
Challenge
TSYS, the global payment provider headquartered in Columbus, GA, felt its brand was “under recognized,” despite an outstanding 35-year record, and wanted to boost its profile as an industry leader.
Breakthrough Solutions
Cookerly jumped in with an aggressive executive thought leadership and visibility program, highlighting advances in payment technology and client experience, data security, consumer spending trends and community involvement.
- Our approach to proactive media outreach mined creative stories across business lines. One example is a unique program to upskill the TSYS workforce for the cloud that landed two prominent stories in The Wall Street Journal; coverage featured the successful transformation plus the company CIO, one of the few top female execs in the industry.
- Our team trained and leveraged the C-suite and SMEs to tell the TSYS story via hundreds of national business and trade reporters/bloggers, bylines and podcasts.
- Awards, speaking opportunities and social/digital content were amped-up to showcase expertise and innovation.
Results
- Thanks to our winning relationship cultivated with TSYS, overall visibility soared with more than 140 media placements in outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Bloomberg, IT World, CIO.com, Becker’s Hospital, Medical Economics, PYMNTS.com, PaymentsSource, Mobile Payments Today and numerous other trades.
- Recognition jumped with awards/speaking opportunities spanning FinTech Breakthrough Awards, BAI Global Innovation Awards, Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Women Who Mean Business, PaymentsSource’s Most Influential Women in Payments, ETA’s TRANSACT and more.
- During this engagement, TSYS completed a mega merger with Global Payments (NYSE: GPN), creating a combined entity to facilitate approximately $50 billion in annual payment transactions.

As a senior vice president at Cookerly, Matt helps organizations protect and advance their reputations and bottom lines through strategic communications programs. Using creativity, planning and flawless execution, he works with a team to deliver compelling public relations campaigns that produce results and support clients’ business objectives.
As senior vice president at Cookerly, Mike Rieman specializes in building and maintaining relationships with the media and has an excellent track record of landing significant placements in print and broadcast media including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Money Magazine.
As vice president of Cookerly, Sheryl Sellaway uses her extensive corporate communications background to lead consumer PR efforts, deliver strategy for marketing programs and share expertise about community initiatives.
