The Tennessee Public Relations Alliance celebrated its fifth anniversary this fall, and plans are underway to continue its growth and reach in the state.

“The alliance concept has been very successful, and I think it is fair to say that it has exceeded the expectations of all of the partners,” said McNeely Pigott & Fox (MP&F) Public Relations managing partner David Fox. “Since we announced the alliance in October 2011, TPRA members have been engaged in more than a dozen projects that allowed them to utilize their singular knowledge and expertise in the state’s major markets.”

Among the projects were the campaigns to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores, the rollout of WGU Tennessee, an online university that is part of Gov. Bill Haslam’s Drive to 55 initiative, various projects for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Authority, and a statewide research project for the College of Agriculture at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville.

MP&F has facilitated the alliance with founding members The Carter Malone Group in Memphis and Moxley Carmichael Public Relations in Knoxville. Nashville-based Hispanic Marketing Group joined the alliance in 2013 and Chattanooga’s Q Strategies followed in 2015.

The group has had annual meetings in Memphis, Knoxville and Nashville, with Chattanooga in the planning stages, and participates in biweekly conference calls to coordinate activities and opportunities. Combined, they have more than 100 employees, making the alliance by far the largest public relations conglomerate in Tennessee.

“We are constantly evaluating requests from other firms to become involved in the alliance and anticipate an expansion into the mid-markets including Jackson, Clarksville and Tri-
Cities in the coming year,” Fox said