SPM Communications

BIG NEWS from the 2025 Franchise Times Top 400® rankings! We're thrilled to celebrate our incredible clients who are climbing the ranks and crushing it in the franchising world! 🏊♂️ Goldfish Swim School Franchising, LLC – #171 🍩 Shipley Donuts – #183 🏡 Home Helpers Home Care – #186 🐾 Camp Bow Wow – #226 🥘 The Melting Pot Restaurants – #238 🥐 la Madeleine Bakery & Cafe – #240 🥤 Clean Juice – #486 Follow these trailblazers and watch them continue to raise the bar. Onward and upward! Check out the full list below ⬇️⬇️ #FranchiseSuccess #Top400 #SPMAgency #ClientWins #FranchiseGrowth

We’re celebrating a four-peat 🎉🎉🎉🎉 SPM Communications has been named to PRNEWS' Agency Elite Top 120 list for the 4th time. This recognition highlights agencies making an impact through creativity, results and innovation, and we’re proud to be included once again among the best in the business. Huge thanks to our incredible team and clients who made this recognition possible year after year.

🏊 Making Waves in Los Angeles! 🌊 #SPMClient Goldfish Swim School Franchising, LLC is expanding to the City of Angels! Alex Wang and Jason Adler, two entrepreneurs with investment management backgrounds, signed a 7-unit deal to bring Goldfish Swim School to communities in the greater Los Angeles area, stretching from Santa Clarita to Torrance. Their first location is set to open in Q4 2026.  With 200 locations across 40 states and Canada, Goldfish continues its strategic westward expansion into key California markets.  Congratulations to the new franchisees and thank you to Matthew Liedke at Franchise Times for sharing this expansion news.  #FranchiseNews #GoldfishSwimSchool #BusinessExpansion #PR #SPMCommunications

PR is working harder than you think. “Only 8% of searchers click links beyond the AI summary.” Online search behavior is changing dramatically as consumers turn to AI-powered answers that appear above traditional links. According to a Pew Research Center study from Spring 2025, nearly everyone gets the information they need from these summaries, leaving little reason to click through. Unlike traditional search results, brands can’t directly buy their way into placement in summaries, and that’s creating a massive opportunity for brands to leverage PR. Earned media and strategic brand communication are now the key drivers for AI summaries.  If you do a quick search for your brand online and aren’t happy with the results, we can help. It's not about gaming the system – it's about leveraging the fundamentals of earned media and consistent messaging in ways that AI platforms naturally favor. We’re already helping our clients navigate this evolution and secure visibility where their audiences are looking both in crisis comms and brand-building work. Brands that adapt their earned media strategy for GEO now will have more control of their own narratives tomorrow. #PublicRelations #AISearch #BrandVisibility #EarnedMedia #DigitalStrategy #GEO

🎯Creative & Quick When Lizzo ranked our #SPMClient Shipley Do-Nuts kolaches No. 1 on TikTok (perfect 10/10!), our SPM team immediately jumped on it. The result? Three earned media placements within 12 hours, including feature coverage in the Houston Chronicle showcasing her glowing review: "If there were kolaches all over the country, there would be world peace.“ This is strategic PR in action: Monitor social conversations 24/7 ✅ Recognize newsworthy moments instantly ✅ Move fast to secure earned media ✅ Sometimes the best stories aren't planned – they're captured. Our team turned a spontaneous celebrity endorsement into valuable brand coverage. Read the story ➡️➡️ https://lnkd.in/gFR8H5-8 #PR #MediaRelations #SPMCommunications #Shipley #Houston 🍩🍩🍩

