Consulting firm navigates political landscape for candidates, corporations

TreecePhillips has a knack for picking winners when it comes to advising political candidates, and a reputation for keeping corporations on top of election consequences.

During the last four years in Boone County, more than 25 political candidates and leaders of issue elections have sought the services of the communications consulting firm owned by Columbians Brian Treece and Mary Phillips. And none of them have lost an election, Treece said.

In addition to carving out messages for local candidates, TreecePhillips, located near the Capitol in Jefferson City, has also worked on statewide ballot issues and candidates for statewide office. Despite the firm’s reputation for helping political candidates get elected, candidate campaigns are actually a small segment of its business. TreecePhillips is known nationally for its creative mail, radio and strategic communications.
“Actually our work with candidates represents a small portion of our firm’s portfolio,” Phillips said.

A peek inside that portfolio shows a wide spectrum of local, regional and national clients, including Hertz, Raytheon, DuPont Merck, NASCAR, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Kansas City Royals, American Healthcare Management, Alternative Opportunities, Three Rivers Electric Cooperative and many others.

However, that’s not to say that local political campaigns haven’t played a part in TreecePhillips’s success.

“We were one of the first firms to apply the techniques frequently associated with political campaigns — polling, focus groups, direct mail, paid media, message development, grassroots strategies — to CEOs and corporations,” Treece said.

Election years can have powerful consequences for the firm’s non-candidate clients as well.

“This time of year, our corporate clients rely upon us to help navigate the political climate, so they can make responsible and strategic decisions with the best insight available,” Treece said.

“Most of our clients are highly regulated and depend on strong public opinion,” Phillips said, so when certain trends or themes emerge during political campaigns, it can have a direct bearing on them.
“When those themes are not so favorable, our clients are targets for sinking public opinion, increased regulation and legislation, or even litigation,” Treece said.

Mark Boyer, manager of marketing and technical service for Three Rivers Electric Cooperative in Linn, hired Treece and Phillips in 2002, shortly after the duo had formed the business. Boyer said Jefferson City was attempting three separate annexations that would have severely cut the service area of Three Rivers Electric.

Originally, Boyer said, he was confident that he and his staff could combat the annexation ballot issues. They had even begun formulating a plan when he decided to hire an outside consultant. Boyer said it was one of the best decisions of his career.

“Within four or five days of hiring TreecePhillips, everything we thought we should do, they said do the opposite. It was amazing,” Boyer said.

In addition to developing a five-month strategic plan, Treece and Phillips coached Boyer and others on dealing with the media and the public.
The small electric cooperative took on Jefferson City, and in the end voters rejected two of the annexation ballot issues and nearly defeated the third.

“The city ended up respecting us so much more because of those two people,” Boyer said. “I’d hire them again in a heartbeat. In fact, I’ve recommended them to another electric cooperative going through a similar situation.”
Word of mouth and TreecePhillips’s success rate have helped expand its client list.

Marilyn Nolan, president of Alternative Opportunities, a broad-spectrum social service organization in southern Missouri, was attending a conference in Jefferson City when she observed Treece and Phillips working with the leadership of that organization in communication strategies. Nolan was so impressed with them that she sought out the firm’s services.

“It was four or five years ago that I first met them, and I’ve been working with them since on everything from big projects to small promotional pieces,” Nolan said. “They continue to work for us on an ongoing basis in strategic planning.”

Alternative Opportunities is an umbrella not-for-profit organization that has several divisions providing community-based services for mental health clients, children and families, substance abuse clients and others. Nolan said her organization was achieving good outcomes but did a poor job of communicating those outcomes.

“One of the best things that Brian and Mary have done is to help us communicate our outcomes,” Nolan said. “We were so busy working with clients and providing services that we failed to do that — even to our board members and staff.”

Other services provided by TreecePhillips include staffing clients at critical meetings with elected officials, guiding CEOs in newspaper editorial board meetings and handling the government relations needs of large corporations and associations. The firm has landed some of its clients meetings with President George W. Bush, senior advisor Karl Rove, then-Vice President Al Gore, and a number of U.S. senators, U.S. representatives and governors.

Although Treece and Phillips didn’t join forces until they formed the company in 2002, each had enjoyed a highly successful previous career and educational background spanning political science, journalism, public administration, public relations and communication.

The two are the firm’s only full-time employees, but contract out some work, like polling. Both Treece and Phillips saw the need to create a firm that offered multiple communication services. Treece acknowledges that the business is novel, particularly for mid-Missouri.

“Most of the firms offering similar services are located in the Washington, D.C., or Virginia area,” Treece said.