One year in, Bagnato Pflipsen Communications makes its mark

Bagnato Pflipsen Communications was mostly a concept when its founders received a phone call one year ago this week.

A group of Valley sports and tourism leaders were developing a bid for the NCAA Men’s Final Four, and the deadline was fast approaching. Could we come in for a meeting?

We had written Arizona’s successful bid for the 2016 College Football Playoff Championship Game, so we knew our way around an RFP. We also had a perverse enjoyment of working under deadline pressure. So we jumped at the chance to help - and we played a key role in an effort that brought together a diverse group of stakeholders from across the Valley.

That phone call and meeting led to a lot more phone calls and meetings in the past year that we’ve been in business.

Working with Arizona United Soccer Club, the state’s only pro soccer team, we landed an international AP story about the team’s preseason tryouts. We also pitched an upbeat column about owner Kyle Eng that led the Arizona Republic sports section at a time when the rest of the newspaper was stuffed with Super Bowl stories.

We partnered with Barrow Neurological Institute to help tell the story of its incredible work in the field of sports concussion. Much of our work has been with trailblazing neurologist Dr. Javier Cardénas, who served as a sideline observer at the 2015 Super Bowl and is a national expert on high school sports concussion protocols.

During the Super Bowl, we helped tell the story of Phoenix’s rise as a sports Mecca through the lens of the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, owner of University of Phoenix Stadium. We generated headlines for Arizona’s 2016 College Football Playoff Championship Game while attending a champ game in another city. And we helped create some buzz around Phoenix’s Final Four bid when the NCAA came to town for its site visit.

We’ve been fortunate to work with an “A” list of smart, professional clients, some of whom earned media coverage on the same day (and in the same newspaper). Our clients have made this a fascinating, enjoyable year.

It all began with an invitation to help pull together that Final Four bid last March.

A year later, the Final Four in Phoenix is a reality – and so is Bagnato Pflipsen Communications.