Insights Success has curated a list of “The 10 Most Creative PR Agencies in 2018” which are excelling their provision of best in class PR solutions and playing a vital role in the success of various organization.
Imprenta Communications Group: Reaching Diverse Audiences Since Inception
1. August 2018
www.insightssuccess.com
Ronald Wong
President & CEO
Imprenta
Communications Group
Most Creative
Agencies in 2018
10
The
Reaching Diverse Audiences Since Inception
Editor’s Pick
The Impressive Impact
of Organic Networking
Understanding
Reformations
Media Industry and
its’ Digital Transformation
2.
3.
4. or decades, Public Relation (PR) agencies have been working with corporates as well as
Findividuals to develop and execute campaigns that connect clients with the target audience. Any
PR firm’s practice areas widely range from content creation, corporate communications, events,
executive coaching, internal communications, promotional asset production, media relations, multi-media,
social media, reputation management and more.
Recently, Public relations agencies have been shifting to a more customer centric structure, with the
consumers playing a much larger role in online media. In other words, it is a considerable shift from a
journalist or writer based public relations to a customer-focused approach. This has resulted in a dramatic
impact on how PR agencies are structured and the services they provide. With videos becoming
overwhelmingly popular on social media, digital teams are now a requisite for any agency, mobilized to
work with clients on how best to leverage videography for social media platforms to reach key
stakeholders.
Writing and distributing news releases and then pitching media, has now become an obsolete process.
Nowadays, PR specialists are typically working to establish and maintain relationships with an
organization’s target audience, the media, relevant trade media, as well as other opinion leaders. According
to independent researchers, the market data of this fast growing sector is designed to promote the interests
and image of clients. The worldwide public relations revenue is projected to estimate approximately 19.3
billion by 2020 which advocates experiencing a significant growth compared to the previous years.
Editor’s Note
Public Relations:
Managing the
Identity
of Organizations
August 2018
www.insightssuccess.com
Ronald Wong
President & CEO
Imprenta
Communications Group
Most Creative
Agencies in 2018
10
The
Reaching Diverse Audiences Since Inception
Editor’s Pick
The Impressive Impact
of Organic Networking
Understanding
Reformations
Media Industry and
its’ Digital Transformation
5. In the upcoming years, PR will entail more dependence on analytics and is likely to include the terms
data techniques, data analytics and geo-location that all are coined as tools to target people with
relevant, customer-specific content. Additionally, PR firms are looking forward to be ahead of the
curve and finding ways to disrupt and innovate internally through exploring passions and developing
skills in adjacent disciplines.
To shed light over the industry and recognize some of the most creative PR agencies, Insights
Success has curated a list of “The 10 Most Creative PR Agencies in 2018” which are excelling their
provision of best in class PR solutions and playing a vital role in the success of various organization.
Featuring as the Cover Story we have Imprenta Communications Group, a California-based,
award-winning public affairs, ethnic marketing, and campaign firm, which specializes in reaching
diverse audiences.
In this issue, we have also shortlisted Bob Gold & Associates, which is an independent Southern
California-based public relations agency with offices in New York and a global network of high tech
PR agencies. It delivers meaningful connections for its clients through integrated communications
programs; Pietryla PR & Marketing, which is a boutique PR firm; North 6th Agency, who has
built a culture that is rewarding, collaborative, and unique. Its people and its passion for what it does
is what keeps the positive energy flowing through the heart of the agency; TrizCom PR, which is
comprised of public relations practitioners, solely committed to their craft; NRPR Group, a publicity
firm that believes in the power of coupling traditional PR with digital marketing and in the vast
opportunities that creating innovative content; 120 WEST STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS
LLC., a company that excels in marketing, investor relations and public relations firm created to help
companies grow; K2 Global Communications, a boutique content marketing and public relations
firm focused on driving our clients’ bottom lines through targeted content and PR services; NRPR
Group is a strategic positioning firm that believes in the combined power of thoughtful public
relations, social media and digital media marketing; BLOOM COMMUNICATIONS, which is an
integrated communications agency that provides strategic marketing, public relations, and research-
based consulting services exclusively to organizations that are making an impact in their
communities.
