My first document

A Message from Westbound

Thank you for inviting Westbound Communications to provide a proposal for public relations services for Irvine Company Office Properties (ICOP). As you evaluate our team and our proposal, we hope three things are clear: Westbound has decades of experience working on Irvine Company projects, our team has deep commercial real estate experience, and Westbound’s core competence is media relations, especially for leading corporations like Irvine Company. We’ve prepared a video highlight reel to show you some of our work.

We look forward to the opportunity to meet with you and discuss the ideas in our proposal together.

Why Westbound

OUR TEAM – We offer Irvine Company Office Properties senior-level talent. Your team leader, Linda Martin, leads Westbound’s team that works with Irvine Company Retail Properties and Irvine Company Corporate Communications. Senior Vice President Daniel Rhodes brings 25 years of experience, including four years working to support ICOP’s marketing team. In addition, two other ICOP team members currently work on the ICRP team, giving them a strong foundation of understanding about how to work successfully with Irvine Company.

OUR LOCAL EXPERTISE – Our team members have deep expertise working within the Orange County community and with key local members of the media at Orange County Business Journal, Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times/Daily Pilot, Spectrum News, and more.

OUR MEDIA RELATIONS EXPERTISE – Your Westbound team currently works on thought leadership and media relations programs for Experian and Mitsubishi Electric, both of which are leading brands like the Irvine Company. We bring a depth of experience working with trade media, national media, broadcast, podcasts, online outlets, and local business reporters to ICOP.

OUR SHARED VALUES – The values of our organization mirror those of Irvine Company Office Properties: Exceptional, People Centric, Innovative, Collaborative. We push for exceptional results, and we believe the best outcomes are achieved through partnership and collaboration with our clients. We are passionate about creating a superior product and creating an elevated client experience for the companies with which we partner.

Westbound Team Statistics

20+ years of Commercial Real Estate Experience

17+ years of combined experience working with Irvine Company

3 Best of Show Awards

from PRSA chapters; 2 Best of the West Awards from PRSA Western District; 2 Silver Anvils; 50+ awards

Project Understanding

Irvine Company Office Properties (ICOP) is the largest owner of office space in California, operating 54 million square feet of premier workplaces in four of the state’s largest markets — Orange County, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and San Diego – plus Chicago and New York.

Recent industry trends, such as the need for amenities-rich workplaces to lure workers back to the office, the desire by tenants for onsite communal green spaces that help fulfill ESG goals, the need for flexible workspaces, and the instability around commercial property pricing all present opportunities for ICOP to reinforce its market-leading position and differentiated value propositions through earned media.

Specifically, those value propositions involve financial stability that weathers economic headwinds and ensures an optimal tenant experience; a deep portfolio of scalable properties that offer a rich and diverse range of amenities, green spaces, and other products and services; and demonstrable examples of how an ICOP workplace drove a customer’s business success.

Westbound will bring to bear our extensive background in commercial real estate, especially office, and the local, regional, national, and trade media that cover the space to evangelize ICOP’s value propositions, highlight its customers to help attract and retain tenants, and position designated subject matter experts (SMEs) as expert resources and thought leaders.

Competitive Landscape

Westbound performed a competitive audit of earned media placements for ICOP and three key competitors (CBRE, Hines, and Kilroy Realty) over a one-year period from April 1, 2022 through April 1, 2023. These placements span all types of media (broadcast, online, print) in the U.S.

Reflected in the graph below, CBRE and Hines saw a higher number of placements, largely due to their national footprint and volume of transactional news.

IRVINE COMPANY OFFICE PROPERTIES

Looking more deeply at the coverage results and specifically at Kilroy Realty, a regional West Coast office owner, ICOP’s share of voice becomes a lot more competitive, especially in light of the fact that a large percentage of Kilroy Realty’s media results came from a single, non-repeatable story involving the retirement of the firm’s CEO John Kilroy, Jr. at the end of 2023. Here is a sample story.

Westbound sees a great opportunity to position ICOP as the market leader in share of voice for California and the Western U.S., and – with thought-leadership media campaigns in New York and Chicago – a national player in the office sector.

Media Landscape

MEDIA AUDIT FINDINGS BY TOPIC

Business Resources - 4%

Customer Success - 8%

Future of Work - 9%

Wellness/Sustainability - 4%

Leasing/Financial/Development - 75%

Our landscape and competitive media audit showed the vast majority of stories are transactional and financial in nature. This provides opportunities for ICOP to own thought leadership in areas like future of work, workplace wellness, and sustainability.

