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A glimpse into Innovative Air Solutions' PR strategy
The company takes industry developments and community events, and crafts stories for local media outlets
Image: IAS
There’s a scene in Pirates of the Caribbean when Commodore Norrington tells Jack Sparrow, “You are, without a doubt, the worst pirate I’ve ever heard of,” and Jack responds, “But you have heard of me.”
It’s hilarious — and cheesy — but it got me thinking about PR. To explore it in the HVAC context, I reached out to Ashla Taylor at Innovative Air Solutions (IAS) in Houston, who’s fresh off a rebrand and works closely with local media outlets, to talk shop.
What’s happening: IAS’s PR strategy is simple. They take industry developments and community events, craft stories for local media outlets — TV, radio, and newspapers — and push them out with their brand attached.
How it works: Taylor keeps a list of high-level industry developments as “source content” for PR initiatives.
“If I were to email a local news station today, there would be two things I would try to raise awareness for: The rising costs of HVAC replacements and the coming refrigerant changes,” she notes.
“It’s really putting consumers in a bind because they don't always have the money to replace their system. Plus, throw in new refrigerants and now you're having to educate consumers,” she adds.
What’s next: Once they pick an idea, Taylor taps a second list of contacts at each outlet and pitches the story.
“Usually, they’ll call me [in response] and ask a couple questions: What does this look like for our consumers? What are y'all doing about it?” she explains.
“Basically, they want us to have a message about what people should do to prepare. Then if it checks out, we’ll schedule a time for them to come in,” she adds.
“It’s typically interview-style, so they'll come in with a set of questions. We’ll pretend the two of us are just having a conversation, but with cameras rolling. It ends up being ten minutes of conversation, and when it airs, it’s probably three minutes.”
Of note: For technical stories, IAS works hand-in-hand with outlets to draft questions and answers in advance.
“With the refrigerant changes, for example, we don't want to spread any misinformation, so we’ll make sure we’re very careful about how we say things.”
Yes, but: Community events also provide source content. IAS participates in Lennox’s Feel the Love event, for example, where a new system is gifted to a local homeowner each year.
Taylor turns the install day into a PR event. “You call your news stations, local radio, and local newspapers to come out and basically do free coverage on it. You make it a community-oriented event,” she notes.
Zoom out: The company doesn’t track any hard KPIs around PR — it views it as a pure brand awareness play — and leverages its in-house team, not an agency, to manage the work.
The bottom line: Working with local outlets has started to pay dividends because, over time, the tables have turned — news stations have started reaching out first.
“Once your foot's in the door and you do it enough times, they'll start referring to you when they need something,” Taylor says.
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