Meld Marketing delves into unsolved Laura Van Wyhe case

Melinda Pradarelli never imagined Meld Marketing, the Iowa City marketing agency she founded in 2016, would become linked to a cold case involving the 1996 death of Iowa City native Laura Van Wyhe. In fact, when first approached about the case, Ms. Pradarelli herself found it hard to believe – not only that her agency was approached for help, but that she could offer something of value to the case. “You don’t market murder,” she said. But a convergence of factors – ranging from a seemingly random call from one of Laura’s childhood friends to the case’s pervasive Iowa City connections and Meld’s own stated business model – led Ms. Pradarelli and her company down a path most marketing firms will likely never find themselves walking.

Call for assistance came out of the blue

Meld acquires many, if not most, of its clients via traditional paths. So when the phone rang in April 2019, Ms. Pradarelli said she wasn’t sure how to react.

“Anne called me out of the blue and just said ‘Hi, I’m Anne Champion. Somebody I know recommended you,’” Ms. Pradarelli said. As the discussion unfolded, the pieces began to fall into place. Ms. Champion, a prominent New York attorney whose high-profile clients have included Mary Trump and Jim Acosta, grew up in Iowa City and was childhood friends with Laura Van Wyhe, whose violent October 1996 death remains unsolved and is now being investigated as a homicide.

• Read more: The Laura Van Wyhe case

Turns out the call wasn’t entirely random. Ms. Champion had heard about Meld from her sister, Catherine Champion, who owns Catherine’s Boutique in downtown Iowa City. Catherine’s husband, an attorney, had stopped by Meld’s offices a few years prior, asking Ms. Pradarelli to sign a copy of a book she had written in 2016 about the Von Maur department store company. “That was incredibly flattering,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “No one had ever asked me to do that. So I asked him what his connection was to Von Maur, and he said he worked for them. “He said we should go to dinner sometime,” she continued. “We never did that. But it was (because of) that weird connection two years before that Anne must have said, ‘I want to find a local group, someone who understands journalism, someone who understands the ability to go find people who can shine a light on this (case) and get the word out.’” Ms. Champion asked for a meeting with Meld, but didn’t provide many details at first. “I didn’t know she wasn’t in Iowa City, didn’t know she was a New York attorney, nothing,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “She said ‘I'm going to show up, and It's kind of a sensitive issue.’ No idea what it was about. We decided that myself and one other person would stay and talk to this client. We weren’t quite sure, but she had said enough that we trusted that it wasn't just completely bizarre. We would not normally take that meeting. But she said enough that we thought, ‘this seems important.’” As the discussion unfolded, the connections became clearer, as did Meld’s potential role. “She told us, ‘I’m not just somebody off the street coming in here. I'm an attorney, and I've had a good friend who died,’” Ms. Pradarelli recounts Ms. Champion saying. “She said ‘you're going to think it's kind of odd. Why am I here?’ And I said, ‘Yes, why are you here?’ She said, ‘because someone told me that you have a journalism background, and that you worked for the New York Times, but that you have a marketing company. And when they said that, I connected those dots.’” Ms. Pradarelli said she came to realize that her agency could, indeed, provide a valuable service to the case – convey accurate information, help get the word out and make connections.

• Read more: The Laura Van Wyhe case

In many ways, Ms. Pradarelli had the ideal background to address such an unusual request. A Cedar Rapids native, she graduated from Iowa State University, earned a Pulliam Fellowship from The Arizona Republic and became a journalist for a New York Times group newspaper in South Carolina before returning to Iowa. She launched Meld, a full service marketing firm, in Coralville in 2016. “We weren’t interested in doing this for any gratuitous reason, and she wasn’t interested in having anyone be gratuitous either,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “She was personally involved. Laura was her friend.” As a litigation attorney, Ms. Champion said she knew what avenues to pursue: she had tried going directly to law enforcement and engaging legal experts to get the FBI’s attention. It didn’t work. “This is a personal pursuit for me, not a professional one,” Ms. Champion said. “I couldn’t get enough attention back on the case. Honestly, reaching out to a marketing agency was really the last option on my list.”