BUILDING AND EXTENDING MEDIA RELATIONSHIPS IN TARGET MARKETS

Westbound possesses deep, long-standing relationships with local Southern California print and broadcast media that will enable us to proactively secure media opportunities or work to mitigate unwanted coverage. Our relationships extend into commercial real estate, construction, and property management trades, in addition to outlets that target ESG initiatives.

For New York, Chicago or any other new markets into which ICOP goes, Westbound has a proven track record of identifying the proper local and regional media outlets and associated reporters to properly position our designated spokespersons. For example, your core team members conducted thought-leadership programs for three Kelly Services’ executives that spanned every major market in the Mountain and Pacific time zones (Los Angeles and Orange County, San Diego, Bay Area, Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, and more). This effort involved media research and outreach, interfacing with local economic development corporations and corporate customers for third-party endorsements, and market-specific content generation of pitched stories, contributed articles, social media content, and more.

In addition, Westbound regularly performs targeted media outreach for events, frequently securing media briefings and corresponding coverage at trade shows such as BOMA International Conference & Expo, ICSC, NAIOP and Urban Land Institute events, and more.

AUDITING THE MEDIA: OPPORTUNITIES FOR ICOP TO OWN TOPICS

Looking at the media landscape for ICOP offers two extremely valuable perspectives into which outlets and reporters are covering news in the office sector, as well as which topics are driving coverage. Westbound performed a preliminary audit of the media coverage on topics that are highly relevant to ICOP, including business resources, customer success, future of work, workplace wellness, sustainability, and corporate news.

Besides gaining intelligence on outlets and reporters, the primary goal of the exercise is to map white spaces of differentiation that ICOP can own in the media.

Here are key observations from evaluating hundreds of pieces of earned and owned media from the last 12 months from ICOP and three key competitors (CBRE, Hines, and Kilroy Realty):

Hands down, ICOP leads the other three players in its promotion of customer success stories; ICOP featured 17 stories during the past year, with CBRE featuring 2 customer successes, Kilroy 1 and Hines 0.

Only ICOP offered any content on business resources such as a hybrid workweek toolkit; local and state programs, small business grants, and loans to help the effects of the pandemic; and tips for workplace design.

ICOP addressed the Future of Work with 17 pieces of content, including a New York Times article on why office buildings are in trouble. CBRE and Hines had three such articles, and Kilroy had 1.

None of the competitors have secured coverage or produced dedicated pieces on workplace wellness, representing a huge opportunity for ICOP.

Only ICOP and CBRE (3 articles each) have discussed sustainability, also offering an opportunity for ICOP to claim a leadership position.

The vast majority of coverage and news from CBRE, Hines, and Kilroy Realty is transactional and earnings announcements.

With a dedicated thought-leadership program, Westbound sees a tremendous opportunity to position ICOP and its designated spokespersons as expert resources to the media on the topics of important business resources to attract and retain workers, how the right office space drives customer business success, workplace wellness for customers and their workers, sustainability in the office, and other trending topics (effects of technology in the workplace, how to scale a business from flex-space to larger workplaces, and more).

Our Strategy and Approach

Westbound’s approach to the media relations program for ICOP would be a DUAL TRACK Strategy, employing thought leadership and news bureau programs. It works as follows:

/ THOUGHT LEADERSHIP TRACK /

As our media landscape audit and competitive analysis show, there are clear areas where ICOP has a story to tell and topics you can own. These include:

o Customer success stories

o Financial stability of a long-term property owner – not subject to the strains of economic issues

o Flex + as an innovative offering that reflects today’s businesses looking for new ways to work

o Workplace Wellness and the impressive success of Spectrum Terrace and its features

o Leadership in sustainability

o The future of work

Our Thought Leadership Track will explore these trends and topics to determine experts within the company who can serve as our thought leaders. Understanding their POV on these topics will help us identify reporters and media outlets that we could proactively pitch on these topics or trend stories.

By establishing relationships with trade and business reporters, Westbound is able to reach out and offer story ideas that get traction.

Another key element of the Thought Leadership Track will be data. ICOP has the capability to survey its own tenants or other business leaders, as we saw with the recent back-to-work survey. Original data is very attractive to reporters.

Additionally, ICOP has a deep bench of existing tenants who are willing to tell their story. This is an invaluable asset when working with the media. Featuring the voices of your tenants adds credibility to the story ICOP is telling.

/ NEWS BUREAU TRACK /

It may sound old school, but it’s not. Westbound’s news bureau approach includes using the latest Artificial Intelligence tools to find outlets and reporters interested in your stories. Building a news bureau the Westbound Way begins with identifying top-priority media outlets, topics and subject matter experts. The goal of the news bureau is to create a steady stream of coverage that contains our key messages and differentiators.

