Strategic Communications & Marketing
Libi Sprow Rice led organization-wide communications, marketing and brand strategy for more than a decade as Vice President and Chief Communications & Marketing Officer of The Executive Leadership Council, after leadership roles at Discovery Communications and CEB and earlier work in public relations, business development and experiential marketing.
We help organizations translate their mission, priorities and impact into communications that audiences understand and remember, and we build the strategy first, so the activity has a purpose.
Assess first, then build
A communications and marketing assessment is usually where we begin: what you are saying today, to whom, through which channels, and whether any of it connects to the objectives that matter to your board, your funders or your members. Most organizations are busier than they are strategic, and the assessment shows where the effort is going.
From there we build the plan. Message architecture gives every spokesperson and every channel the same spine. Audience identification decides who you are actually talking to and what each group needs to hear. Organizational positioning settles what you want to be known for. A communications calendar and integrated communications campaigns put it on a schedule, and measurement and evaluation tell you what moved so the next quarter is better than the last.
What we do not do is generate communications activity for its own sake. Our work focuses on practical communications strategies aligned with an organization’s broader objectives. If a newsletter is not advancing anything, we will tell you to stop sending it.
The communications work we take on
- Communications and marketing assessments
- Strategic communications planning
- Marketing strategy
- Message architecture
- Audience identification
- Organizational positioning
- Communications calendars
- Public engagement strategy
- Integrated communications campaigns
- Communications measurement and evaluation
- Crisis, sensitive-issue and change communications
- Communications team and workflow improvement
A senior communications leader, without the full-time hire
Many nonprofits, associations and growing organizations need senior communications and marketing judgment more than they need another coordinator. Libi Sprow Rice, who led communications and marketing at The Executive Leadership Council for 12 years, serves clients as a fractional or interim head of communications and marketing.
Lead the function
Set the strategy, run the calendar, manage the agencies and vendors, and give the executive team a communications voice at the table.
Build the team
Improve how the communications team and its workflow operate, hire or develop the next leader, and hand off a function that runs.
Handle the hard moments
Crisis, sensitive-issue and change communications when the organization cannot afford to learn on the job.
Communications connects to everything else we do
Brand Positioning & Organizational Storytelling
The narrative underneath the plan: mission, value proposition, impact and the story people repeat.
Learn more →Executive Communications & Thought Leadership
The leader’s own voice: speeches, op-eds, presentations and visibility strategy.
Learn more →Signature Events & Thought-Leadership Programs
Summits, forums and roundtables that give a communications strategy a stage.
Learn more →Tell us what your communications need to accomplish
Who you need to reach, what you need them to do, and what is in place today. An assessment is often the first step, and it is a quick one.