Marie Silver Keister, APR, AICP

In the midst of the cascade of emergency declarations, closings and appeals to maintain social distance, two calls to action have emerged that have resonated with #TeamME: Flatten the Curve and Take Care of Employees.

We’re all reeling, of course, as we begin to grasp what a pandemic really means. We’ve assisted clients as they’ve cancelled events large and small, from city addresses and public meetings to fundraisers and happy hours. Our public sector clients have moved to holding only “mission critical” meetings and calls while still providing the services our residents expect. We all still need highways to be safe, water to be clean and our garbage collected, to name a few examples.

While some states have delayed or even questioned the need for such preventive measures, we’ve been heartened by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s leadership in taking immediate steps to halt COVID-19 from spreading further, faster. His proactive, regular communication and his trust in our public health experts have inspired confidence and resolve, even while uncertainty about societal impact grows.

On Monday and Tuesday last week, we saw claims that cancellations and quarantines were politically inspired or an over-reaction to social media. By Thursday, March 12, we saw the visual “Flatten the Curve” message – taking extreme measures now will slow the spread so it is more manageable for our healthcare system – begin to take hold. It has helped all Ohioans understand why we must act now.

The shift from indifference to action has been needed and swift. Forthright communication, clarity in message – and the visual portrayal of how the virus could overwhelm our medical facilities have broken through the fog of war-like confusion.  These are best practices in communication that work, as we’ve advised our clients time and time again.

As we’ve come to grips with this new reality, we’re now reckoning with how all Ohioans will be affected. Who will take care of the kids while they’re home from school? Who will feed them if they were getting free meals at school? How do hourly employees still pay their bills if they are unable to work? How will those with no safety net at all be affected?

We appreciate the announcements of support for hourly employees who live paycheck to paycheck. Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love pledged $100,000 to employees who work the NBA games at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Following in Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban’s footsteps, several NBA team owners will continue to pay arena workers. Walmart is extending paid sick leave. These are the types of actions major employers can take to fill the gap; smaller employers will have to also think creatively. 

At MurphyEpson, we’re making sure our 10 employees know their jobs are safe and we will support them as they navigate having kids home from school while they also work from home. We’re used to working online and using digital tools to communicate, so this is a no brainer. We’ve also increased paid sick leave and will watch for other ways to support employee needs as they emerge.

We’re also making donations to Central Ohio organizations who support those most in need and include some of those links below.

Hopefully, this pandemic won’t be as extensive as feared because we took the needed steps in time. In the meantime, we’ll do our part to flatten the curve and take care of employees. #teamME, after all, is in our circle of loved ones too.

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Community Shelter Board at https://www.csb.org/ 

Move to Propser at https://www.movetoprosper.org/support-us

Central Ohio United Way at https://liveunitedcentralohio.org/

Dedication to Ohio and its communities has driven #TeamME over the past 30 years. We’re proud of our journey! We believe that strategic communication, creative thinking, and a ferocious work ethic have been the building blocks to our success.

As we reflect on the past 30 years, we’re humbled by the life changing issues we’ve impacted. We care about improving communities, and we are thankful for our forward-thinking clients committed to making our world a better, safer place.

Now let’s take a look at the past 30 years of achievements! 

Connected Communities

What agency knows more about highways, airports, scooters, pedestrians, bicyclists, hyperloops, and transit corridors? We are engaged in transportation issues, and believe, as Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther says, “Mobility is the great equalizer.”

• We launched ODOT’s Your Move campaign – one of the first joint agency initiatives of its kind in the nation. The Ohio Departments of Health and Transportation teamed up to encourage more Ohioans to choose active transportation and to make it safer for them to walk, bike and bus.
• The Long Street Cultural Wall, gave us the chance to work with artists Kojo Kamau and Larry Winston Collins, curator Bettye Stull, ODOT, the City of Columbus, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, and a bevy of community leaders determined to reconnect two neighborhoods separated by I-70 in the sixties.
• More kids are walking and biking to school in Ohio thanks to the School Travel Plans we co-developed with ODOT and 40+ Ohio school districts. 
• We wrote an original hip hop song for teens and recruited a youth choir to sing and dance in ODOT’s award winning, Safe Routes to School video.
• We partnered with Nationwide Insurance and Mothers Against Drunk Driving to get 400 people to lay down on Nationwide Boulevard. Why? To advocate for stronger drunk driving laws because too many people were dying needlessly on Ohio roads.
• When Honda celebrated 25 years in Ohio, we launched a campaign to show Ohioans that Honda is an economic engine in manufacturing cars and motorcycles, as well as auto parts and supplies. 
• We were instrumental in helping the City of Columbus win USDOT’s Smart City Challenge. We designed the Smart Columbus Operating System website, and are now in the midst of rolling out state-of-the-smart mobility initiatives throughout the city.

