- New company Polaris Media America LLC is based in Chicago expanding work of Liverpool based UK company
- New American company will offer transatlantic trade bridge to exporter clients
- Polaris Media America is helping reestablish Propeller Club for Chicago and Great Lakes encouraging maritime networking with 60 strong port network worldwide
Polaris Media, the award winning maritime and engineering specialist PR firm, is expanding its offering to exporters with the launch of a new company in the United States.
Polaris Media America LLC is headquartered in the Chicagoland town of Lake Forest, Illinois on Lake Michigan. It is being led by Polaris MD Ben Pinnington a former journalist who now holds American residency and who founded Polaris in Liverpool, U.K. in 2011.
ADDING VALUE TO EXPORTERS
“We’re expanding here in the United States to offer our exporter clients something new – a transatlantic trade bridge,” said Pinnington. “Exporters are looking for the best advisers not locally or even nationally but wherever they are in the world. We recognize that to compete in this new digital era Polaris has to innovate and offer more value. Launching here in America with a new company with new networks is one way we can do that.
“The world is changing, and America and transatlantic trade offer more security, certainty and opportunity. America is pro-business with a massive maritime and engineering exporter base. PR and marketing is also changing and becoming more digital and global in reach.”
Pinnington, a married 48-year-old father of two, said the expansion builds on company success being named Global Performance Company of the Year at the Mersey Maritime Industry Awards in 2022 with more than 60pc of Polaris’ turnover now driven by exports. Polaris has a team of ten specialist writers, designers, social media professionals and consultants.
WARM WELCOME
“I would like to thank both Lake County Partners and World Business Chicago for making us very welcome here in the ‘City of Broad Shoulders’,” he said. “Chicago is perfectly located at the heart of the United States and I have been fortunate to visit here many times in the last ten years to see my wife’s Polish family. I have always found Chicago an inspiring beautiful place with a passion for entrepreneurship, culture and dreaming big. It is the economic powerhouse of the Midwest and Great Lakes region with ease of access to the St Lawrence Seaway and the storied US inland waterway network. From here we can promote our networks in both the U.S. and European markets supported by our team in the U.S. and U.K. I would also like to thank all our friends and clients in the U.K. and in particular Liverpool. Polaris has grown out of the Merseyside maritime cluster and we are grateful for all the support we receive.”
Kyle Schulz, EVP of economic development agency World Business Chicago, said: “We applaud Polaris Media for their decision to establish their U.S. company in the Chicagoland region. This reinforces the Chicagoland region’s stature as a strategic hub for business, leveraging its robust transportation and logistics infrastructure, as well as its rich legacy and flourishing emerging industries. By fostering collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors, we are confident that Polaris Media’s presence will further enhance innovation, job creation, and the overall economic well-being of our residents.”
Kevin Considine, president and CEO of economic development agency Lake County Partners said: “As the second biggest exporting county in the entire state, Lake County is the perfect home for Polaris Media. The area is a major destination for international trade and foreign investment, with export revenue topping $7 billion and accounting for 13% of the state’s total export values. Growing companies are leveraging Lake County’s talent and infrastructure to go global, and we are thrilled to add Polaris’ services to the many resources available to them.”
GREAT LAKES NETWORKING
To support Polaris’s expansion, the company is helping to re-establish a Propeller Club for Chicago and the Great Lakes to promote maritime trade between the club’s 60 chapters worldwide.
“We’re already promoting innovative American, UK and overseas clients in the U.S. and global maritime sector,” he said. “We want to work with more businesses driving innovation in engineering and shipping across decarbonisation, sustainability, digitalisation and seafarer welfare.”
RECRUITMENT AND TOUR
Pinnington confirmed Polaris is looking to recruit U.S.-based writers, office administrators and graphic designers on a contractor basis to support growth.
Polaris will be exhibiting or attending events in the U.S. this summer and fall promoting the new transatlantic service and Pinnington’s Amazon best selling book: Making Waves: PR strategies to transform your maritime business. Dates include Marine Money New York City, the Great Lakes Ports Association Conference in Chicago, the International Propeller Club annual conference in South Carolina and Work Boat New Orleans.
BACKGROUND
Polaris Media is a multi award winning maritime, manufacturing and engineering specialist PR firm. The company was founded in Liverpool, UK in 2011 by journalist turned PR Ben Pinnington.
Polaris was voted Global Performance Business of the Year at the 2022 Mersey Maritime Awards (MMIAs) and Professional Services Business of the Year at the MMIA’s in 2020.
Polaris has worked for more than 70 clients including ship builders, boat builders, hovercraft builders, shipping lines, ports, flag states, classification societies, equipment makers, cyber security firms, professional service companies, seafarer charities and trade associations. It has clients in the UK, USA, India, China, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Turkey, Poland, the Netherlands and Lithuania.
In 2021 Polaris MD Ben Pinnington published his first book ‘Making Waves: PR strategies to transform your maritime business’. The book is an Amazon best seller and won the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Silver Award for best publication in 2022. Nautilus Telegraph called the book ‘a must read for maritime businesses’.
Polaris delivers a range of PR services including media relations, strategy, crisis management, social media campaigns, creative design and websites and business development.
Visit: www.polarismediapr.com Email: news@polarismediapr.com