Kaustav Roy
6. Reaching Diverse
Audiences Since Inception
Imprenta
Communications
Group
Editor’s Pick
The Impressive Impact
of Organic Networking
Understanding Reformations
Media Industry and
its’ Digital Transformation
Articles
Sports Insider
No More Staying
Home:3 Ways We Get
Our Customers to Come
Out & Play
Virtuoso’s Vision
The Shift that broke
the pendulum
Maestros Insights
AI:From Artificial
to Authentic
16
30
46
22
38
Cover Story
8
7. 44
42TrizCom PR:
Delivering Tailor-made
Solutions and Building
Unwavering Trust
Bob Gold & Associates:
Boosting Business through
Digital Engagement
Pietryla PR & Marketing:
Scaling Businesses Digitally
North 6th Agency:
Embracing the Pace
since Inception
K2 Global Communications:
Influencing the Influencers
18
20
26
28
34
NRPR Group:
Setting a Benchmark
for Excellence
36
120 West Strategic
Communications:
Business Growth Fueled by Strategy,
Marketing & Public Relations
BLOOM Communications:
Specialized Marketing & PR Agency
Serving Clients Committed to Giving Back
11. “Our mission is to empower
communities of color by
giving them a voice and
communicating to them in
ways that respects their
diversity and understands
their culture.”
—Ronald Wong
President & CEO
Cover Story
12. By participating in and, indeed, driving this essential course
correction, Imprenta has established itself as one of the
U.S.’s most forward-thinking and powerful media
influencers. In 2016 and 2015, Inc. 500 Magazine named it
the “Fastest Growing Company in America” and Imprenta
was ranked by L.A. Business Journal as the tenth largest PR
firm in Los Angeles.
The term ‘seismic shift’ has a tendency to be overused. In
the case of what Imprenta and its founder, Ronald W. Wong
have achieved, though, it is entirely appropriate.
A Bedrock of Personal and Community Achievement
Mr. Wong is one of the most prominent leaders in the Asian
Pacific American (APA) community. Not only as an
entrepreneur but also as a voice of the people, he has made
significant contributions to the advancement of people of
color and given them a platform to make their voices heard.
Today, Mr. Ronald Wong is the President and CEO of
Imprenta Communications Group, which is a
multi-million-dollar entity. His role includes the
development and implementation of marketing initiatives,
communications strategies, and community outreach
programs for the firm’s largest and most powerful clients.
While he established Imprenta in 2001, Mr. Wong’s role as
an advocate for underrepresented communities precedes the
new millennium by many years. He has spent over three
decades helping Fortune 500 companies, government
bodies, and elected officials with public relations, political,
and communications strategies centered on reaching out to
ethnic minorities.
C
ommunication is an art. In a world that grows
smaller every day, the ability of a company to
convey its message clearly to an increasingly
diverse demographic is one of the bedrocks - and clear
indicators - of success.
Transcending language is but a small part of the challenge;
there is no substitute for genuine familiarity and an
understanding of the myriad cultures that constitute a
business’s potential audience and client base.
In this challenging environment, more smart businesses are
turning to Imprenta Communications Group. Where
communication is the art, Imprenta is the artist.
Imprinting a New Approach
Operating out of California from Los Angeles, Sacramento,
and San Francisco, Imprenta Communications Group, Inc.
is a marketing and campaign strategy firm that focuses on
connecting companies and causes with diverse ethnic and
language communities.
By creating this nexus of communication between these two
segments of society that have traditionally overlooked each
other, Imprenta has unlocked a world of mutually-beneficial
potential. It strives to enable clients to foster meaningful
bonds with millions of people across the United States and
across the world.
However, Imprenta does not work exclusively with
enterprise. Instead, they are equally eager to empower
candidates, causes, and initiatives to break the barriers that
have consistently marginalized large swathes of the
population.
