CODA / PR FOR COMPANIES BUILT TO SCALE EST. 2016 · ATL · ATX · DAL · NYC · PHX · RAL
Visibility · Credibility · Momentum

Founders lead. Coda scales.

Narrative Architecture + Visibility Strategy

Portfolio Enterprise Value $0B+ Across client ecosystems
Capital Raised $0B+ Founder and portfolio activity
Portfolio Revenue Activity (2026) $0M+ Across strategic engagements
Estimated Market Value Expansion (2026) $0M+ Driven by positioning and visibility

Built for portfolios,
brand ecosystems,
and enterprise.

01 of 06 / Built For
01 / PORTFOLIO

Portfolio-driven organizations.

Holding companies, capital portfolios, and operating groups managing multiple brands across categories. Communications engineered for portfolio coherence and cross-brand leverage at scale.

HoldcosOperatorsCapital
02 / ECOSYSTEMS

Multi-brand consumer ecosystems.

Diversified consumer goods companies operating across hardware, household, beauty, hospitality, and adjacent categories. Brand families with category-level scale and multi-decade trajectories.

CPGConsumerDiversified
03 / ENTERPRISE

Enterprise brand structures.

Established enterprises with complex brand hierarchies, multi-stakeholder communications, and reputation systems engineered for institutional gravity. Built for cycles, not single launches.

EnterpriseInstitutionalMature

A public relations firm
built by architects & engineers

02 of 06 / Approach
The equation
What we do is Math. We didn't invent it, but we execute it better than anyone else.
01 / POSITIONING D-01

Positioning before publicity.

Most firms begin with outputs: pitches, releases, hits chased. We begin earlier. Strategic positioning, narrative architecture, and perception design come first. Amplification comes after the strategy is built.

PositioningNarrativePerception
02 / ALIGNMENT D-02

Narrative alignment.

Founder, company, investor, customer, recruiting, press, market: every surface transmits the brand. Each signal should reinforce the same narrative system, not fragment it.

FounderCoherenceSystem
03 / VISIBILITY D-03

Visibility that compounds.

PR should not create temporary attention spikes. It should build long-term reputation infrastructure: trust, authority, and market position that compound over time.

TrustAuthorityCompounding
How an engagement works
FIG. 01 / PROCESS
Phase P-01
Story
Define what the company is, who it serves, and why it matters.
Phase P-02
Message
Build founder voice, category framing, and the investor narrative.
Phase P-03
Press
Earn the right media, podcasts, and platforms. Built to compound.
Phase P-04
Reputation
Maintain and protect the brand as the company grows.
PROCESS / 04 PHASES APPLIED TO EVERY ENGAGEMENT
[ The point ]

Coverage is easy.
Credibility is the hard part.

Most firms can get a company press. Fewer can build the kind of reputation that makes the next round, the next hire, and the next customer easier. That's where we focus.
03 of 06 / Capabilities
What we do
Capabilities designed to work together as one visibility system.

Capabilities integrated
to support visibility,
credibility, and scale.

01 C-01
Strategic
Foundation
The positioning architecture, narrative system, and messaging infrastructure every other touchpoint inherits. Built before any earned media work begins.
02 C-02
Media
Relations
The continuous earned media program. Proactive pitching, reactive newsjacking, and the systematic outreach that turns positioning into press.
03 C-03
Executive
Positioning
The founder-as-asset program. Bylines, contributed articles, speaking circuit, podcast pipeline. Treated as enterprise-value assets.
04 C-04
Launch
Campaigns
Concentrated four-week pushes around funding, product, and milestone announcements. High intensity, defined scope, built to break through.
05 C-05
Media
Training
Live preparation, mock interviews, and message drills. Principals trained for the moments that matter, before they're in the room.
06 C-06
Reputation
& Crisis
Prepared response, narrative defense, and reputation maintenance during moments under pressure. Engaged as a separate scope when needed.
04 of 06 / Work
Selected work
A short list of recent engagements. Most names held under client confidentiality.

Selected
work.

W-01

Multi-Brand Consumer Hardware Holding Company

Publicly traded portfolio operator distributing 130,000+ products across North American retail.

2025 · $6.46M AVE
Challenge

A newly developed sub-brand within the parent portfolio required independent category visibility without diluting the parent's institutional identity or saturating retail-buyer attention.

Positioning Shift

Repositioned from a hardware-adjacent SKU to a gardening-category specialist for the modern enthusiast and gift-giving editorial cycles.

Visibility Strategy

Concentrated push during Q4 high-velocity holiday and gift-guide windows. Layered seasonal narrative tied to gardener identity and gifting occasions across lifestyle, home, and consumer-trade press. Earned and pending coverage paced to compound across the cycle.

Notable Coverage

NYT / Wirecutter, CNN Underscore, MSN, Better Homes & Gardens, Apartment Therapy, The Spruce, Good Housekeeping, AOL. Pending pipeline: People, NBC, Yahoo Life, Forbes Vetted, USA Today, NYT.

Business Impact

65 placements in Q4. 808M unique visitors per month aggregate reach. $6.46M advertising value equivalent.

