Work - BeeYoungComms

Work: Case Studies

A gold medal moment witnessed around the world. A realtor recognized as a top 1.5% in the country. A health system reaching the patients who needed them most.

These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re what happens when strategy meets storytelling. Bee Young Communications and Marketing helps people and organizations tell the stories that matter and then makes sure the world actually hears them.

Here’s how we did it – and what it made possible for the people we worked with.

Copper Fire: From Inconsistent Posts to a Standout Social Presence

Benefit: The result is a social media presence and digital footprint that work as hard as the venue does. Copper Fire went from sporadic posts to a consistent, high-performing content engine, and their customer and social media follower numbers continue to grow sharply.

“Michelle came in, learned our business, and built something we’re genuinely proud of. We have a lot going on at Copper Fire: live music every day, specials, city-wide events, and most importantly, a staff that feels like family. Michelle took all of that and turned it into a modern social media presence that reflects who we truly are. The numbers speak for themselves, but what really stands out is how she captured the heart of Copper Fire and translated it into content our customers actually connect with. She’s not just a vendor, she’s part of the team.” — Renae Eichholz, Co-Owner, Copper Fire

Problem: Copper Fire had one of the busiest entertainment calendars in Metro-East St. Louis – live music daily, great food, a loyal crowd, but their social media wasn’t keeping up. Posts were irregular, event announcements were last-minute, and there was no unified visual identity to tie it all together.

Resolution/Strategy: Bee Young Comms came in with a clear strategy: high-frequency, video-first content built around what Copper Fire already had: great events, great staff, and a great story to tell.

We show up on-site every quarter for dedicated content shoots, capturing the energy of live performances, behind-the-bar moments, and the faces that make Copper Fire feel like your hometown tavern. From there, we build a steady weekly rhythm: entertainment calendars, event promos, food and drink spotlights, and behind-the-scenes Reels. We leaned into the staff’s personality and humor; and their audience loved it.

As the brand grew online, Bee Young Comms also led the development of a new Copper Fire website – creating an updated, modern digital home that matched the energy and personality of the venue itself. The site gives customers an easy way to find events, explore menus, and connect with the brand beyond social media.

Naismith Awards: A Full-Service Social Media Operation, Season After Season

Benefit: This is what it looks like when social media is treated like a serious communications program – not an afterthought.

2025-26 Season

74.3M impressions: exceeded goal by 90% (+35.3M over target)
14,375 new followers: +88.1% audience growth
2.1M engagements: exceeded engagement goal by 15%
Instagram +168% impressions, Facebook +187% reach: platform growth across the board
Ad spend down 26%: more reach and content for less

“We are fortunate to have Michelle lead our social media activation. She brings a first-class approach to content creation and strategy – an idea machine who constantly adds value through fresh thinking and more efficient processes.” — Eric Oberman, Client President, Naismith Trophy

Problem: The Naismith Trophy is one of the most prestigious honors in basketball — but prestige alone doesn’t build an audience. They needed more than a social media presence; they needed a strategic communications partner with the experience to manage a multi-platform operation, lead a content team, and elevate the brand at every level of the game.

Resolution/Strategy: Now in their fourth season with The Naismith Trophy, the highest honor in collegiate and high school basketball, Bee Young Comms doesn’t just post content. We run the operation.

Every season begins with a comprehensive playbook written by Michelle. It sets the strategy, content standards, sponsor integration guidelines, and team structure before the first tip-off. From there, Michelle leads a team of 21, including team captains, returners, and interns, managing weekly Zoom sessions, team check-ins, and daily content oversight across every platform.

The work goes well beyond social scheduling. Michelle regularly engages top national basketball journalists and analysts, including Debbie Antonelli, Paul Biancardi, Brandon Clay, John Fanta, Fran Fraschilla, and Terrence Oglesby, gathering video responses and expert commentary woven into the content strategy all season long.

On the ground during the 2025-26 season, Michelle and the three teams, men’s college, women’s college and high school, covered the Naismith Golf Tournament and 42 regular season and NCAA Tournament games, including the Final Four. That access produced 28 interviews, 118 video snippets, and 76 Final Four clips featuring winners, finalists, and national media – spanning men’s and women’s Coach of the Year, Player of the Year, and Defensive Player of the Year categories.

For sponsors, we built and managed social media campaigns for Jersey Mike’s, Werner Ladder, Molecule, AXIA Time, Branded Bills, and Sharpie. Growing each one’s visibility well beyond prior benchmarks. We also launched the program on Threads in its inaugural year and significantly expanded X paid advertising.

AXIA Time: Building a Luxury Brand at the Intersection of Sport and Legacy

Service: Social Media Management (Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn) | Brand Storytelling & Content Strategy | Product Launch Content | Live Event Activation and On-Site Coverage | Championship Campaign Execution

Benefit: AXIA Time’s social presence now reflects the luxury and legacy of the brand — embedded in the biggest moments in college and professional sports, reaching the right audiences at exactly the right time. Content tied to live events and real athletes drove the strongest engagement and saves, while posts linked to the AXIA Time fan shop delivered results over time:

30.9M impressions: cross-platform reach across Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn
6,110 new followers: audience built through championship season activations
162,687 engagements: driven by live event content and real athlete moments

Problem: John Kanaras built AXIA Time around craftsmanship and Swiss Made precision, but running four social media platforms while building a luxury brand wasn’t something he had the bandwidth to take on alone. He needed an expert who understood both storytelling and sport. That’s where Bee Young Comms came in.

Resolution/Strategy: We manage all four of AXIA Time’s social platforms with a strategy rooted in storytelling, live event activation, and the kind of premium brand positioning that luxury products demand. The core idea: put AXIA Time in the room where history is being made and capture every moment of it.

That started with the foundation – a consistent content calendar and product storytelling cadence that established AXIA Time as a voice in the collegiate and professional sports space before the big moments hit.

Then we showed up. Bee Young Comms has represented AXIA Time on-site at the 2024 and 2025 Heisman Trophy Weekends in New York City, the 2025 CFP National Championship in Atlanta, the 2026 CFP National Championship in Miami, and the 2025 and 2026 Men’s and Women’s Naismith Award Ceremonies. At each event, we captured real-time content: player interviews, behind-the-scenes moments, award presentations, and product showcases.

Content tied to live moments and real athletes, including posts featuring 2025 Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza, 2025 Naismith Player of the Year Cooper Flagg, and Lott Impact Trophy winner Caleb Downs. This kind of content consistently drove the strongest engagement and saves. Posts tied to the AXIA Time pop-up store at the CFP Fan Shop drove meaningful audience growth during championship season.

Peninsula Building Materials: Building a Digital Presence as Strong as Their Product

Benefit: By 2025, PBM had cohesive branding, consistent messaging, and a digital footprint built to compete in its second century. At that point, we made the case for them to bring marketing in-house and handed off a strategy that was firing on all cylinders.

“Michelle doesn’t disappoint. She’s passionate, creative, has great follow-through, and will dig in and do whatever it takes to get the job done.” — Nancy Wallace, Director of Marketing and Development, Peninsula Building Materials

Problem: Peninsula Building Materials (PBM), a family-owned business in Silicon Valley entering its second century, came to Bee Young Comms with a fragmented digital presence that didn’t reflect the quality of their work. No consistent brand voice. No strategic social plan. A website that wasn’t pulling its weight.

Resolution/Strategy: We started with a full audit: every social platform, every performance metric, their competitors, their customers. From that foundation, we built a content strategy with stronger visuals, sharper messaging, and a consistent posting cadence across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Paid social and video content became a core driver. Targeted ad campaigns and sponsored content kept PBM in front of the right audiences: contractors, designers, and customers in the Bay Area. We also built relationships with vendors and customers directly, helping strengthen the brand’s presence beyond the screen.

In 2023, as the scope expanded. Bee Young Comms led a full website overhaul for PBM, including all content writing for their new Design & Build blog. The blog became their SEO engine, positioning PBM as a trusted industry resource and driving organic traffic from buyers actively searching for what they sell.

Lashinda Demus: Managing the PR Campaign for a Long-Overdue Gold Medal Moment

Benefit: On August 9, 2024, at Champions Park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Lashinda Demus received her gold medal at the first-ever IOC Olympic Medal Reallocation Ceremony – surrounded by her family, IOC and USOPC dignitaries, and the world watching. That evening, she appeared on NBC wearing her gold medal for the first time.

Twelve years late. Right on time.

“There’s no one I would have wanted by my side more than Michelle to help tell my story. She’s creative, she truly cares, and she never stops going the extra mile. Having her there every step of the way – right up to the finish line in Paris at the foot of the Eiffel Tower – was everything. She knows me better than anyone and took pride in telling my story.” — Lashinda Demus, Olympic Gold Medalist

Problem: Some stories demand to be told. Lashinda Demus’s story is one of them.

In 2012, Lashinda Demus crossed the finish line at the London Olympics and won silver in the 400-meter hurdles – competing as a mother of twins who were cheering from the stands, earning her the title of the fastest mother in the world. What no one knew then was that the gold medalist had doped. A decade later, the truth caught up.

In October 2022, the IOC announced the disqualification of the gold medalist, elevating Demus to first place. After nearly two years of working relentlessly with the IOC to make it official, Lashinda Demus was finally going to get her gold on the biggest stage possible: Paris 2024.

This wasn’t just a client relationship. Michelle and Lashinda have known each other since Lashinda was a national champion at the University of South Carolina. When this moment came, Lashinda trusted Michelle to help her tell it to the world.

Resolution/Strategy: Bee Young Comms built out a comprehensive media strategy to amplify Lashinda’s story on a global stage. It included coordinating media interviews, media alerts, coordinated press materials including photo assets and audio clips and on-site media coverage from Los Angeles to Paris. The key was to drive global attention to the IOC Reallocation Ceremony at Champions Park – at the foot of the Eiffel Tower – on August 9, 2024.

The story had everything: justice, resilience, family, and history. Bee Young Comms made sure the world knew it. Under Michelle’s guidance, Lashinda launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised $25,000 — enabling Lashinda’s family to travel to Paris and witness the ceremony in person. Lashinda’s story generated national and international media coverage across broadcast, digital, and print, including NBC, ABC, CBS, ESPN, the Los Angeles Times, Long Beach Press-Telegram, New York Times, and The State.

With the gold medal, Lashinda and her mother Yolanda Demus – who coached her daughter to her first American title in the 400m hurdles – became the first mother-daughter duo to win a gold medal in Olympic Track and Field. It was a moment 12 years in the making, and Bee Young Comms was there to help tell it: her moment seen around the world.

USF Health & Premier Healthcare: A Strategic Communications Campaign Built Around Prevention

Service: Strategic Communications Planning | Internal & External Messaging Development | Digital Marketing Direction | Patient-Focused Content Strategy | Health Equity & Prevention Campaigns

Benefit: Every piece of content was designed to educate, motivate, and remove barriers to care. The strategy met patients where they were and made it easier to say yes to preventive screenings. This was done while positioning both organizations as trusted, proactive healthcare partners in their communities.

“Michelle’s knowledge of healthcare marketing and institutional communications helped us build a strategy that was both credible and compelling. Because of her work, we were better equipped to reach the patients who needed us most. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner.” — Dr. Alicia Best, USF Health College of Public Health & Premier Healthcare

Problem: When Dr. Alicia Best of USF Health’s College of Public Health and her partner, Premier Healthcare, needed a communications partner, they turned to Bee Young Comms. The goal was clear: improve the health and well-being of their patient population through routine health screenings, with a specific focus on breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer screenings.

This wasn’t just a marketing campaign. It was a public health mission.

Resolution/Strategy: Bee Young Comms developed a comprehensive strategic communications plan aligned with the core values of both USF Health and Premier Healthcare. The plan addressed internal and external audiences alike – ensuring consistent messaging across every touchpoint, from patient-facing content, including the website, to organizational stakeholders.

JJ Team Homes: From Rebrand to Top 1.5% in the Country

Benefit: Combined with a refined social media strategy and consistent messaging across platforms, JJ Team Homes built a strong, recognizable online presence in a competitive market. Giving the website a modern look with a new SEO keyword blog brought additional traffic to their website. The payoff was significant. They earned recognition as top 1.5% realtor in the country in 2023.

“Michelle has been instrumental in helping us grow our business and expand our reach. Her assistance in SEO, branding, and consistent messaging has been so helpful — allowing us to focus on our core business of real estate. Michelle is simply the best!” — Jaime Lynn Jones and Julie Cassel, Founders, JJ Team Homes

Problem: JJ Team Homes came to Bee Young Comms for social media help. What they really needed was a full brand overhaul. And that’s exactly what we delivered.

Resolution/Strategy: Before a single post was written, we took a step back. We reviewed their website, their social presence, their competitors, and even their name. The result? A new name, a refreshed logo, and a strategy built to grow.

Under Michelle’s guidance, the team rebranded from JJ Peninsula Homes to JJ Team Homes. It was a name that better reflected who they were and where they were headed. With a stronger identity in place, the real work began.

We built a keyword-driven blog strategy to drive organic website traffic, creating content that spoke directly to buyers and sellers searching for homes in their target communities. Consistently updated community pages reinforced the SEO effort and helped JJ Team Homes show up where it mattered most: in search results.

Bee Young Comms joins AC Public Relations to Team Up with Riggs and CASP

Benefit: By the close of the engagement, ACPR had a fully functioning social media operation running in true partnership with their PR work; a consistent, active presence across four platforms, a documented content system, and a seamless process for turning PR wins into social visibility.

Problem: AC Public Relations (ACPR) is a full-service PR firm that manages communications, media relations, and brand campaigns for clients across industries. When ACPR partnered with Bee Young Communications and Marketing, they needed more than a content vendor, they needed a social media team embedded in their workflow. They needed one that could amplify their PR efforts in real time, maintain brand consistency across every platform, and operate in close coordination with their own partners and contractors.

Resolution/Strategy: Bee Young Comms began with a comprehensive audit of the client’s social media presence across Instagram, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, then developed a tailored strategy aligned with the brand standards and internal guidelines for the new website, TheSpectrum.org. From there, Bee Young Comms built a full content operation: developing a content repository in collaboration with its partners, creating a monthly content calendar spanning static posts, reels, and stories, and ensuring every piece of content was visually consistent with graphics and media provided by the agency on record.

One of the core focuses of the engagement was making sure that social media always moved in step with PR. Bee Young Comms synced content weekly with press releases, and media placements, posting all media placements on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram and amplifying earned media through organic social media. The team attended bi-weekly strategy meetings with ACPR and its partners, coordinating promotions around new website content and keeping messaging consistent across all channels.

On the community side, BYC managed and optimized all platform profiles, monitored comments, messages, and mentions, and escalated customer service inquiries and sensitive feedback to ACPR as needed.

CalHOPE Courage Award: Launching an Inaugural Campaign with Impact

Service: Social Media Campaign Strategy & Execution | Paid Social Advertising (Instagram & Facebook) | Influencer & Partner Collaborations | Content Creation (Stories, Reels, Feed Posts) | Hashtag Strategy & Audience Targeting

Benefit: The result was a successful inaugural launch that generated nominations, built an engaged audience, and established the CalHOPE Courage Award as a meaningful and credible recognition in collegiate athletics.

“Michelle consistently demonstrated an outstanding ability to strategize and execute compelling paid social media campaigns. Her deep understanding of collegiate athletics was a real plus. I am confident that Michelle will bring value to any project or team.” — Doug Drotman, Owner, Drotman Communications

Bee Young Comms first partnered with Doug Drotman on The Mayo Clinic Comeback Player Award – a national campaign recognizing the top comeback players in Division I football. That work produced three high-profile winners in 2021: Aidan Hutchinson (Michigan), McKenzie Milton (FSU), and J.J. Weaver (Kentucky). When it was time to launch something new, Doug came back.

Problem: For the inaugural CalHOPE Courage Award, recognizing courageous student-athletes at universities across California, Bee Young Comms was brought in to build awareness, drive nominations, and establish credibility from the ground up. There was no existing audience, no legacy, no head start – just a vision and the work required to make it real.

Resolution/Strategy: We built and executed a full social media campaign across multiple platforms. We created content that told the story of the award, highlighted its honorees, and inspired universities to nominate their most deserving student-athletes.

The strategy leaned into what works: compelling storytelling, targeted paid social advertising, and platform-specific content including Instagram and Facebook Stories and Reels. Strategic hashtag use and high-profile collaborations – including NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott and NBA All-Star Kevin Love – helped expand the award’s reach to coaches, athletic departments, and university communities throughout California.

Get Permission Institute: A Website Overhaul Built for the Digital Age

Service: Website Audit & Competitive Analysis | Website Consolidation and Full Content Overhaul | Mobile Optimization & UX Improvements | Social Media and Graphics Evaluation | Paid Social Media Campaigns

Benefit: The overhaul brought everything under one roof. Two websites became one — modernized, mobile-friendly, and built to convert. Contemporary visual elements, improved navigation, and a refined user interface gave GPI a digital presence that matched the quality of their content and courses.

To drive registrations further, Bee Young Comms layered in paid social media campaigns, turning the new website into a full conversion engine that worked around the clock.

The result: a stronger brand, better audience engagement, and a website that finally worked as hard as the team behind it.

Problem: When the pandemic forced Get Permission Institute (GPI) to transition their in-person courses to virtual webinars, their website wasn’t ready for the shift. Two separate sites, outdated content, and a poor mobile experience were creating friction at exactly the moment they needed to be converting visitors into registrants.

GPI turned to Bee Young Comms to fix it.

Resolution/Strategy: We started with a comprehensive review of website design, content, functionality, and user experience across both existing sites. A competitive analysis identified where GPI was falling behind and where the biggest opportunities lived. We also evaluated their social media presence and use of graphics to make sure everything would work together cohesively post-launch.

Ready to tell your story? Let’s talk.