We want to continue to deliver high-quality work, to access more
people who have not been reached through mainstream
communication, to build our capacity, and to continue to win.
What we do is about winning. Winning for our clients, and
our community.
‘‘ ‘‘
13. Advocating for and protecting the ideals of communities of
color has long been one of Mr. Wong’s main passions. He
was involved in ethnocentric marketing even before
Imprenta in his role as a founding partner at Lang,
Murakawa & Wong, one of the first strategic
communication PR firms in the U.S. that was wholly
APA-owned.
Immediately prior to founding Imprenta, Mr. Wong served
the state of California as the chief deputy appointments
secretary to Governor Gray Davis for three years. In that
time, he was instrumental in filling over 3,000 positions in
the state’s administrative services, including commissions,
boards, and exempt positions.
This was neither the first nor the most prominent position
that Mr. Wong held in the public domain. He also
collaborated with Speaker of the Legislature Willie Brown,
State Senator Art Torres, L.A. County Supervisor Ed
Edelman, and was a political appointee in President
Clinton’s Administration at the U.S. Department of Justice,
Community Relations Services (CRS).
In 2012, he was part of President Obama’s Administration
as a member of the U.S. Small Business Administration
(SBA) Regulatory Fairness (RegFair) Board. Locally,
Governor Davis appointed Mr. Wong to the L.A. County
Metro Board of Directors and the Board of Governors for
the California Community Colleges.
He is also the former co-chair of the Asian Business
Association, and Secretary of the California Asian Pacific
Chamber of Commerce, Board Member of Center of Asians
United for Self-Empowerment (CAUSE) and Member of
the Pacific Council on International Policy.
Mr. Wong holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political
Science from the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA). He also completed the Management Development
for Entrepreneurs program at the UCLAAnderson Graduate
School of Business. He was awarded the Sloan Foundation
Fellowship at the University of Washington, Graduate
School of Public Affairs.
These achievements have laid the foundation for Mr.
Wong’s work at Imprenta, which has already garnered
nearly 100 individual awards. He has guided the firm to
“We develop and
execute campaigns
for Fortune 500
companies, candidates,
causes, and
initiatives that
demand and
expect to win.”
14. recognition as Boutique Agency of the Year by Bulldog
Reporter, as well as commendations for the design of
creative ads and the execution of several successful
campaigns.
In 2013, the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized him
as the Asian Business Advocate of the Year and he was a
semi-finalist for Ernest & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in
2017 and 2016.
Mr. Wong’s efforts to draw the focus of both government
and enterprise to the APA community has been honored by
the California State Senate, State Assembly, Los Angeles
City Council, Organization of Chinese Americans, Asian
Pacific American Labor Alliance, Chinese American
Elected Officials, Asian Business Association, and the
Organization of Chinese Americans, among many others.
The Journey and the Destination
Mr. Wong reveals that one of the key factors to the success
of his company is an unwavering commitment to its vision
of giving a voice to communities of color. This focus does
not only dictate how they approach a campaign but also
how they choose which clients to work with.
However, Mr. Wong does point out that this adherence to
the mission is malleable enough to adapt to the unique
needs of clients and their intended audience. It is this
versatile methodology that has made success a hallmark at
Imprenta.
While the firm is certainly on an upward trajectory today,
that was not the case when the company was established.
Mr. Wong shares some of the hiccups they experienced.
“The biggest challenge in our early years was to keep up
with global markets and trends. We always aimed to
compete on a global scale but that means that you
constantly have to identify and adopt the newest services,
techniques, and technologies together with staff who can
address that need.”
Rather introspectively, he also adds, “Then, and even now,
the biggest personal challenge has been my lack of
understanding of millennials. I have an incredibly difficult
time relating to, and understanding what drives them. It is a
“In total we have
won more than 20
awards and
recognition for its
creative work
including Boutique
Agency of the Year
from Bulldog Report
and recognition from
the Public Relations
Society of America,
PR Diversity and
Inclusion and other
communications
and creative
industry awards.”
15. disconnect that I’ve tried to bridge for years, but perhaps
I’m just too old.”