What 300 miles of hiking taught me about leadership and values (spoiler: it wasn't what I expected) This summer, my youngest daughter and I tackled El Camino Santiago across France and Spain – 30 days, two backpacks, zero emails. What started as my first SPM sabbatical became a masterclass in leadership and values I never saw coming. 🚶Lesson 1: Go outside yourself to learn: I was surprised how often my first impression of someone was wrong or by the ways strangers from all corners of the globe stepped up to help when we needed it. (Including finding a cab driver in a town of 20 people when my daughter’s knee gave out a mile from our day’s destination.) The best insights from our trip came from suspending assumptions and making time for a long conversation over a hike or a meal. 📱 Lesson 2: Presence is a superpower. Northern Spanish locals taught us something important: when they gather for meals, phones stay off the table. No scanning the room, no checking who just walked in. Pure attention given to the people right in front of them. It's a lost art we need back in business. 🧠 Lesson 3: Your brain needs a breather. When I was on the trail and my brain wasn’t ping-ponging between Teams, Zoom, and back-to-back meetings, humanity and nature showed up everywhere. That walk you keep postponing? Take it. You'll return more present for everyone who matters at work and at home. 💪 Lesson 4: Plot twist. The biggest bummer can be the biggest gift. Five days from our finish line, COVID hit me. Plans scrapped, we pivoted and booked an apartment in our final city, knowing that our hike was over in the traditional sense. Unsure what we’d do next, I encouraged my daughter to at least explore the city or a nearby hike while I rested. She went bigger than that. The next morning, she grabbed her pack and announced she was hiking solo to Finisterre – the literal "end of the world."  Watching her disappear at dawn, confident and curious, I realized that the biggest disruptions can create the most growth – for our teams, our kids, and ourselves. The 30-day sabbatical we give our SPM teammates who hit the 10-year mark with us can be life-changing. What lessons have you learned outside the office that changed how you lead?

Our team secured a feature for #SPMClient la Madeleine Bakery & Cafe on the QSR Uncut Podcast, giving CEO John Dillon the platform to share how he’s reimagining the guest experience while staying true to la Madeleine's French heritage. Thanks to Danny Klein for the thoughtful conversation and diving deep into how John is revitalizing the brand’s strategy. 🎧 Click the link to listen to the full interview: https://lnkd.in/gHDu2i2Y

Exciting news this morning from #SPMClient Chuck E. Cheese courtesy of The Dallas Morning News! 🎉 Thank you to Mackenzie Sheehy for helping bring this story to life. The story features CEO David McKillips sharing Chuck E. Cheese's bold new vision with the launch of Adventure World - a massive 12,000-square-foot active play experience opening this November in Arlington. From reimagining 450+ locations with a $300+ million investment to creating new concepts like Chuck's Arcade, Chuck E. Cheese is transforming the future of family entertainment and cementing North Texas as their innovation hub. This isn’t just evolution—it’s a revolution in fun. 🚀 Come see how the world's No. 1 name in kids entertainment is building the next generation of unforgettable family destinations! 🎮🎉

We helped #SPMClient Goldfish Swim School Franchising, LLC make a splash with their franchising success story on the Franchise Today podcast with Stan Friedman, CFE The episode features co-founders Chris McCuiston and Andrew McCuiston sharing their incredible journey from a single swim school in Birmingham, Michigan, to nearly 200 locations across North America. Don't miss this deep dive into franchising excellence and the strategies that built a children's swim school empire.

We’re helping #SPMClient The Melting Pot Restaurants celebrate its Golden Anniversary in the sweetest way: with national coverage of its new 24K Chocolate Fondue in Parade. The limited-time dessert features rich milk chocolate fondue with marshmallow creme and creamy cookie-butter caramel. It’s then topped with edible, gold-dusted candied pecans and finished with a liquid gold flambé, served alongside an assortment of fresh fruits and sweet treats for dipping. Lauren Murphy said it best: “It’s part candy shop, part treasure trove and entirely Instagrammable. As one fan described it, this isn’t just dessert, it’s “liquid gold.” Don’t miss out on this golden treat – it’s only available until July 31 at your local Melting Pot. https://lnkd.in/gpMTvaif