Company: The Herald Group, Washington, DC
Company Description: The Herald Group is a public affairs, strategic communications and issue advocacy firm that specializes in leveraging and shaping public policy through the use of integrated communications campaigns to condition environments for business, legislative and political success.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Public Affairs

Nomination Title: Alliance for Fair Trade with India

Tell the story about this nominated campaign since January 1 2013 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Over the last several years, government officials and the courts in India have engaged in a persistent pattern of discrimination that has unfairly and adversely impacted a wide range of manufacturing and services industries in the U.S., ignoring globally accepted trade rules and protections of intellectual property.

In coordination with the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC), the Alliance for Fair Trade with India (AFTI) was established with the support of The Herald Group. With NAM and GIPC serving as co-chairs of the Alliance, over a dozen other major U.S. industry associations were recruited representing the major sectors of the U.S. economy. The main goal was to provide a strong, united voice representing U.S. businesses and organizations to urge the Indian government to reverse their policies and reinstate a level playing field for international trade.

Several initiatives were put in motion in conjunction with the launch and roll-out of the Alliance on June 18 in order to quickly build a strong presence and position Alliance members as credible resources on trade.

This included a global media teleconference, led by the AFTI co-chairs, resulting in significant news coverage and worldwide syndication. Additionally, briefings were arranged between key reporters and the co-chairs, leading to integral relationships with national reporters.

NAM and The Herald Group developed a communications strategy for rapid response to anticipated rebuttals from Indian and U.S. policy interests, including op-eds, letters to the editor, blog posts and Alliance statements. Integrated strategies were developed around relevant events such as Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to India, Vice President Biden’s visit to India, Prime Minister Singh’s state visit with President Obama and numerous trade focused hearings.

Simultaneously, Alliance members were actively engaged in briefings with Members of Congress and the Obama Administration. The Alliance also commissioned two high-impact print advertisement campaigns in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, and major billboard advertisements in international airports in coordination with Prime Minister Singh’s visit.

Surrounding each effort, the team pitched Alliance statements to key reporters, and targeted online influencers to further promote the campaign.

Results:

India’s discriminatory policies were addressed during Secretary Kerry and Vice President Biden’s trips to India, as well as Prime Minister Singh’s September meeting with President Obama, resulting in over 50 original articles highlighting the Alliance.

Since the launch of the Alliance, over 220 Members of Congress and governors have signed letters addressing India’s trade practices, along with numerous hearings and academic forums (USTR, Congress, Center for Strategic and International Studies, etc.).

The USTR filed a WTO case against India on behalf of the U.S. Solar industry, a prominent Alliance member.

The Alliance was instrumental in urging U.S. Representative Lee Terry (R-NE) to introduce legislation to restrict the U.S. market from countries that block American exports.

The Alliance encouraged the U.S. International Trade Commission to launch a 332 investigation into India’s trade policies.

Over 50 organizations recently joined a letter to the USTR urging that India be designated as a Priority Foreign Country.

To date, over 120 original articles have been published as a result of the Alliance’s outreach.

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this campaign:

Leaders from National Association of Manufacturers’ public affairs, communications and policy teams partnered with The Herald Group and GIPC to launch a broad-based and powerful coalition. The teams combined their various areas of expertise and were successful in communicating the message to the media, and in influencing public policy, political activities, and legislation. The Alliance has elevated the debate to international importance, and propelled dialogue among key international policymakers which remains the subject of continued media and industry interest on a global scale.

“India's response to the avalanche of criticism against its trade and economic policies…came in three slow stages…The process of awakening took a year. It was glacial progression against the slick, perpetually oiled and brutal PR machinery of the US industry.” –Economic Times