The teething stage has its pitfalls but Mr. Wong alludes to
the reality that maintaining a stellar reputation is harder
than establishing one.
“When you start, you have to prove yourself with every
project and establish a trusted brand and reputation that is
trusted. Then, clients expect you to deliver at the same level
every day, every hour. Successes are minimized while
failures are highlighted. Companies are remembered for the
things they failed at, not for things they succeeded at.”
Sage Advice
Entrepreneurial advice from an individual as personally
accomplished as Mr. Wong is invaluable. When we asked
him to share what he believed were the key principles to
building and running a successful business, he summarized
his views into five points:
Ÿ Have a strong mission and stick to it
Our mission has been the guiding principle that has allowed
Imprenta to maintain its integrity as a team and as a brand.
Sticking to one’s mission clears away the smoke and things
are much clearer when the mission is immovable.
Ÿ Find the right team
I often ask staff at gatherings and retreats to raise their hand
if they feel they are the best at what they do. I expect every
hand to be up. Good teams are primarily about trust. We are
all accountable and that means taking everything to the
finish line, every time.
Ÿ Know your role, master it, and stick to it
A team works best when everyone stays in their lanes.
Everyone should excel at their own role and minimize
interference, regardless of intention, in anyone else’s.
Deviation from that model throws a spanner in the works.
Ÿ Deliver for your friends
The strength of relationships forged over decades of trust is
priceless. I tell all my staff to tend to clients’ needs,
anticipate pitfalls, give informed advice, and make them
look good at all times. This is how we treat our friends;
when you deliver for your friends, they deliver for you.
Ÿ Have fun
Every new employee gets a manual affectionately called
“The World According to Ron”. Part of what I outline there
is that none of the work we do is worth it unless we have
fun in the process. Work should not be perpetual toil. We
relish our work and we relish our wins. Fun is what it’s
all about.
Mr. Wong also touches on conflict management in the
workplace. He has seen from experience that the bulk of
such conflicts arise not from genuine hostility but a
competitive streak.
“I am proud to have a competitive staff but competition
can beget bad energy. They must remember that they are
on the same team and their goals are the same. I think it’s
a good idea to remind staff that we should not undercut
each other to win the battle when the war is far from
over.”
He personally seeks staff input and feedback because it
reveals whether they are on the same page, their
propensity for critical thinking, and an indication of how
to nurture their potential. Mr. Wong encourages
autonomy and relishes the order that emerges from the
chaos when talented people are allowed to thrive.
The Climb Continues
Many ethnically- and linguistically-isolated individuals
tend to live within geographically-limited areas, and
Imprenta is using technology to bridge that divide.
It has already begun to use proprietary digital ad
technology that lowers investment cost and maximizes
ROI for their clients. Part of this plan includes digital
marketing campaigns with micro-targeting capabilities
that narrow targeted ads down to one’s IP address.
Whereas an observer may say that Imprenta has almost
reached the zenith of what is possible, Mr. Wong feels
that they have barely scratched the surface of what they
can accomplish as a team.
RP10
Most Creative
Agencies in 2018
The
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17. Management BriefCompany Name
Bob Gold & Associates
bobgoldpr.com
Bob Gold
Founder
Bob Gold & Associates (BG&A) is an independent Southern
California-based public relations agency with offices in New York
and a global network of high tech PR agencies. It delivers
meaningful connections for its clients through integrated
communications programs.
120 WEST STRATEGIC
COMMUNICATIONS
LLC.
120west.biz
Ira Gostin
President & CMO
120 West is a company that excels in marketing, investor
relations and public relations firm created to help companies
grow.
BLOOM
COMMUNICATIONS
bloom-comm.com
Brianna Mckinney
Founder & President
Imprenta Communications
Group
icgworldwide.com
Ronald Wong
President & CEO
Imprenta Communications Group, Inc. is a California-based,
award-winning public affairs, ethnic marketing, and campaign
firm, which specializes in reaching diverse audiences.
