Public Relations Agency
Earn attention. Build trust. Protect what you’ve built.
Public relations is what happens when your story is told by someone other than you. That third-party credibility can’t be bought, which is exactly why it carries weight, and why it’s harder to earn than ever. At Red Shoes, we help organizations across Wisconsin and the country win that attention, deepen trust with the audiences who matter, and protect their reputation when it counts.
What Is Public Relations?
Public relations is the practice of shaping how your organization is understood by the people who matter to it: customers, media, employees, officials, and the community. It works through earned attention, such as news coverage, thought leadership, and genuine relationships, rather than paid placement. Where advertising tells your audience what to think, PR earns their trust by having credible third parties say it for you.
Done well, PR isn’t a one-time campaign. It’s a steady practice that builds visibility and goodwill in calm times, which is precisely what protects you in hard ones.
Why PR Matters More Than Ever
The way people decide who to trust has changed, and it’s raised the value of earned media.
Coverage now shapes what AI says about you. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI about your industry, those tools build answers from sources they trust, and independent journalism sits at the top of that list. Analysis of more than a million AI-cited links found that the large majority of citations come from earned media rather than brand-owned content or advertising. Your press coverage isn’t just read by people anymore. It teaches AI how to describe you.
Attention is harder to earn. Newsrooms have shrunk, journalist inboxes are overflowing, and recent industry research found that roughly seven in ten PR professionals now cite low journalist response rates as their biggest challenge. Cutting through takes relationships and relevance, not volume.
Reputation is an asset that compounds. The trust you build before you need it is what carries you through the moment you do. That’s why PR, crisis communication, and online reputation management belong in the same strategy rather than in separate silos.
How We Build Influence
Our public relations services work as one connected practice. Each can stand alone, and each is stronger alongside the others.
Media Relations
We build strong relationships with key journalists and outlets so your message reaches the right audience at the right time. Our team includes former television and print journalists, among them an Emmy award-winning reporter, so we know what earns a “yes.”
We align media outreach with your business goals to drive visibility, reputation, and results. Whether you’re launching a product, navigating a difficult moment, or building thought leadership, we deliver targeted strategies that move the needle.
Media Training
Our media training gives your spokespeople the confidence and clarity to handle any interview. Through personalized coaching, we tailor every session to your goals, whether you’re new to media or a seasoned executive.
Programs cover interview skills, message discipline, and crisis scenarios, so your team stays composed and in control under pressure. The result is that every media interaction strengthens your brand instead of putting it at risk.
Media Monitoring
Our media monitoring gives you a complete view of your brand’s presence and the data to act on it. We track coverage, reach, and sentiment, turning what people say about you into smarter strategy.
During a crisis, real-time tracking surfaces emerging narratives immediately, so you can respond before a story hardens.
Government Relations
We help clients engage government officials with purpose. With relationships across local, state, and federal levels, we guide you through complex government landscapes with tailored preparation and strategic outreach.
From milestone moments to policy-driven messaging, we make sure your communication is timely, compelling, and reaches officials when it matters.
Community Relations
We help you build local trust, increase visibility, and engage meaningfully where you operate. If sponsorship and donation requests are overwhelming you, or your outreach has drifted from your brand values, we bring structure to it.
We audit your current efforts, recommend improvements, and manage sponsorships and partnerships, drawing on deep experience with municipalities, healthcare systems, and private companies. Community engagement becomes a growth strategy rather than a cost center.
Turning Strategy Into Headlines
Every engagement starts with listening. We learn your goals, your audiences, and what success actually looks like, then agree on the metrics before any pitching begins. From there we build the strategy, execute it, and measure it, adjusting as we learn what earns attention with your audiences. Because PR sits alongside your brand strategy and marketing, we keep it aligned with everything else you’re doing rather than running it off on its own.
Why Work With Red Shoes
We’ve been growing and protecting brands since 2008, and our work has been recognized where it counts. Red Shoes has earned a PRSA WisCOMsin Award of Excellence for PR and media relations and a PR Daily media relations award, and our clients have landed coverage in outlets up to and including The Wall Street Journal.
What makes that possible is the team. Former journalists who know how newsrooms actually decide. A dedicated earned media department that tracks fast-moving stories and beats. And 24/7 crisis support, because the same team that builds your reputation is the one you want defending it. As a woman-owned agency based in Appleton, we know the Wisconsin landscape while regularly earning national coverage for our clients.
Growing and protecting brands.®
Frequently Asked Questions
A PR agency helps you earn attention and trust rather than buy it. That includes securing media coverage, preparing your spokespeople for interviews, monitoring what’s being said about you, and building relationships with journalists, officials, and your community. The goal is to shape how people understand your organization and to protect that reputation over time.
Advertising is space you pay for and fully control. PR is attention you earn when a journalist, official, or community decides your story is worth telling, and that independence is exactly what makes it credible. Both have a role, but earned coverage carries a level of trust paid placements can’t buy, and it tends to keep working long after it runs.
Media relations is one part of PR, focused specifically on building relationships with journalists and outlets to earn coverage. Public relations is the broader practice, which also includes media training, monitoring, government and community relations, thought leadership, and reputation management.
We track media placements, audience reach, engagement, message pull-through, and brand sentiment, and increasingly how your brand appears in AI-generated answers. You get clear reporting that connects coverage to your visibility and business goals, not vanity metrics.
Yes. Relevance, credibility, and timing matter far more than size. A prepared expert who can respond quickly, share original data, or offer a fresh angle can earn meaningful coverage, and building from trade and regional outlets is often the path to national placements.
Growing and protecting brands ®
Do you have a need? We can help.
Whether you want to build visibility, prepare your leaders for the spotlight, or protect a reputation you’ve spent years earning, we’d love to help. Let’s partner and get your story in front of the people who matter.