Next, we build a robust 12-month editorial opportunity calendar based on a full media audit of trending topics in the industry, key dates like NAIOP and BOMA conferences, news hooks like ‘national small business week’ in May (Flex+ pitch), editorial themes identified by trade publications, and competitor coverage audits.

Finally, we monitor media coverage daily to identify any opportunities to capitalize on news of the day. Westbound’s rapid response media approach enables us to insert our spokespeople into stories as they are being written.

Using this Dual Track Strategy, Westbound will begin by creating a 12-month plan for ICOP. The following is a plan outline for ICOP to illustrate our process. Any final plan will be developed in collaboration with the ICOP marketing and communications team as well as executive leadership.

Planning for Success

Westbound will work with the ICOP marketing team to create a public relations plan that supports your annual marketing plan. The following is an outline of a plan that would bring to life our DUAL TRACK

STRATEGIC APPROACH.

GOAL

Position Irvine Company Office Properties as the go-to expert source for media covering commercial office development and leasing.

OBJECTIVES

o Increase share of voice compared to competitors

o Increase number of media stories about ICOP

o Obtain 75% message pull through

o Obtain 80% positive tonality

o Increase usage of ICOP assets (spokespeople, photos, statistics)

RESEARCH

Westbound has completed a preliminary media audit of your competitors – CBRE, Kilroy and Hines – as part of this proposal. In addition, our research has included a review of industry stories and reports to determine top trends currently being covered.

Westbound would recommend proprietary research by ICOP to create data that would be a part of the Thought Leadership Track. As examples, possible topics may include: conducting tenant research into top amenities that workers desire in coming back to work; determining the right amount of square feet for your office space, based on different drivers; or leasing trends by industry sector.

MESSAGING

ICOP and the Westbound team will work together to identify the most compelling messages for our media outreach program. From Westbound’s initial audits of your competitors and the past 12 months of media coverage, we have a solid understanding of messages being used effectively elsewhere. A key output to align all of our external communications and spokesperson talking points is a message framework.

5%

Retention rate when people hear a statistic

25%

Retention rate when a statistic is paired with a picture

65%

Retention rate when stories are used to convey the same information

Source: London School of Business

A STRONG MESSAGE FRAMEWORK:

o Creates “umbrella” system for messaging narratives for use with the media

o Provides uniform storytelling platform organized for ease of delivery, comprehension

o Assures consistency and continuity in delivering ICOP and thought leadership messages

o Establishes foundation for “message playback” tracking and measurement of secured publicity

o Serves as an adaptable, flexible structure that can be adjusted as messages evolve, are refined and/or shift

DESCRIPTION

Statement of the main purpose and competitive distinction from an editorial point of view.

EDITORIAL POSITIONING

The main, overarching message that is to be consistently conveyed.

CORE MESSAGE NARRATIVE

The three to five overall message narratives to be conveyed, typically with a focus on one per communication/story.

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

The concrete examples that support core messages and align with editorial viability.

Tactics

EDITORIAL OPPORTUNITIES CALENDAR

Below is a sample editorial opportunities calendar for Q3 2023. Westbound uses this tool to support both the thought leadership and news bureau activities to plan ahead for feature-style opportunities, as well as to place our executives into planned stories as expert spokespeople.

Bisnow Silicon Valley

Building Design & Construction

ConnectCRE

July 2023

July 2023

July 2023

Mid-year office outlook

Trending: outdoor workspaces

Expert Q&A: trends in office leasing, including green spaces

Western Real Estate Business

Silicon Valley Business Journal

August 2023

August 8

Technology in commercial real estate

Structures: Commercial Real Estate Quarterly Report

Orange County Business Journal

Commercial Property Executive

Buildings Podcast

August 14

September 2023

September 2023

Commercial Real Estate Update

Investment

The future of work: how leading office players are adopting a flex+ mentality

Globest.com

September 2023

The role that wellness amenities play in office leasing strategies

HAROS AND QWOTED:

Westbound monitors these two reporter-based resources daily, and we set up alerts for reporters who want to speak to our experts. Once we have ‘helped a reporter out,’ we convert that interaction into an ongoing relationship to continue to work with that reporter. As we know, freelance journalists are now more prevalent than ever, and many work for multiple outlets. Westbound manages its own proprietary database of freelance reporters to support our clients’ stories.