K2 Global
Communications
k2-gc.com
Amy Kenigsberg
Co-founder and
Larry Kenigsberg
Co-founder
K2 is a boutique content marketing and public relations firm
focused on driving our clients’ bottom lines through targeted
content and PR services.
North 6th Agency
n6a.com
Matt Rizzetta
CEO
N6A has built a culture that is rewarding, collaborative, and
unique. Its people and its passion for what it does is what keeps
the positive energy flowing through the heart of the agency.
NRPR Group
nrprgroup.com
Nicole Rodrigues
Founder & CEO
NRPR Group is a publicity firm that believes in the power of
coupling traditional PR with digital marketing and in the vast
opportunities that creating innovative content.
Pietryla PR & Marketing
pietrylapr.com
Christine Pietryla Wetzler
Founder
TrizCom PR
trizcom.com
Jo Trizila
Founder & CEO
TrizCom PR is comprised of public relations practitioners,
solely committed to their craft.
Bloom Communications is an integrated communications
agency that provides strategic marketing, public relations, and
research-based consulting services exclusively to organizations
that are making an impact in their communities.
Pietryla PR & Marketing is a boutique PR firm.
JARGON PR
jargonpr.com
Simon Corbett
CEO
JARGON PR is an award winning agency that helps corporate
and technology companies grow brand awareness, communicate
key messages and drive sales.
RP10
Most Creative
Agencies in 2018
The
18. With so much attention focused on Artificial
Intelligence (AI), it’s worth remembering that
one size does not fit all. There are specific
business-related pain points in mind when a company
decides to deploy AI technology, so making the right
choices can be a tricky task.
For example, several months ago, an AI related
breakthrough was announced – a robot learned and
demonstrated the ability to perform a perfect backflip.
While it is well acknowledged that the invested research
and development for this mission was huge and the
commercial potential for some applications is enormous, it
is somewhat unclear how this specific innovation or the
core models and algorithms of it, can serve other industries
and verticals. Herein lies the problem.
Gauging AI success in one field in many cases can be
meaningless for another. To make things worse, even when
trying to go deeper into the technology and attempting to
evaluate, for example, which Machine Learning algorithms
are utilized by the product, or what are the number of
layers in the Deep Neural Network models mentioned by
specific vendors, in the end it will be possibly pointless as
it does not directly reflect the solution deployment
‘success’ implications.
Nevertheless, it seems that the market ignores this reality
and continues to evaluate AI-based products by buzzword
checklists using familiar and related AI terminology (e.g.,
AI:From
Artificial
to Authentic
About the Author
Mr. Jay Klein drives Voyager Lab’s technology
strategy and core intellectual property. He brings
more than 25 years of experience in data analytics,
networking and telecommunications to the Company.
Before joining Voyager Labs, he served as CTO at
Allot Communications where he steered Allot’s data
inspection and analytics core technology offerings,
and as VP Strategic Business Development at DSPG,
where he was responsible for strategic technology
acquisitions. He also co-founded and held the CTO
position at Ensemble Communications while founding
and creating WiMAX and IEEE 802.16. He also
served as the CTO and VP of R&D at CTP Systems,
acquired rst by DSP Communications and later by
Intel. Jay Klein holds a BSc in Electronics & Electrical
Engineering from Tel Aviv University as well as
numerous patents in various technology elds.
16 August 2018|
Maestros Insights
19. Supervised, Unsupervised, Deep Learning etc.). While
checklists are an effective tool for comparative analysis it
still requires the ‘right’ items to be included.
Unfortunately, what typically is absent are the items which
are important to the customer, from a problem-solution
perspective.
Introducing Authentic AI
Given all of this, there is a need to change the narrative
around AI technology and solutions to something
meaningful and authentic that reflects the real-life
challenges and opportunities that businesses are facing.
