Meet Mindy Smith, RVIA’s New Sr. Mgr. of Public Relations – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a News & Insights report by the RV Industry Association.
The RV Industry Association’s Marketing and Communications team is the voice of the industry, ensuring a cohesive and positive message across the media landscape. The team’s messaging continues to draw a younger, more diverse consumer base to enjoy the benefits of RVing and the great outdoors. To assist with the Association’s marketing efforts, the Marketing and Communications department recently onboarded Senior Manager of Public Relations Mindy Smith.
After graduating with her master’s in Public Affairs in 2012, Mindy began working with the Girl Scouts. “I was a lifelong Girl Scout K-12 and then I was a Girl Scout volunteer, so my natural next step was to work for the organization because they’d recruited me,” Mindy explains. “I was responsible for their marketing and public relations. I also helped with their curriculum development.” Additionally, during her time with the Girl Scouts, Mindy worked with outdoor organizations such as The North Face to help create partnerships for girls, Girl Scouts, and volunteers.
“That was really rewarding, and I did that for about eight years in total,” Mindy reflects. “After Girl Scouts, I went straight into public relations and the outdoor industry. I worked for a public relations agency, Darby Communications, that focused on outdoor activities such as backpacking, paddling, climbing, and running. There I managed six outdoor gear brand accounts and public relations accounts, where I led strategy and supported different types of media. I learned quite a bit.”
One of the accounts she worked with was SylvanSport, an RV Industry Association member, which encouraged her to begin learning more about the RV industry. “I really enjoy it,” she says. “I love that people can take road trips with their family and friends and have those shared experiences. So, here I am!”
As the RV Industry Association’s Senior Manager of Public Relations, Mindy’s responsibilities include media monitoring and strategy development to determine what public relations campaigns and pitching strategies are going to yield results that create a genuine interest in the RV lifestyle. “I follow the trends and media cycles, maintain a PR calendar, provide support when we are presented with media opportunities, utilize our website resources to help answer media questions, and support our public relations agencies,” Mindy explains. “We have incredible agency support, and we empower our agencies to implement strategies that we’re developing. We support them by providing guidance around our organization’s goals and priorities, discussing what resources they have, and explaining how our goals can be implemented.”
So far, Mindy’s favorite part of her new role is working on strategy development alongside Senior Director of Public Relations and Communications Monika Geraci. “I really enjoy working with Monika on strategy development,” says Mindy. “I’m approaching the RV industry with an understanding of the wider outdoor industry. I enjoy learning about the RV industry and using that information to help develop our calendars and our priorities.”
While Mindy learned about the RV industry from a professional standpoint during her time at Darby Communications, her first introduction to the RV world was during childhood. “I grew up camping in a pop-up camper with my parents,” she says, adding that she began camping in western North Carolina at five years old.
“My mom, stepdad, and I always visited Camp Mortimer in western North Carolina, and we stayed there in our Coleman pop up camper,” she recalls. “We would go there multiple times each summer— Memorial Day weekend, July Fourth, and other times throughout the summers. I have the fondest memories. The same families always camped there so it always felt like a big reunion of friends. Sometimes I still go back.”
“It was my gateway to working in the outdoor and RV industries,” Mindy continues. “Those experiences brought me s’mores, hiking and biking, and sliding down Camp Mortimer’s Thorps Creek Falls. It brought me all of these activities that help define who I am today. I’m an avid outdoorswoman. The RV industry, to me, is the gateway to being a part of something bigger than me, which is the outdoor industry and our access to our national parks, public lands, trails, and campgrounds.”
Additionally, Mindy says, the outdoors provides opportunities to connect with loved ones and carry on traditions to the next generation. “I want to give the outdoor experience to my daughter,” she says. “I recently adopted my nine-year-old daughter and I’m seven months into parenting. She stayed in an RV last summer with us for a week in Wyoming and she keeps saying she can’t wait to do it again. I’m giving her a similar experience to what I had growing up. The outdoors is about family and friendship.”
