How to Attract Media Coverage and Build Your Brand
This session provides retail dietitians with a step-by-step process to garner media attention for your company’s healthy living brand, establish yourself as a valued resource to key media outlets, and promote your programs and services. From finding the right hook for various media types to pitching to maintaining media relationships, this webinar will cover all the details.
Presenters
Melissa Joy Dobbins MS, RDN, CDE
Melissa is an award winning, nationally recognized food and nutrition expert, media spokesperson, speaker, blogger and podcaster with more than 20 years’ experience and a proven track record of providing real solutions for real people so they can enjoy their food with health in mind.
People are hungrier than ever for realistic options that empower them to make healthier choices, while bringing back the enjoyment of food. No one wants to feel guilty, especially when it comes to their food! Whether to buy organic or conventional, what to make your family for dinner, choosing a dessert or grabbing a snack…What if, instead of all the conflicting, confusing and cryptic information we hear in the news every day, there was a fresh perspective that enlightened and empowered you? Melissa helps people digest food and nutrition information so they can make their own well-informed decisions based on facts, not fear - and most of all, come away with meaningful steps toward better nutrition and health.
Melissa's background includes nearly a decade of clinical nutrition and client counseling as well as corporate wellness, public speaking, academia, and research. She's a former supermarket dietitian and specializes in weight management, family nutrition, diabetes, and food safety/technology. A former national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Melissa has been a regular voice in the media for over 15 years and has conducted hundreds of TV interviews in addition to radio, magazine and newspaper interviews. Utilizing her communications expertise, Melissa enjoys coaching other food, nutrition and wellness experts on media, social media and public speaking skills, with an emphasis on creating and delivering meaningful messages that engage and empower audiences.
Jennifer Seyler, MS, RD, CPT
Starting with FleishmanHillard in February 2013, Jennifer Seyler – vice president within the Chicago consumer group – arrived with nearly 15 years’ experience within the food, fitness, nutrition and health space, focusing on health strategic partnerships, influencer marketing, and key opinion leader relationship development.
Ms. Seyler currently leads the Gatorade and Tropicana health influencer education and partnership programs, with an emphasis on the registered dietitian audience. She also provides trusted counsel for leading brands and organizations with some key responsibilities including creating synergistic, year-long strategic and forward-thinking nutrition and/or health influencer communication plans alongside existing consumer brand efforts, providing unique program evaluations (measurement and analysis reports).
Ms. Seyler also spends time leading the Chicago Food and Nutrition Network as a Board of Directors. She previously served on its leadership team for eight years developing and maintaining strategic partnerships and leading the organizations re-branding efforts. Ms. Seyler is also currently President-Elect for the Illinois Academy of Nutrition Dietetics.
Prior to joining FleishmanHillard, Ms. Seyler was director of nutrition and fitness communications at Current where she provided counsel for a variety of brands including Hidden Valley Ranch, Uncle Ben’s, PepsiCo, Muller/Quaker and many others. At Current, Ms. Seyler also led the CocoaVia, Mars Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and SuperValu accounts. Prior to Current, Ms. Seyler was a senior associate in the brand marketing practice at Burson-Marsteller where she created and implemented strategic programming for the Wheat Foods Council, U.S. Tuna Foundation, American Beverage Association, Celestial Seasonings, Sun-Maid, Glucerna Select, and Hormel Foods (Jennie-O Turkey Store, Natural Choice, Oven Ready Products, Herdez).
As the corporate manager of nutrition services at Bally Total Fitness, Ms. Seyler helped develop the company’s weight loss and nutrition website and phone counseling with registered dietitians services, was the lead dietitian for the 2006 “30-Day Challenge” commercials, and handled media inquiries and nutrition field marketing needs. Ms. Seyler has also served as a research dietitian for the University of Illinois in the Food Science and Human Nutrition and the Extension Services departments, focusing on the benefits of adequate dietary protein with and without exercise.
Her work has been published in the Handbook of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods, 2nd edition, AgroFOOD industry hi-tech and the SCAN Pulse newsletter, and she has been referenced as a health expert in publications/websites such as SheKnows.com, iVillageHealth.com, U.S. News, Northwestern Medill News, Today’s Dietitian, Quick & Simple and ATA World Magazine.
Ms. Seyler is highly certified in the area of fitness and nutrition with a Certificate of Training in Adult and Childhood & Adolescent Weight Management, is a personal trainer and a registered dietitian. Ms. Seyler earned her strategic marketing certificate from Northwestern University, her Master of Science in nutrition and dietitian registration from the University of Illinois, and her Bachelor of Arts in biology from Augustana College.