This is the time to introduce Authentic AI.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘Authentic’ as
both ‘worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or
based on fact’ ‘conforming to an original so as toand
reproduce essential features’. This is not about ‘Fake’ to be
contrasted with ‘Real’. It’s about the essential features of
AI which need to be acknowledged, and hence, redefine
the ‘checklist’. Often, these essential ‘authentic’ features
are hidden and only surface when a CIO/CDO is faced
with a new problem to be solved. This is seen especially
when the AI aspects of a proposed product or solution are
fully explored by asking questions such as:
- Is the AI technology utilized by the product aimed
specifically for my problem, optimally (e.g.,
performance, cost, etc.)?
- Is it capable of addressing the complete problem or
only a part of it?
- Can it be assimilated into the existing ecosystem
without imposing new demands?
- Can it address the compelling environmental
conditions of the problem space?
These issues can be grouped into three different ‘classes’ -
‘Original’, ‘Holistic’ and ‘Pragmatic’:
Original – How innovative is the solution? This can be
quantified by assessing the following:
- the invention of new algorithms or even new models
and
- orthe use of complex orchestration techniques
- through the capability to handle complex data formats
and structures.
While there is no need to re-invent the wheel repetitively
for any problem, there are distinctive characteristics which
require optimizing.
Holistic – How complete is the proposed AI technology? It
takes into account the capability of handling the end-to-end
aspects of the solution, the competence of harmonizing the
operation of the various AI components of the solution and
the ability to adapt to ever changing conditions of the AI
application.
Pragmatic – Can the technology solve real world
problems in their actual and natural space in a
commercially viable way? This means that for example the
data sources can be processed in their most native format
(both unstructured or structured) as well as provide
insights or results matching the pragmatic needs of the
specific market expectations. In addition, the ability to be
quickly deployed and rapid to act are assessed.
All of these elements should be used to systematically
assess and evaluate AI-based products and solutions to
assess their authenticity and therefore effectiveness in
specific use cases.
For example, many home-loan mortgage evaluation and
recommendation systems utilize a somewhat isolated
machine learning based applicant classification method,
one of many other processes included within the solution.
The AI in this solution cannot be considered Authentic AI
to a high degree as it ‘scores’ low on the ‘Original’ and
‘Holistic’ classes as it isn’t innovative ‘enough’ (from an
AI sense). In addition, the AI component itself does not
cover on its own the end-to-end aspects of the solution
(hence affecting the overall performance and precision). It
could be considered to be ‘Pragmatic’ to some level if it
can handle the required data sources of financial
institutions or the customer applications natively, and if the
solution ‘output’ are the explicit results required as a
specific recommendation (e.g., loan conditions). However,
the deployment timeline (time-to-market) and commercial
aspects need to be evaluated as well. This is just one
example of many others, covering all kinds of variations.
Perfect backflips may grant you a gold medal if you are a
gymnast but if you are a master chess player don’t expect a
winning move.
17|August 2018
20. August 2018|
Communications
is the
Voice of
Business Success.
O
ver the past five years, the public relations industry has experienced a
robust growth. PR agencies are providing clients with targeted
campaigns to reach an increasingly fragmented consumer market with
the rising power of social media. According to the independent research over the
next five years, PR firms will continue to benefit from rising marketing budgets.
Serving as a one-stop solution for all communications, marketing and PR needs
for corporate brands, 120 West Strategic Communications LLC is a
marketing, investor relations and public relations firm focused on helping
companies grow.
120 West provides comprehensive investor relations and public relations
campaigns aligned directly to move companies towards their goals. They work
with both public and private entities by employing strategic engagement
campaigns to drive business momentum and deliver measurable results. The
team has works with local business all the way to Fortune 500 companies.
The agency creates growth opportunities for companies through strategy,
marketing and public relations. Its strategic engagement, innovative business
solutions and collaboration move the needle on the client’s business.
Communication Strategist
Ira M. Gostin, MBA, APR is the President and Chief Marketing Officer at
120 West. As an entrepreneur and marketer, he is an influential and creative
business development advisor specializing in achieving measurable results. 120
West combines his passions and entrepreneurial spirit while crafting strategies
for clients.
