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Alaska Communications: Shifting a Community Relations Program to Match Changing Business Goals

Alaska Communications customers knew little about the company's philanthropic impact throughout the state. To remedy this, Allison+Partners helped the company develop a partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs in Alaska to launch a signature community relations program, called "Alaska Communications Summer of Heroes." The program promotes support for youth programs by recognizing five outstanding young heroes making in a difference in their communities and awarding them with college scholarships. It also includes a cause-related sales program to raise funds for Boys & Girls Clubs.

After several years of successfully shifting consumer perceptions with the program, Alaska Communications announced that it was selling its wireless business to increase its focus on business services. This major shift in business focus had significant ramifications for the Summer of Heroes program. As the company's goals shifted, our goals and audiences needed to shift accordingly from consumer to business.

To position Alaska Communications as company that is part of the local business community, we sought to use Net Promoter Scores to measure the impact among business customers, while helping them secure 600 new internet contracts during the time period. To do this, we created a campaign that balanced media relations and community events with verticals that were important to Alaska Communications.

As a result, we exceeded sales benchmarks by 300 percent, increased program nominations by 60 percent and, most importantly, raised the Net Promoter Score among enterprise business customers.