Company: DEY. Ideas + Influence, Brooklyn, NY
Company Description: DEY. is an ideas and influence firm founded to address global and social issues that challenge humanity. Our firm is not a traditional PR agency; we focus on proactive work centered around big ideas that need visibility to provoke positive change. We blend influence, strategy, and communications to help clients impact policy, stimulate debate, and create meaningful change.
Nomination Category: Communications & Marketing Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Media Relations
 Nomination Title: Tackling the Threat of Extreme Heat | DEY. Ideas + Influence
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated campaign or program - its genesis,development, planning, commission, and performance to date - OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions, provide them in the appropriate spaces below:
- Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
Spring 2022
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 163 words used.
The attached materials vividly bring to life the story of our campaign's achievements, offering a visual display of our key milestones and media placements. Through carefully curated examples, you’ll see how our strategic efforts led to significant coverage and influence, positioning Arsht-Rock at the forefront of climate resilience discussions.
In addition to these visual highlights, we’ve included a heartfelt testimonial from our client, Kathy Baughman McLeod, which underscores the profound impact our campaign had on elevating Arsht-Rock’s mission. Her words offer a powerful endorsement of how our work not only shaped global conversations on extreme heat but also drove real policy changes that have the potential to save lives.
We've also highlighted the DEY. client team behind this success, showcasing the expertise and dedication that fueled our campaign’s outcomes. From strategic planning to media engagement, this team played a crucial role in ensuring every aspect of our campaign was executed with precision and creativity, leading to the remarkable results documented in this nomination.
- Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 245 words used.
When DEY. embarked on developing the Arsht-Rock campaign, we knew that understanding the current climate landscape was key. Our team rolled up our sleeves and immersed ourselves in extensive research, devouring climate news, scanning recent studies, and meticulously analyzing the media landscape. But we didn’t stop there. We knew that to make a real impact, we had to hear directly from those who shape the narrative—the climate journalists themselves.
We picked up the phone and had direct conversations with our contacts, probing them for insights on what stories were resonating and which ones were falling flat. To go even deeper, we arranged background conversations between these journalists and Kathy Baughman McLeod, Arsht-Rock’s CEO. These dialogues weren’t just surface-level chats; they were strategic explorations of ideas, testing the waters to see what would resonate in a crowded media environment.
As we honed in on extreme heat, it became clear that this was the issue with the potential to break through. Marrying our external findings with internal insights from Arsht-Rock’s team, we set the stage for a focused and powerful campaign. But we knew that to truly make an impact, we needed to start with a strong foundation—a cornerstone piece that would anchor the entire effort.
We poured our efforts into crafting an op-ed by Kathy, researching and drafting it until it was perfect. The result was a powerful piece that appeared in Foreign Affairs in May 2022, serving as Kathy’s calling card and the campaign’s launchpad.
- Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 231 words used.
DEY. partnered with The Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock), a newly established global think tank with an ambitious mission: to help communities around the world adapt to the growing threats of climate change. Arsht-Rock aimed to reach 1 billion people by 2030, and our role was to amplify their mission on a global scale.
The challenge was clear but daunting. Arsht-Rock was in its infancy, and while climate change was widely recognized as urgent, the concepts of "climate adaptation" and "resilience" were too broad to gain the attention needed. We quickly realized that to meet their goal, Arsht-Rock needed a more specific platform—one that would cut through the noise and resonate with both the public and policymakers. External visibility was critical if Arsht-Rock was to establish itself as a leading voice in this space.
Through rigorous research and engagement with climate experts, one alarming fact stood out: extreme heat was the deadliest and most overlooked climate disaster, claiming more lives each year than any other climate-related event. Note, this was well before the brutal summer of 2023 when extreme heat came to the forefront. Recognizing the potential of this stark reality to capture attention, we honed in on extreme heat as the central focus of our campaign. By making extreme heat resilience the cornerstone of Arsht-Rock's platform, we positioned them as the leading authority on this pressing issue.
- Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of July 2022. Even if your initiative started before July 2022, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of July 2022 only (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
With extreme heat as its north star, Arsht-Rock launched the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance — a global coalition to tackle the threat of extreme urban heat for vulnerable people worldwide. In parallel, we advised Arsht-Rock on generating landmark research to illuminate the economic and social ramifications, resulting in three groundbreaking studies that garnered significant media coverage. Furthermore, we advanced the movement to appoint Chief Heat Officers (CHOs) globally, a concept that gained traction from a simple text message from DEY. to Fast Company’s senior leadership, resulting in an extensive photo feature spotlighting Arsht-Rock as the pioneer behind the concept.
Leveraging these strategic milestones, DEY. crafted an influence-building program combining media relations, thought leadership, and event coordination. Our approach prioritized high-touch engagement, capitalizing on every opportunity to forge meaningful connections. By engaging journalists and influencers through channels—desksides, book parties, media dinners—we ensured Arsht-Rock's voice was heard loud and clear.
The result was almost daily media coverage by outlets like The New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME, and leading climate podcasts such as Climate One and The Climate Pod. Other achievements included a Financial Times exclusive on the CHO initiative, FT ‘Big Read’ feature on urban cooling, articles in CBS News and MarketWatch, and regular appearances on MSNBC’s The Sunday Show and NPR’s All Things Considered. Arsht-Rock’s influence extended into policy with initiatives like the Extreme Heat Micro-Insurance, which gained traction through stories in Fast Company featuring Arsht-Rock alongside Secretary Hillary Clinton, and extensive coverage by Grist, Semafor, Bloomberg, and Reuters.
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