Two examples of editorial opportunities from Qwoted.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:

As industry leaders, we anticipate your executives will attend conferences and regularly make presentations to industry groups. We will capitalize on these engagements and repurpose the content as a bylined article or Q&A for trade outlets.

TRADE SHOW DESKSIDES:

When ICOP executives attend trade shows, Westbound can work in advance to set up 1:1 meetings during the show with media in attendance.

RESEARCH FOR INK:

As we mentioned in our approach section, proprietary research on industry trends is always of interest to reporters. We’d plan to do research quarterly to create a steady stream of data to offer to reporters based on current industry trends.

PRESS RELEASES:

Announcing signature new tenants or the opening of the latest phase of Innovation Office Park are times when press releases are the right tool to share important news broadly. Using Business Wire to distribute the most important news updates is an excellent way to also enhance your online presence and SEO results.

MULTI-MEDIA FOR ONLINE EDITIONS:

Online versions of key media outlets often include special multi-media features for storytelling opportunities. Creating video assets for our key stories is an excellent way to be a part of these multi-media features.

MEASUREMENT

As part of ICOP’s public relations plan, we will set measurable objectives, and every month, we will provide you with a dashboard that tracks progress against these objectives. This monthly tracking enables us to see progress, and quickly adjust our tactics should we need to. We will review this dashboard together every month and discuss how our program is working.

This is a sample of the dashboard we created to track social media, LinkedIn and earned media for ICRP.

Timeline and Budget

Budget

Your annual public relations budget is $300,000, and we can structure our engagement in whatever way you prefer. We can work on a monthly retainer, or on an hourly basis against our annual budget. We report our activities monthly to you, and we always include a budget tracker to show you progress against the annual budget. Our annual plan will include a detailed budget by task that we will collectively agree to before work begins. Our goal is to be fully transparent on our progress and our expenditures at all times so you are fully aware of the work we are doing and results we are achieving for ICOP.

Your Team

LINDA MARTIN, APR Team Leader

As partner and general manager, Linda manages clients and teams to help them achieve their business objectives and communications goals. Linda first worked as a consultant to the Irvine Company in the 1990s, when she supported the dedication of 50,000 acres of open space, as well as entitlement efforts for Turtle Ridge. Since 2020, Linda has led the Westbound team supporting Irvine Company Retail Properties. She also works with the Corporate Communications team on various messaging and writing assignments, most recently supporting the launch of the Irvine Community Connections website. Before joining Westbound in 2019, Linda spent 18 years at Porter Novelli. While there, Linda led global public relations for Almond Board of California, a role that took her to more than a dozen countries, including China and India. Linda is a proud graduate of California State University, Fullerton and a native of Orange County. She served for 10 years on the board of the Orange County Business Council, including as chairman in 2015.

DANIEL RHODES Project Manager

Daniel brings more than 25 years of branding, marketing, public relations and communications experience. Prior to joining Westbound in 2016, Daniel managed marketing services programs for Irvine Company Office Properties while at another agency. This experience brings a depth of understanding of commercial real estate to the Westbound team, as well as an understanding of Irvine Company’s ways of working. At Westbound, Daniel’s B2B and B2C client work spans the following industries: commercial real estate, healthcare, technology, professional services (law, staffing), and transportation. Recent industry experience includes banking and finance, food service, homebuilding, and education. Daniel received his Master of Professional Writing from University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California, and his Bachelor of Arts in Communications from American University in Washington, D.C. (his hometown).

ROBERT CHEVEZ Media Relations Specialist

Robert is a Vice President with Westbound Communications who brings more than two decades of experience in developing media relations, public relations, branding and marketing campaigns for a wide range of clients from Fortune 500 to public agencies. Leading Westbound’s public affairs and multicultural practices, Robert works with clients in economic development, entitlement, land use planning, transportation, energy, and government. He has experience working on projects and for clients that include commercial, mixed-use, industrial and residential real estate components. A highlight of Robert’s career was the 2022 launch of The Cheech, a Chicano heritage art museum in Riverside, which garnered hundreds of media placements from national morning network news shows to leading Spanish-language print and broadcast media. Robert has a B.A. in Journalism with an Emphasis in Public Relations and a Minor in Marketing from California State University, Long Beach. After college, Robert lived and worked in Orange County for more than a decade and currently serves clients in Orange County. He is the current treasurer for the Orange County Chapter of the Hispanic Public Relations Association. Robert is bilingual in Spanish and bicultural.

