Imagine being hailed as “two degrees of separation from everyone.” Literally “everyone.” That’s how SACHS Media founder and chairman Ron Sachs is described on the company’s website. SACHS Media has recently been awarded the 2024 Agency of The Year by the Florida Public Relations Associations.
SACHS Media is a company headquartered in Tallahassee, with a nationwide clientele. What stands out about SACHS the most is the quality of their work and the passion the team at the award-winning firm has for the work they do.
The reason they were awarded the prestigious 2024 Agency of The Year award is exactly what sets them apart. SACHS Media focuses on business needs, advocates, conducts the necessary research and implements strategies to make an impact. And this past year they made a huge impact.
Drew Piers, partner and managing director at SACHS Media, described the work they do in a very particular way. SACHS applies strategic communication to what they consider “high stakes challenges.”
“All of them have a small sliver that they are working on to make the world a better place,” Piers said about SACHS Media clients. The firm represents civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Farm Share, health-care companies, tech companies and more.
SACHS Media represents Florida Realtors and helped it with the programming for the “Hometown Hero Housing Program.” The program has provided over $300 million to nurses, firefighters and teachers for the downpayment and closing costs on their first home.
Piers gave a beautiful example of the impact of representing a health-care company and how advocating on their behalf could lower drug costs.
“We might fight for a year and get a policy change that lowers the price of prescription drugs or the co-pay for patients by $5. That $5 probably doesn’t make a big difference for one person, but when you multiply it through an entire state it can be a transformative impact,” Piers said.
Advocating for policy change is why Piers said SACHS won the 2024 Agency of the Year award. The story behind that was years in the making. SACHS Media represented a tech association and their users who were concerned that freedom of speech in this era of social media was being restricted.
The question at hand is whether social media platforms are “publishers” and therefore responsible for what is “put out there” or if they are like AT&T — a carrier. One who couldn’t end your service because they don’t like the opinions you tell your dad over the phone. And according to Statista, there were over 300 million social media users in the U.S. this year and the number is expected to grow.
Piers said it was awesome being at the forefront of a groundbreaking issue.
“This is like the first amendment case of the social and digital media era,” Piers said. He added that it was great because they were able to help, even in a small way, almost everyone.
This campaign was named Top Campaign of The Year by FPRA. Its success at the state and federal level showed exactly what the state association is looking for. Appropriate research, planning, strategy, implementation and evaluation. And, of course, what SACHS loves most — a campaign’s impact and goal achievement.
Whether its social justice reform, health-care advocacy, or education, Piers said, “We just love working on work that matters. Work that makes an impact.”