Created Healthy Communities

MurphyEpson is inspired by fueling our communities with information and services that make our lives healthier. Which in return makes our communities a better place to live.

• MurphyEpson shepherded 33,000 one-on-one statewide conversations about the need for prenatal care to keep Ohio babies from being born too soon, because Our Babies Count! 
• We cried when we met the families and recipients of DonateLifeOhio, while we created their campaign to encourage first time drivers to become organ donors. 
• After learning about the number of children in Columbus still living in homes full of dangerous lead paint, we launched the media and online campaign — Lead Safe Columbus.
• We empowered women to re-take control of their lives and call the domestic abuse helpline staffed by what is now the Center for Women and Families.
• MurphyEpson created the Ohio Department of Health’s first toolkit for expecting and new moms. We developed the OHBaby brand that was carried throughout the 19-piece learning guide. The toolkit reaches over 100,000 new and expecting moms statewide.  

Engaged Communities

We love engaging “passionate people”. Okay, they can sound a little angry sometimes, but we’ve facilitated positive conversations around tough, controversial issues. We distill complex subject matters into digestible information so the public can provide informed input. We specialize in bringing down the heat so the public can shape and improve their own communities.

• After learning that only 1 in 3 residents were satisfied with Powell’s  traffic flow, MurphyEpson lead the effort to engage and inform residents with our development of the Keep Powell Moving campaign. 
• We’ve shaped statewide transportation through our work on ODOT’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan, AccessOhio 2045, The Ohio State University Airport, and Rickenbacker Airport.
• Our development of the High Street Streetscapes Improvements Project campaign keeps businesses and residents up to date on the transformation happening on High Street. We field those tough conversations for our clients, and guide them on the best ways to manage them, so they can continue to do their important work.

Built Communities

• Our communications strategy for The Columbus Downtown Plan built confidence in the future of downtown Columbus. This led to a massive overhaul and turned our city center into a dynamic 24/7 place to live, work and play. The plan attracted more than a billion dollars in investment.
• We named the Scioto Mile as we worked with the former Columbus Mayor, Michael Coleman, to bring swagger to our city.
• Our work for the JW Galbreath Company – a blast from Columbus’s past – started with a focus on commercial real estate and later became the Real Living brand, which attracted the eye of Warren Buffet.

• When home ownership seemed out of reach for many in the early 90s, we helped the Columbus Housing Partnership, now Homeport, launch the Parade of Possibilities, which showed the way for many families to buy homes.
• One a similar front, we are currently helping to launch the Central Ohio Community Land Trust so that more working families can afford a new home.
• Stopping NIMBY in its tracks, we listened, respected and changed attitudes about affordable housing, helping to greenlight the Barrett Middle School redevelopment and the Van Buren Community Shelter.
• Some ideas are so good we have to be a part of them, like Move to Prosper’s housing for single moms, and inspiring senators to launch the Wallick Companies’ senior housing communities.

Supported Education

We’ve covered every nook of the K to Career space. We’re passionate about changing the dynamics of childcare and bettering the education system.

• MurphyEpson created OCCRRA’s brand and developed the organization’s positioning as a professional organization that cares and supports early childhood education.
• We launched the Columbus Education Commission’s “What’s your good idea?” campaign. We heard from thousands of parents, grandparents and children after we distributed postage paid postcards to gather information and innovative ideas to improve Columbus City Schools.
• We worked with the Ohio Department of Education to design the K-3 Standards, Kindergarten Readiness materials and Ohio Report Card app.
• MurphyEpson branded Early Childhood Ohio, which implements programs and services for children and their families that promote and encourage holistic growth, nurturing, development, and learning. Our team also developed their website, trade show signage, and various print and promotional items.
• We branded the K to Career program for Dublin City Schools, a STEM-inspired program that led to the development of Emerald Campus in Dublin.

Bettered the Environment

• We kept thousands of tons of trash out of landfills after we launched Columbus’ recycling program, RecyColumbus, which educated community members on how and why to use their blue recycling bins. Columbus now has one of the highest success rates in the nation. 
• MurphyEpson partnered with the Department of Public Utilities to develop the city’s PUP – pick up poop campaign, to keep our drinking water clean.
• MurpyEpson is a City of Columbus Green Spot business, and we love doing our part to keep Central Ohio green.

We are grateful to our amazing clients, who have trusted us with their important issues and allowed us to be part of changing their communities. MurphyEpson has a long legacy of “Do Good” and we don’t plan to stop! Call us, email us, or just stop by, so we can start the conversation of doing great work for you!

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Kathleen Murphy, founder and President Emeritus of MurphyEpson, and Cindy Byington, Senior Project Manager who worked for Murphy Epson for 28 of our 30 years, contributed to this article. Both are retired but remain treasured members of the #TeamMe family.