Provalus: Rebuilding Rural America One Job and One Story at a Time
Together The Harris Agency and Provalus executed a multi-faceted campaign which resulted in coverage across national, regional, and local outlets reaching over 100 million people and widespread syndication across major news platforms. On the business front, the campaign sparked significant inbound interest, with more than 90 municipalities, mayors, and economic development organizations reaching out to explore partnerships as well as request for engagement by both the US Congress and The White House. Campaign success recognized with nomination for two SABRE awards.
Insights and Analysis
Provalus operates in an IT outsourcing industry dominated by offshore labor models, where cost efficiency has traditionally outweighed community impact. While the company has built a fast-growing, 100% U.S.-based workforce in rural America, it faced a critical growth challenge: identifying and securing new rural communities willing to partner on future call-center locations despite limited national awareness of the company.
To inform campaign strategy, The Harris Agency (THA) conducted both primary and secondary research. Primary research included in-depth interviews with Provalus executives to clarify growth priorities and site-selection criteria; story-mining sessions with employees across multiple rural locations; and analysis of workforce outcomes related to job creation, veteran hiring, and career advancement. Secondary research included a media landscape analysis of reshoring and rural economic development coverage, a competitive review of IT outsourcing narratives, and examination of labor, veteran employment, and rural revitalization data to identify untapped media white space.
This research revealed a clear opportunity: although reshoring is frequently discussed in abstract economic terms, no company had emerged as a national proof point for what successful onshoring looks like in practice. Provalus’ model (combining job creation, adaptive reuse of downtown spaces, and long-term community partnership) positioned the company to become the face of rural reshoring if its story could be elevated with credibility and scale.
Planning
Based on these insights, THA developed a national earned-media strategy designed to elevate Provalus from a regional success story to a recognized example of rural economic revitalization. The plan centered on securing high-credibility national business and broadcast coverage that would validate Provalus’ model while pairing data-driven business results with compelling human narratives.
The campaign established specific, measurable objectives: secure Tier-1 national media coverage; increase awareness among rural municipal leaders to accelerate site-selection discussions; position Provalus executives as thought leaders in workforce development and veteran employment; and generate tangible inbound interest from potential community and policy partners. Target audiences included rural municipal decision-makers, economic development leaders, business and policy influencers shaping reshoring discourse, and potential employees, particularly veterans and displaced rural workers.
The overall strategy was to anchor the campaign with a single, authoritative national feature, then rapidly leverage that credibility across broadcast, digital, and opinion platforms to extend reach and influence. Tahlequah, Oklahoma and Brewton, Alabama, Provalus’ most established locations, were selected as the primary storytelling sites where reporters could experience the company’s impact firsthand. The program was executed within a modest earned-media budget of $15K per month which was used solely to cover the agency hours needed to execute with no paid advertising.
Execution
THA launched the campaign by researching and pitching several top-tier print reporters who specifically cover reshoring and workforce trends. One of the top targets was The Wall Street Journal’s Workforce and Employment Reporter, Lauren Weber, who showed an interest in Provalus and the storyline THA presented to her. Upon request, THA sent Weber additional content, including video and graphics, to help her convince her editor to let her do the story, which took approximately two months to confirm.
Once Weber had approval from her editor, THA quickly worked with her to set a date to meet with Mike Keogh, president of Provalus, at the company’s Tahlequah, Oklahoma facility. In addition, THA collaborated with Provalus to confirm in-person interviews for her and her photographer with other executives, employees, local officials, Cherokee Nation representatives, and nearby business owners who have benefited from Provalus establishing its facility in Tahlequah.
Weber spent almost two full days at Provalus’ Tahlequah facility, touring the operation and meeting students at the nearby Northeastern State University’s Career Fair. THA managed all aspects of Weber’s visit, including executive preparation, interview coordination, and on-site logistics. The resulting Wall Street Journal feature, “These Jobs Often Go Overseas. One Company Is Bringing Them to Rural America”, which appeared both online and in print, positions Provalus as a national model for onshoring, highlighting individual career transformations, community revitalization, and competitive client outcomes.
THA immediately leveraged Weber’s story to secure follow-on national media coverage, including multiple live segments from Provalus’ Brewton facility on Fox Business News, a digital feature on FoxBusiness.com, and a national broadcast feature on NewsNation, including a standalone live interview with CEO Chuck Ruggiero on the outlet’s “Morning in America” program.
Simultaneously, THA placed an earned opinion piece by Provalus President Mike Keogh in Newsweek on Veterans Day, arguing that veterans represent an underutilized leadership talent pool critical to strengthening the U.S. workforce. This visibility led directly to Keogh’s invitation to the American Growth Summit in Washington, D.C., expanding Provalus’ reach among senior policymakers and business leaders.
The primary execution challenge involved coordinating reporter travel to remote rural locations. THA addressed this by selecting media receptive to immersive reporting, conducting advance site visits, and coordinating community stakeholders to ensure efficient, high-impact coverage. No external agencies or nontraditional paid tactics were used.
Evaluation
The media coverage is estimated to have reached over 100 million people, including The Wall Street Journal (22.7M UVM), Fox Business News (37M UVM), FoxBusiness.com (7.5M UVM), NewsNation (6.5M UVM), and Newsweek (38.5M UVM). The Wall Street Journal feature was also syndicated across major news aggregation platforms, including LinkedIn News, Yahoo News (365M UVM), MSN (94M UVM), Politico (15M UVM), and AOL News (24M UVM), extending its reach well beyond core subscribers.
Most importantly, the coverage reached the intended audience: municipal decisionmakers in rural communities across the nation. The media coverage unleashed a torrent of interest in Provalus, spurring business inquiries from more than 90 municipalities, mayors and economic development organizations. It elevated Provalus in the eyes of existing clients — indeed, several smaller clients that had been discussing pilots or small projects with the company upgraded the scope under discussion to include the entire enterprise. In addition, now Provalus was talking directly to the C-Suite, not managers lower in the organization. As a result, there are multiple opportunities active in Provalus’ pipeline today that did not exist prior to the campaign, which has also transformed how Provalus pursues new business: the company now has the luxury of focusing on inbound opportunities versus outbound searching.
Moreover, the campaign drove meaningful third-party partnerships with a national education and assessment organization and a veteran-focused financial services foundation, aimed at enhancing employee skills and capabilities and expanding access to employment opportunities for veterans. It also served as a powerful community-relations vehicle, prompting residents in the communities where Provalus operates to reach out directly and voice their support. Finally, the campaign prompted outreach from senior White House economic leadership, opening a line of communication critical to Provalus’ mission of bringing business and opportunity to the heartland.
What stands out most to me is the broader validation this campaign generated. It provided social proof and validation that, with the right investment in people and communities, exceptional results can come from places others often underestimate. As a direct result of the coverage, our teams have seen an influx of inbound inquiries from new and existing partners, leading to new and expanded opportunities aligned with both our capabilities and our purpose.”