Dodge Data & Analytics

In 2015, the McGraw-Hill publishing group spun off its construction research arm and formed a new company: Dodge Data & Analytics (DDA). The company, first founded by F.W. Dodge in 1891 had become a trusted name in the architect, engineer and contractor (AEC) community as a source of construction project, building product and industry trend data.

With a newly refreshed brand, but lacking the publishing power of its former parent company, DDA approached Spector to develop a strategy to get the Dodge name out there and solidify the company’s reputation at the premier source of construction industry data among customers, analysts and the media.

In order to reach potential customers, business analysts and organizations wishing to partner with Dodge to develop their own custom research, we needed to make a significant push to get Dodge Data & Analytics and its experts – particularly its economists and researchers – into the press as the voice of the construction industry.

Our strategy was threefold:

• Establish a strong presence for Dodge in the AEC-focused trade media, drawing on the company’s monthly reports of construction projects in planning and those breaking ground on a national level

• Gain visibility in prominent daily newspapers and regional business press in the top-35 U.S. cities with stories about construction trends – and their underlying drivers – in those metropolitan areas

• Win coverage for Dodge and its key spokespeople in top-tier national media outlets by providing custom data on particular trends in niche verticals including healthcare, education and energy

In addition to finding the stories inside the data in Dodge’s monthly indices and special research reports, we helped publicize the company’s flagship forecast data for the construction industry at a conference hosted by DDA each year – the Dodge Outlook – which attracted trade reporters to visit and listen to the company’s presentations, and helped drive attendance at – and coverage of – Dodge-hosted webinars.

Over the course of two years, our strategy paid off with significant coverage for Dodge on all three levels, which included forming long-standing relationships for recurring features in top construction industry publications, and regular interviews for Dodge experts in top daily papers, business journals and national press including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and the Washington Post Magazine.

We helped drive several conversations for new business partnerships, and our work resulted in a significant increase in inbound requests for comment from reporters at top-tier national press outlets.