Mike Danielson, Media Relations Inc.
Title: Partner
Age: 48
Marketing veteran Mike Danielson, who has traveled to more than a dozen countries to bring new products to U.S. consumers, has been promoted to partner at Burnsville-based Media Relations Inc.
Danielson was the first employee hired after CEO Lonny Kocina founded Media Relations in 1988 and is the longtime director of the company's health and nutrition division. The company is part of Kocina Marketing Companies, which includes Checkerboard Strategic Web Development.
In that role, Danielson has developed and managed hundreds of multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns for nutritional supplements and other products from Israel, Japan, England, Belgium and New Zealand, among other countries. His clients, many of whom he has worked with for more than 10 years, include Cargill, Taiyo International, the National Strength & Conditioning Association and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council.
Danielson embarks on international trips three or four times a year. His recent travels include a trip to the Malaysian jungle, highlighting sustainable palm oil production, and time aboard an Alaskan trawler, featuring sustainable fishing of wild salmon and seafood and best practices in processing it.
Danielson, who had studied commercial art, graphic arts and video and film production, was working as the floor director of a local TV bowling show when Kocina contacted him about joining the new venture. One appealing aspect to Danielson and especially his international clients is Media Relations' performance-based business model, in which clients pay based on stories placed or interviews arranged instead of on a retainer.
Q: What's your pitch to a new client?
A: We help our clients tell their story with a strong ethos around creative ingenuity. With our expertise in health, nutrition and lifestyle, it means we have expertise at targeting the highly motivated, actively seeking consumers, typically in the 35-plus range, that are motivated to living healthier lifestyles. We develop rich content streams that are relevant to your target market and then help you harness the publicity.
Q: What has motivated you to develop your specialty in health and nutrition marketing?
A: Every day that we book an expert or represent a client, you know that you're delivering the goods, you're serving the public. As you start generating reports for clients — and we just completed a report where we generated one billion confirmed editorial impressions based on audited circulation — you think, that's pretty powerful.
Q: How is social media affecting what you do for clients?
A: We talk to our clients about needing a rich content stream, which we've already been doing with them for publicity, and the good news is we just need to increase that.
