Company: Digital Risk, Orlando, FL, USA
Company Description:Touching over 40,000 files each and every month, Digital Risk is the largest independent provider of Quality Control, Due Diligence, Valuations, and Fulfillment Services for the complex and dynamic financial services market.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Employee of the Year – Business

Nomination Title: Bridget Brennan, Supervisor, Employer Branding

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated employee since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words):

This past year has been a whirlwind for Digital Risk’s Supervisor of Employer Branding Bridget Brennan. The company was experiencing a shift of focus from forensic mortgage loan review to mortgage loan originations, which called for a significant branding overhaul. Additionally, with the housing sector’s slower than expected recovery, competition for market share was fierce. Thus, in order to overcome these challenges and establish itself as the industry leader for mortgage-related services, Digital Risk needed to begin a thought leadership campaign.

Prior to Q2 2014, Digital Risk outsourced all of its PR, most of which was spent securing broadcast interviews and quotes in top U.S. daily newspapers. The company also relied heavily on advertising and sponsored content. Bridget endeavored to raise awareness of the company, its leadership and its solution set as industry forerunners, while also bringing some PR activities in-house and decreasing advertising costs.

The Action: By partnering with the company’s leadership, business intelligence teams and business unit leaders, Bridget effectively utilized the company’s pre-existing thought leadership expertise and deep industry insight to share Digital Risk’s brand, “Making Mortgages Safe.” She accomplished this through creating compelling articles, blog posts and talking points for print and broadcast interviews. She also built strong relationships with industry media outlets, which aided in securing free published coverage and mutually beneficial partnerships. To build credibility as an industry player, Bridget also pursued awards for the company and company leaders. In order to promote these activities, Bridget developed blog posts and social media posts for the company’s Corporate and Careers Blogs, as well as the company’s social media pages.
As a result of these efforts, Digital Risk thought leaders were quoted in or authored over 40 articles, participated in over 23 broadcast interviews, won over 14 awards, and held two symposiums with total combined attendance of over 150 participants. Bridget performed ghost writing of 18 of these articles, nomination creation for all 14 awards, and crafting of 12 press releases promoting company leadership or solutions. To put that into perspective, this is an increase of over 153% in print coverage, over 228% in broadcast coverage, and over 1,300% in awards and recognitions. Further, one of the two symposiums that were held this past year was a direct result of a relationship Bridget built with a media outlet. Promotion of the event, which included Digital Risk’s logo, was sent out to SourceMedia’s readership of over 40k. This was all free. Additionally, the company was able to cut its advertising cost by almost 50%.

While these numbers may seem somewhat impressive, the level of the secured coverage is the real success. For instance, many of the by-lined and quoted articles were published in The MReport (21k readership) and HousingWire (48k readership). In fact, most articles not published in mortgage trades were featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or USATODAY.

The most impressive result is Digital Risk’s financial performance due in part to these initiatives. As all PR professionals are well aware, there is no immediate payoff with PR campaigns. That said, one irrefutable indicator of the success of this program is that Digital Risk secured new business with

Provide a brief biography of the nominated employee (up to 125 words):

Bridget Brennan is the Supervisor, Employer Branding at Digital Risk. She is responsible for the company’s internal and external employer branding communications, as well as the company’s external branding and public relations efforts. Additionally, Bridget has direct oversight over company engagement programs, including D-Risker Spotlights Program and the Digital Risk Alumni Network.

Prior to joining Digital Risk, Bridget held marketing and public relations roles at global companies, including Kaplan Test Prep and MSLGROUP. She has over seven years’ public relations and marketing experience in the mortgage and higher education fields.

Bridget currently serves as the Director of Social Media for the Greater Orlando Society for Human Resource Management (GOSHRM). She graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations.