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When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, killing 11 people and initiating the largest environmental disaster in history, BP hired Tucker/Hall as its Florida PR firm of record within a matter of days. Millions of gallons of oil were flowing freely from the ocean floor, but BP had no significant corporate presence in Florida, the Gulf state with the largest tourism-based economy.

BP depended on Tucker/Hall to quickly establish a comprehensive crisis communications program in Florida, and to become an integrated part of the corporation’s national crisis management team.

Tucker/Hall dedicated staff full-time to the effort and created a structured approach to communicating relevant, timely and accurate information to local and state governments, businesses and the news media. We also helped stakeholders communicate with BP leadership and with Incident Command. In addition to helping BP executives build a highly-functional network of stakeholders around the state, we developed a real-time digital monitoring program to track public opinion and social media conversations, giving BP the ability to respond appropriately and engage the public and its influencers with factual and timely information.

Once the well was capped and emergency response transitioned into recovery efforts, Tucker/Hall continued to work with BP for the next two years, helping to build relationships and involve the company in the affected communities. We used every communications tool available to help BP live up to its promises, and build relationships and confidence in a brand that had nearly been destroyed.

Tucker/Hall client was engaged in the controversial business of turning failing condominium projects into successful apartment complexes. The client’s work turned neighborhood trouble-spots into good rental homes, improving community property values. However, abusive practices by some in this business had forced many condo owners from their homes with mortgages they could no longer afford. Tallahassee was poised to overreact with punitive legislation.

Tucker/Hall positioned its client as a model for fair treatment of individual condo owners. While much of the media was not able to distinguish between good and bad operators, we helped our client communicate and build trust with individual owners in these fractured properties through direct engagement. We also helped assemble the right government relations team in Tallahassee to ensure the reforms passed were fair and balanced. Today, our client continues to operate profitably, and condo owners statewide have new protections in law.

Amendment 3 was placed on the 2018 ballot to change the Florida Constitution to give voters the “exclusive right to decide whether to authorize casino gambling” in the state. Voters in Charge, the Florida political committee behind the campaign, retained Tucker/Hall based on our previous work No Casinos to manage the grassroots and media relations efforts in Northeast Florida.

Tucker/Hall successfully organized volunteers to distribute ‘Yes on 3’ yard signs, presented before numerous civic and political groups, secured favorable editors and TV and print media coverage. Amendment 3 was overwhelmingly approved by Northeast Florida voters with more than 70 percent of the vote.

Additional ballot initiative work includes successful measures in Sarasota, Pinellas, Manatee and Hillsborough Counties. In all of these cases, Tucker/Hall helped develop a winning strategy and then managed the tactics to ensure a winning outcome.