JESSICA NEUMAN Media Relations Manager

Jessica leverages almost 20 years of local, regional, and national media experience to develop and execute media relations strategies for organizations in industries ranging from commercial real estate and retail to business-to-business, consumer products, higher education, government, technology, and more. She has more than a decade of experience managing public relations, media relations and communications programs for companies in the commercial real estate industry including Bixby Land Company, Watson Land Company, CBRE, KBS, Hager Pacific Properties and more. Jessica is also part of the Irvine Company Retail Properties team and leads the PR and communications efforts for the 38 Neighborhood and Community Centers across the ranch. Other business-to-business clients she serves includes Mitsubishi Electric and Experian. She is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz and holds a B.A. in literature and journalism.

ALLIE BROWN Media Relations Specialist

Allie specializes in media relations, social media management, content creation, copywriting, and digital advertising. She is a valued member of the Irvine Company Retail Properties and the Irvine Company Corporate Communications account teams. Allie manages ICRP’s LinkedIn content, she handles media relations for the three regional centers, she oversees measurement for ICRP’s program, and she writes for the Irvine Community Connection website – all of which give her a strong understanding of the Irvine Company. She holds a B.A. in public relations with an emphasis in strategic communications and planning from California Baptist University. Her media relations experience spans multiple industries, including retail, nonprofit, education, and more. Allie’s work with Irvine Company Retail Properties has fueled her passion for building and maintaining brand reputation and community engagement.

Related Experience

IRVINE COMPANY RETAIL PROPERTIES MARKETING SUPPORT, MEDIA RELATIONS, LINKEDIN

Westbound was hired by Irvine Company Retail Properties in March 2020, just as the pandemic shut down all restaurants and retail stores in the state. Throughout the pandemic, we helped ICRP develop messaging to address the concerns of tenants, the community and the media. Additionally, once our properties were re-opened, Westbound became an integral part of the team working to promote the safety and ‘open air’ features of Irvine Company’s retail destinations. Besides messaging and crisis work, Westbound’s day-to-day work for ICRP involves supporting the Marketing team and the directors at the three regional centers to develop story ideas and support promotions that bring people to the centers. For example, we annually support Style Week at Fashion Island, holiday festivities and tree lightings, spring fashion campaigns and summer activations at all the properties. We actively pitch stories to the media featuring our tenants as our spokespeople. Additionally, the Westbound team supports the Corporate Communications team writing content for the Irvine Community Connection website and newsletter, as well as support with some entitlement work.

Irvine Spectrum Center Media Coverage Q3 2022/2023

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, MEDIA RELATIONS

Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc., is a US affiliate company of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and manufactures cooling and heating products, elevators and escalators, space and sensing systems, and semiconductor devices.

Westbound was engaged to share a thought leadership story about how Mike Corbo, president and CO of Mitsubishi Electric U.S., headquartered in Cypress, is working with local Orange County businesses to usher in the society of tomorrow with the Orange County Business Journal. Our challenge with this contributed Leader Board article was to promote the different, meaningful ways that Mitsubishi Electric’s products and services impact its B2B clients’ business and ultimately peoples’ lives, and fulfill the larger, decades-long corporate vision of enabling global smart societies.

The Mitsubishi Electric Orange County Business Journal Leader Board article ran in the October 10, 2022 edition of the publication.

EXPERIAN THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, MEDIA RELATIONS

Experian is the world’s leading global information services company – it helps individuals take financial control and access financial services, businesses make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders lend more responsibly, and organizations prevent identity fraud and crime.

Westbound generates ongoing media coverage by leveraging trending news topics, original research and Experian executives’ expertise and more with national general market, banking, finance and technology media. This thought leadership campaign has reached an audience of more than 9.7 million.

Through Westbound’s efforts, Experian’s executives have been featured in outlets ranging from Bloomberg News to Credit Union Today, along with Yahoo! Finance and Insurance Thought Leadership

Experian 2023 End of Year Report

References

CHRISTINE DUVALL

SENIOR DIRECTOR, ICRP MARKETING

IRVINE COMPANY RETAIL PROPERTIES

110 Innovation Drive, Irvine, CA 92617

t: 949.720.3113

e: cduvall@irvinecompany.com

CHRISTINA LIMSON O’CONNELL

SR. MANAGER, CORP. COMMUNICATIONS

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC US, INC.

AMERICAS CORPORATE OFFICE

5900-A Katella Avenue, Cypress, CA 90630

o: 714.236.6135 | m: 714.713.0145

e: christina.oconnell@meus.com

GERRY TSCHOPP SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

GLOBAL HEAD OF EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, NORTH AMERICA

475 Anton Boulevard, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

t: 714.830.7756 | m: 949.677.3377

e: gerry.tschopp@experian.com