketing

Situation: Between 1985 and 1990, during an explosion of M&A activity that left few industries untouched, International Paper acquired more than 24 companies, almost all of them leaders in their narrow industry niches.

Challenge: From a corporate identity point of view, the result was pandemonium: IP’s organization chart was 18 landscape pages of Hammermill Paper (an acquisition) wide and only one page deep. Neither employees nor customers nor investors could understand the company as management wanted it to be seen – that is, as a “house” of premium brands.

Response: Because the acquired names all had significant value, the challenge was to create an architecture that defined the right relationship between the parent company, its premium offspring, buyers, investors and employees.

Result: With strong support from the CEO,  I identified the problem, retained a skilled consultant and developed the program.

Design: Ben Larrabee Associates; Strategy, research and project management: Neil Gluckin, Director of Marketing Communication

Situation: The 1980s witnessed unprecedented growth of entrepreneurial wealth in the U.S.

Challenge: J.P. Morgan had a reputation of being a bank for inherited wealth rather than for “smart money.”

Response: An iconoclastic ad campaign focused on the anxiety that the newly-rich often feel, rather than on the more traditional mink coat and bone china iconography of private banking. Each ad listed an actual banker and her or his real phone number (no 800 numbers at Morgan!) and used headlines that featured eye-popping (but realistic) dollar amounts.

Result: The campaign attracted a significant number of calls – and new clients. After referrals from existing clients, the program ranked second in generating new business.

Agency: Doyle Graf Mabley; Research, agency brief and campaign development, Neil Gluckin, Account Director

Situation: With inflation at record high levels in the early 1980s – 13.5% vs. 1% or so today – corporations were desperate to make maximum use of all their idle cash.

Challenge: Citibank was the only major commercial bank that hadn’t rolled out an electronic cash management system for its corporate clients. As it went to market, it needed breakthrough communication to help close the gap.

Response: Citibank launched a bold, futuristic campaign called The Citi of Tomorrow that made it look like the visionary and everyone else look old-fashioned.

Result: The campaign propelled Citibank to the #1 position for awareness and favorability – and market share -- in the corporate cash management arena in just 13 months.

Agency: Foote, Cone & Belding; Research, agency brief and campaign development, Neil Gluckin, VP and Communication Director, Citibank Electronic Banking and Cash Management Division

Situation: During my stint as a staff writer on TIME’s masthead, I wrote stories for many sections of the magazine including Nation, Press, Sport and People. A particularly tricky assignment was an article about Playboy Enterprises for the Economy and Business section of the August 4, 1975 edition. 

Challenge: I began writing the piece on Tuesday for a one-column space. It might have been a slow news week or it might have been that the editors liked the idea of putting Playboy Bunny pictures in the story: either way, by Thursday night the article had grown to four times its original assigned length.

Response: At 2 a.m. Friday morning I rolled up my latest rewrite (composed on a manual typewriter, of course) and took it to the pneumatic tube station. That was the technology we used to send text
to the copy desk one floor below in the days before e-mail. Punch drunk after many versions, I inserted my story unto the vacuum tube without first putting it in a canister. Within seconds, my hard-hitting journalism was confetti.

Result: I had learned from an article about John Le Carre, whom I idolized, that he wrote all his books longhand. I decided to adopt the practice, and it was a good thing I did. I was able to retrieve all the pages I’d tossed into my 30-gallon wastepaper basket. By sun up, I had pieced the story back together and sent it on to posterity -- in a canister.