Introduction

Here at Mixte, we believe that living an active lifestyle is an important part of protecting and preserving our health. However, we also understand that getting active is tough in today’s high-demanding world, and so does the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

ACE is a nonprofit organization with global reach that works to increase equitable access to physical activity to fight sedentary lifestyle-related diseases. In order to achieve its mission, ACE certifies exercise professionals and health coaches, providing them with the tools necessary to inspire others to get moving. ACE called on Mixte to help advance its mission through tailored media relations enhancing its reputation as an informed physical-activity advocate, specifically relying on its executive leadership to position it as the preeminent voice in exercise and behavior-change science.

Our Objectives

In order to establish ACE leaders as well-known thought leaders within the industry, we created a media relations plan with strategies that prioritized amplifying their expertise via a diverse set of media. While the organization received hundreds of media placements per month, Mixte set the following goals for January – June 2020 focused on executive communications and truly building ACE’s reputation.

  • 1 placed opinion piece or guest column per quarter
  • 1-2 profile stories on ACE’s President and Chief Science Officer Cedric X. Bryant that position him as a leader in the health and fitness space
  • 2-3 generated stories a year that are agenda-setting and frame the conversation

The Outcome

When COVID-19 upended the fitness industry, ACE turned its attention to supporting its certified professionals and the fitness industry as a whole. Mixte turned its attention to repurposing tools and content the organization created to directly support its large network of certified professionals. Rather than trying to create a new PR plan that could anticipate rapidly changing needs, we worked with the team to be in the moment with an eye always open for opportunity. While not a sexy task, this pivot allowed our team to be a critical resource connecting ACE to journalists moving at a fast pace to cover a rapidly changing set of safety protocols that fluctuated from state to state.

Additionally, this strategy allowed our teams to identify the needs of exercise professionals and to focus on the next goal: to position ACE as an organization that’s a leader in bringing more equity, diversity and inclusion into an ever-changing industry. Ever since the onset of the pandemic and the community voices across America calling for social justice, ACE committed to being a catalyst and has since developed educational resources and forged relationships that have allowed the organization to pursue this much-needed change.

Since then, Mixte and ACE continue our long history of working together. We’ve moved out of crisis response thanks to the pandemic recovery and have continued to focus our strategic media relations vision on helping ACE close the gap in health and fitness for communities that are often overlooked.