Blue Jeans, Web Venture Boost Pecchia Agency

CANFIELD – A “dream engagement” with the makers of Wrangler and Lee blue jeans and the launch of a website chronicling the Mahoning Valley’s fight against COVID-19 helped sustain Pecchia Communications during a tough year. 

Despite the loss of considerable business during the pandemic, revenue for the year rose nearly 20% over 2019, says Dan Pecchia, president of the Canfield public relations firm.

“Our business in 2020 performed like the stock market – two great months to start, then a breathtaking nosedive, then a meteoric rise,” Pecchia says. “We benefited greatly from our dream engagement with Kontoor Brands, owner of the Wrangler and Lee clothing lines, which brought us on in late 2019, kept us busy through the pandemic and extended our serv-ice into early 2021.”

Late in the year, the agency picked up considerable new work with Columbus-based Ohio Living, the state’s largest nonprofit provider of life-plan communities and services. And it enjoyed rising volume with several legacy Youngstown-area clients.

Also in 2020, Pecchia Comm and a group of financial sponsors launched ValleyTough.org, a website with content focused on business and community leaders battling COVID-19. The site has spotlighted bank executives, restaurateurs, retail proprietors, factory operators, union leaders, pastors, athletes, coaches, elected officials, entertainers and nonprofit managers.

Kelli Hulea, who joined the company in 2017, was promoted last year to project director.

The agency’s pro bono support helped the Robinson-Shuba Commemorative Statue project finish its $400,000 fundraising drive ahead of schedule last year. The success was partly because of a large grant from an Oregon philanthropist who saw a story about the memorial on TV and called project leaders to offer whatever remaining dollars were needed. The statue is set for installation this summer.