Goal is to clarify, gather more information

Once Meld decided to take on the project, Ms. Pradarelli said she sought to determine an appropriate avenue for such an unusual situation. She said Ms. Champion had previously been advised to work with a marketing company, and that she had declined to pursue that option. “I can see why what would not be such a great instinct,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “It sounds like it could be kind of gross, right?” But upon further reflection, Ms. Pradarelli said she realized Meld could provide a truly valuable service, based on the agency’s philosophy: ‘Melding’ with organizations to help them define who they are, then translating that vision into strategic content and design that resonates with their audiences.

“I always say to our staff, we market in a way that's about education, and valuing substance over flash,” she said. “It’s what’s special about something,  what's going to catch the eye of the media or the audience. We really saw there was so much misinformation out, but not a lot of true information.” The case had received sporadic media attention over the years, but key questions remained unanswered. “The world has changed dramatically since 1996, and cold case game changers such as DNA testing and the power of social media to get directly to audiences are just two examples,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “In the past, you had to rely on the media to decide to write an article. Today, you can tell the story on a website, through social media, and in many other ways. You have the opportunity to interact directly with people who might know about the case or have information to help solve it.” Meld began their efforts by creating a campaign name and logo, “Champion for Laura,” keying off Ms. Champion’s name recognition and the notion of championing a resolution of a case that’s proven painful for Ms. Van Wyhe’s friends and family. The effort included building a full-featured website and a Facebook page, both designed to encourage interaction and cast a wide net, soliciting information that could help solve the case via an anonymous tip line. “We think about marketing almost like an octopus that has eight arms,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “The center of the octopus is the website, where we want to drive all of the audiences and inquiries. Once on the website, someone can read about Laura’s story, call or email the tip line, read past articles, or click on the Facebook page. But we know that people may enter into the campaign from any number of places (or arms). One might start their journey on Facebook or Twitter or simply Google Laura Van Wyhe. Our strategies are set up to ensure wherever someone starts that they can get to the campaign and to the tip line with as little friction as possible.” Ms. Champion and Meld worked to create posts that provided accurate information directly from the police reports, inquests, and witness statements. The team also helped Ms. Champion discuss a strategy to promote the reward and how to connect the new “Champion for Laura” tip line to the website and Facebook pages – all before any media releases were sent out. “We knew if we wanted accurate information to get out there, we had to spend time building that foundation and rooting it in fact,” Ms. Pradarelli said. The campaign led to updated articles in the Des Moines Register and the Daily Beast. And as it evolved, Jason Stavers, who had worked with Ms. Champion at the New York law firm, came forward with the idea of creating a podcast to help tell the story in a new way.

The product, “Bonaparte” – named after Laura’s destination the last night of her life – became a 10-episode podcast that recounts Laura’s story through the eyes of Ms. Champion and other friends and family of Laura. “The launch of the podcast became a huge piece of ongoing content for us to share on Facebook, Twitter, and on the website,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “It started to get a strong following, and that just added to the hundreds of people who were already engaging on the Facebook page.” Within the first four episodes, “Bonaparte” hit the Top 15 on Apple Podcasts, and as the episodes unfolded, people began to reach out to ask if they could help support an increased reward. In December, Ms. Champion decided to match pledges up to $5,000, raising an existing reward in the case from $10,000 to $20,000. Within the first day of crowdfunding, Ms. Champion received $2,500 in pledges. The reward will go to the first person who provides new information leading to an arrest and conviction of persons responsible for Laura’s death. Those who make a pledge will only be asked to fulfill their pledge if an individual comes forward with information that meets the criteria for earning the reward.

