The Upside Of The Underdog

“It’s always been a passion of mine to give platforms or voices to those who don’t have them, and increase the profiles of those who need it,” says Carolyn Luhning, Class Act Media’s (CAM) new resident PR/Communications Specialist.

Carolyn, who was a competitive athlete in her youth, explains she’s always cheered for the underdog or—in the case of media relations and publicity—seeing someone who is under the radar get more profile and recognition for their unique contribution to the world. 

Carolyn has strived for excellence from a young age, ever since she won her first gold medal for baton twirling at age 9. “I will never forget what that felt like and I wanted more! It was a huge motivator. From that moment, I wanted to be good and I wanted to be the best!”

She succeeded— through years of practice, travel, and competition. By age 19, she’d medalled several times and even won gold at the World Baton Twirling Championship—10 years after the seed was originally planted.

Marketing Success

At age 21, emerging from a competitive sport that had little recognition and sometimes even less credibility, Carolyn began acting and theatre studies at the University of Calgary. After graduating, she soon realized she needed a stable career. She took on a Communications role in the Department of Drama at the university. 

With an innate drive for excellence and her experience with two “underdog” worlds—competitive sport and theatre —Carolyn was motivated to use traditional media to help up-and-coming artists/professionals achieve early recognition. Her career in marketing, communications, and media relations began.

From theatre companies to vulnerable children and youth, dancers to real estate agents, and biomedical engineers to comedians, Carolyn’s clients over the years have been diverse in their scope, but similar in their need for a skilled communications specialist who can tell their compelling stories of doing good, making a difference, and being innovative in their fields.

PR In The Age Of New Media

Carolyn explains that “a lot has changed in media over the span of my career. There was a golden era of it all, when you could have a great story about a person, a charity, a product, or a show, and there were a myriad of media outlets available to pitch it to; if you did it well, they would run with it. Today, things are much different; in some ways, it is more challenging to increase profile for our clients, because much of traditional media is gone. But that doesn’t mean the opportunities have gone away—in fact they’ve increased, along with the number of people, organizations, and products vying for the numerous ways of getting that attention through the seemingly infinite world of new media and social media.”

Reputation Matters

The partners at Class Act Media agree that the key to navigating this new world is to have a good publicist, who understands both the current media landscape and how PR evolved into the digital world—and who knows how to leverage the difference between publicity and marketing.

CAM is thrilled to have Carolyn on board. We look forward to working together to combine the best of established publicity with the best of new media to build positive reputations for our clients by sharing their remarkable stories, important announcements, and unique brands.

To discuss how PR fits in your growth strategy, we invite you to request a free brainstorm with our Marketing Director, Anjelica Abarra. Anjelica can share how we’ve used PR to boost our clients’ credibility and as part of our search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.