W-02

Heritage Kitchenware Manufacturer

American craftsmanship operator transitioning from privately held to publicly traded.

2024 · IPO
Challenge

Heritage manufacturer with strong product DNA but limited consumer-facing brand recognition, preparing for an IPO. Required simultaneous institutional press validation and consumer demand signal in advance of the capital markets window.

Positioning Shift

Repositioned from industrial kitchen supplier to trusted American heritage brand for the modern home — connecting craftsmanship narrative to consumer lifestyle media.

Visibility Strategy

Concentrated 90-day campaign timed to the IPO window. Built credibility through tier-one culinary editorial, home design press, and high-distribution consumer outlets — establishing brand visibility at parity with category incumbents in advance of public listing.

Notable Coverage

Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Life, NY Post, Good Housekeeping, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Serious Eats, Homes & Gardens, Veranda, AOL, Chatelaine.

Business Impact

109 articles secured in 90 days. 2.23B total UVM. 20.5M average UVM per outlet. IPO supported.

W-03

Inclusive Color Cosmetics Brand

Independent challenger beauty operating at the intersection of high-pigment performance, inclusivity, and cultural relevance.

2023 · 100M+ Impressions
Challenge

Independent beauty brand with strong product and loyal community but limited visibility outside its existing audience. Required media validation at parity with category leaders to attract retail distribution and entertainment partnerships.

Positioning Shift

Reframed from indie color brand to the inclusive answer the beauty industry was missing — connecting product performance to a cultural narrative around representation.

Visibility Strategy

Layered tier-one beauty editorial with strategic entertainment-industry partnerships. Coordinated talent seeding with media moments to compound brand mentions across editorial, social, and on-screen surfaces simultaneously.

Notable Coverage

Vogue, Allure, Essence, Glamour, Refinery29, Byrdie, ELLE.

Business Impact

100M+ media impressions. Distribution and content partnerships secured across STARZ, HBO, Netflix, and Tyler Perry Studios.

W-04

Luxury Vegan Footwear Brand

Sustainable fashion challenger competing in an established luxury footwear category dominated by heritage leather houses.

2024 · Awards Circuit
Challenge

Vegan footwear brand needed to establish luxury credentials and cultural relevance simultaneously, without leading with the traditional sustainability messaging that confines most challengers to a lower price tier.

Positioning Shift

Reframed from vegan alternative to luxury without compromise — positioning product as category leader rather than category alternative. Built brand around award-show visibility and cultural taste-making.

Visibility Strategy

Coordinated celebrity seeding with red-carpet moments at major industry award shows. Layered with tier-one fashion and luxury press to compound the cultural narrative and create a feedback loop between earned editorial and celebrity placement.

Notable Coverage

VOGUE, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Today Show.

Business Impact

Worn by A-list talent at the Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmys, and SAG Awards. Celebrity seeding included Miley Cyrus, Halsey, Gabrielle Union, Ashley Graham.

W-05

Specialty CPG & Sustainability Brand

Premium honey producer with a conservation mission, operating across DTC and national retail distribution.

2024 · Editorial + Conversion
Challenge

Premium specialty CPG with strong founder narrative but seasonal sales pressure. Required conversion of editorial gift-guide cycles into measurable web traffic and revenue, while reinforcing long-term sustainability authority.

Positioning Shift

Repositioned from specialty honey producer to premium gifting and conservation brand — engineered for editorial gift-guide cycles while reinforcing institutional sustainability narrative.

Visibility Strategy

Two-track approach: tier-one broadcast and lifestyle press for gift-giving credibility, paired with high-conviction influencer partnerships to drive direct-response traffic during the peak window. Editorial and influencer cycles paced to compound rather than compete.

Notable Coverage

NBC Today Show, Oprah, Travel + Leisure, Esquire, Southern Living, New York Magazine, Yahoo, Food & Wine.

Business Impact

Influencer activation drove 769,371 views and 44,919 web sessions in 48 hours. Editorial featured across 8+ tier-one outlets in a 120-day window.

W-06

Legal Analyst & Network Television Principal

Practicing attorney positioning for sustained network-level visibility and editorial authority across major American news networks.

2024 · Executive Positioning
Challenge

Subject-matter expert with strong credentials but inconsistent platform visibility. Required positioning as a recurring on-air principal across major networks while building durable audience reach independent of any single segment booker.

Positioning Shift

Reframed from frequent legal contributor to recurring on-air principal with point-of-view authority — building voice consistency and cross-platform recognition.

Visibility Strategy

Layered network television appearances with thought-leadership editorial, opinion-page placements, and long-form lifestyle press. Coordinated with platform-native social growth to build distribution beyond television and durable audience independent of any single network.

Notable Coverage

CNN, BBC, CourtTV, MSNBC, FOX, ABC News, CBS, Forbes, Woman's World.

Business Impact

459,000 followers added across Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok in 12 months. Recurring on-air contributor across all major American news networks.

05 / of 06

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Founder · Statement

You know more about our clients than you do about me. That's intentional.

Melanie DeFilippis Founder · Coda PR
[ 06 / 06 ] · Contact ACCEPTING SELECT ENGAGEMENTS / 2026
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