Situation:
Sheshunoff & Co. Investment Banking is a leader in community bank merger and acquisition transactions and valuation services. The Austin-based company has acted as financial advisor in more than 200 transactions over the past 15 years. While the group has a 30-year record of advising financial institutions nationwide, it has a low profile among reporters and potential customers.

Challenge:
In September of 2008, most U.S. citizens were just beginning to recognize the severity of the country’s impending financial crisis. With different banks failing every other day, people were getting nervous about the safety of their savings. At that time, Sheshunoff was preparing to release the Texas Asset Quality Review for the second quarter of 2008.

Our Solution:
Diverge identified the newsworthiness of the report, which showed that Texas banks were performing better than the rest of the nation, and it determined that a well written news release could position Sheshunoff as an industry thought leader, generate press attention to raise Sheshunoff’s profile with the press and the public, and create local awareness and positive information about Sheshunoff.

Diverge wrote the release and consulted with Sheshunoff experts for explanations about terms and numbers. The team also cross-referenced media lists to ensure that the releases would reach key business and regional publications. Diverge worked with Sheshunoff’s in-house PR person to develop an email and phone pitch for Texas business publications. Sheshunoff handled the local business publications, while Diverge handled the larger papers within the state.

The Results:

The release, intended to raise Sheshunoff’s profile with positive news about bank failures, realized the following results:

• Every Texas Business Journal covered the announcement
• The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Austin American Statesman, San Antonio Express-News, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle and Dallas Observer covered it.
• The Wall Street Journal picked up the report the following week.
• Sheshunoff experienced a 250 percent increase in website traffic for the week.
• Investment banking site page views increased 1,083 percent.