Measuring effectiveness in specific steps

The Van Wyhe case is unusual for a marketing agency, not just because of its subject matter, but because of the challenge of quantifiably measuring the campaign’s effectiveness. “We've got a group of people that have been involved in this from the beginning,” Ms. Pradarelli said. ”This is a case that moves at its own pace. It’s not like traditional marketing, where you can check through specific boxes. This was a little bit different. It’s a pretty unique combination, but it really started to make a lot of sense, because we have people who can look at this from all the angles, and we aligned so well on the stair steps that we were going to have to take. This is not a company paying for things. This is you and a group of people. So we tried to put a parameter around what felt reasonable.”

Meld and Ms. Champion worked together to outline rules for the Facebook page. Those who didn’t follow the rules of courtesy and respect would have their comments hidden, or they would be banned if they were a repeat offender. “We knew it was critical to set expectations on the Facebook page immediately, so that it did not turn into the Wild West of comments and accusations, “ Ms. Pradarelli said. “Our team and Anne were systematic about the way we introduced the page, the rules, and the first posts.” The Meld team continues to monitor comments on the Facebook page seven days a week. Within the first month, Facebook page followers grew to more than 500 people. And, more than 35 people reached out via the campaigns’ Facebook messenger inbox and the email tipline. With the permission of the tipster, potential – are passed onto law enforcement by Champion. Within the first two months, people from 49 states plus Washington, D.C. visited the website, and the Facebook page now has 1,900 likes and 2,100 followers. Still, many traditional metrics are hard to apply for a campaign like this, including a definable business case. “We weren't looking to make a major profit,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “We were looking to cover our expenses and get this thing built. One of the things I always said when I came back to Iowa to raise my kids here was any time that I can see something that's happening in the state of Iowa that’s either really interesting or a story that hasn't been told, I want in some way to make a difference. I don't have the connection (that Ms. Champion has). But what I can see is she has not given up on it. These people were born and raised in Iowa City. If you just looked at it on the surface, you might say ‘We're not doing this. Maybe this isn’t a good idea.’” But we went through a use case of what makes sense.”

What would success look like?

Ms. Pradarelli admits that, business interests aside, she’s developed a personal connection to the case. “We're really lucky to even be involved in this, truthfully,” Ms. Pradarelli said. “(Ms. Champion) trusted us to be a steward of this information. That means a lot to me. And that's really one of the reasons we wanted to have a business, to build that trust. I want to make sure I get the facts right, as best I can. Maybe I'm never going to tell it the way you're going to tell it, but I take that responsibility seriously.” Laura Van Wyhe’s story continues to get new attention. Investigation Discovery is focusing on the case in an upcoming episode of their series, “Still A Mystery: Secrets in the DNA,” premiering this Thursday night, May 4. Continued attention to the case is gratifying for Ms. Pradarelli. “You hear this a lot today that being able to tell your story is a big deal,” she said. “in the past, you had to hope somebody would tell your story. Of course, if you're fortunate enough to be Prince Harry, you get to write your own book. He said he was writing a book because he wanted to tell his truth. Anne was just saying, it'd be so great if we could just take what is factual and share it, because people don't understand some of the events.” Of course, finding definitive answers would be the ultimate resolution, Ms. Pradarelli admits, considering the investment Meld, Ms. Champion and others have made. “We may solve this yet. We might not. But there's still a good chance that we could, so we’re going to keep the assets out there,” she said. “(If it’s solved), I would be so happy for this family, and I think no matter what happens, we've all gotten to a point that we feel we're really lucky to even be involved. She trusted us to share this information. That means a lot to me, and it’s really one of the reasons we wanted to build this business. It's always going to have a special place for us, because it's such a rare opportunity to take our team skills and our passion and do something good.”

ON TV:

“Still a Mystery – Secrets in the DNA,” featuring the Laura Van Wyhe case, premieres Thursday, May 4 at 8 p.m. CDT on Investigation Discovery (ImOn channel 93 or 893, Mediacom channel 205, DirecTV channel 285, DISH Network channel 192). It will be rebroadcast that night at 11 p.m. CDT. Thereafter, it will be available for online streaming on Discovery+, beginning May 19.