Betsy Helgager Hughes

Betsy Helgager Hughes is the President/CEO of BLH Consulting, Inc. With 30 years of experience and four Silver Anvil Awards, Betsy offers a wealth of experience in business-to-business, consumer brand marketing, and multicultural communications through the independent PR and marketing communications consulting firm she founded in March 2002. The firm’s tagline, “Insights That Build Relationships Between People & Brands” is paramount to everything she and the firm does. They offer clients key insights into the cultural nuances and consumer mindsets of African-Americans, Hispanics and the general population, then they leverage those insights to shape messages that consumers positively respond and react to. It’s the cornerstone of the firm’s public relations approach. Before starting BLH, she founded and spearheaded the global public relations industry’s first dedicated, in-house team to focus on the African-American consumer, Ketchum PR’s African American Markets Group. Some of her most rewarding work included sending President Barack Obama a GSK smoking cessation kit after he became the Democratic nominee, encouraging him to quit smoking with Nicorette, NicoDerm or Commit. During one of his first presidential press conferences he was asked about kicking the habit, and mentioned he was trying with the help of Nicorette gum. Additionally, her work with agency partner Allison+Partners on behalf of Toyota has been rewarding. It gives her the freedom to develop innovative multicultural programs like Steeped in History, which launched in Los Angeles in 2017, and the Entrepreneurial EnTOURage, which kicked off in Kansas City in April 2019. Betsy started her public relations career at Hallmark Cards, Inc. as a company spokesperson, where she most notably launched the company’s first Kwanzaa Card. She is a 1990 journalism graduate of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University. Betsy’s been an active member of the Board of Visitors of FAMU’s School of Journalism, Media and Graphic Communications, and is the 1999 Florida recipient of the Thelma Thurston Gorham Distinguished Alumnus Award for her contributions to the School’s PR program and the public relations industry. She has served on the Boards of Roots, Inc., Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, and also received a business recognition award from the Atlanta Business League. She is a member of Public Relations Society of America and Georgia PRSA. For these accolades and many others, The Trailblazer Awards honor her.