Business Growth Fueled by Strategy,
Marketing & Public Relations
120 West Strategic
Communications:
—Ira M. Gostin
President &
Chief Marketing Officer
‘‘
‘‘
18
21. 19|August 2018
Prior to 120 West, Ira directed investor relations and
corporate communications for Tahoe Resources Inc. A
$4+ billion publicly traded company, where he was a
founding executive and established the company’s brand
as one of the top precious metals producer in the world.
He coordinated communications for Tahoe’s $505
million IPO in 2010 while directing communications and
branding for mergers in 2015 and 2016. Later on, Tahoe
was named as a Top Gun company in Canada in 2016.
Ira launched his career as a photojournalist for the
Associated Press by honing his newsroom intuition to
effectively brand a company’s external communications.
After having his photos featured in publications ranging
from Time magazine, Washington Post, New York Times
to several Fortune 500 companies, Ira retired from
photography. Soon after this, Ira earned his MBA degree
from University of Phoenix and began to continue his
career on his path. He was also an adjunct professor at
the University of Nevada, Reno’s Reynolds School of
Journalism. He is also a graduate of Columbia
University’s Executive Leadership program.
Unique Approach
A company can leverage all of their stakeholders to tell
their story, to create engagement and grow revenue
through increased sales. 120 West believes that every
company has a story to tell and that’s possible by
creating a 360 degree stakeholder engagement. What
makes 120 West unique is their approach towards
storytelling. The company’s skillsets are:
Investor Relations - IR strategy and execution,
Stakeholder engagement campaigns, corporate branding
and rehabilitation, corporate presentation design, media
and executive presentation training, analyst and
shareholder events.
Marketing & Public Relations - Public relations and
business communications, Growth strategies, strategic
engagement campaigns, communications strategies,
branding and marketing design, corporate events
Entrepreneurial Spirit
When Gostin left his corporate job two years ago, his
passion for business growth and storytelling encouraged
Ira to once again embrace his entrepreneurial roots and
create a modern type of communications agency focused
on helping business achieve their growth goals.
During that time, his team members use the financial key
performance indicators to measure success of their
clients. Firstly, they create a strong strategy followed by
the tactics and measurement that can provide the CEO’s,
a strong snapshot of the company and its growth.
Awards and Achievements
During their path in achieving their goal, the company
has received numerous awards which include the Best
Integrated Marketing Campaign, American Marketing
Association 2018; Top Agency in the Western U.S.,
Corporate Vision Magazine 2017, 2018; One of Best PR
Agencies in Reno, Expertise.com 2017 and 2018; Most
Innovative Strategic Marketing Agency – Nevada,
Acquisition International.
Unveiling the Mission
While discussing the mission of 120 West, Ira said “We
want to grow but stay small and agile enough to help
CEO’s achieve their dreams and goals.”
RP10
Most Creative
Agencies in 2018
The
22. Providing heartfelt,
high-quality
and meaningful
work is how
we will continue to
grow professionally
as individuals
and collectively
as a team.
Bloom Communications is an integrated communications agency bridging
the gap between the marketing, market research, and public relations
disciplines. Since 2012, Bloom has provided strategic consulting services
to organizations making an impact in their communities. With specialization in
nonprofit and healthcare, Bloom represents a portfolio of happy clients in a variety
of industries from its offices in Austin, Texas, Portland and Oregon. Dedicated to the
growth of nonprofits and socially conscious for-profit companies, Bloom’s mission
is simple: You win. We win. The world wins.
Brianna McKinney is the Founder and President of Bloom Communications.
She is widely recognized as a thought leader and innovator in marketing, public
relations, sales and brand management. Brianna founded Bloom Communications to
build a seamless bridge between the marketing, market research, and public
relations disciplines while serving the global community.
Her perspective of measuring growth is very telling of her experience as well as her
unique vision of leadership. When asked to define her success in her own words, she
said, “On a per-campaign basis, our success is measured by the success of our
clients. Overall, success for us comes in building a team of talented, like-minded
individuals whose personal beliefs and quality of work align with Bloom’s Core
Values.”
Brianna is fortunate to love what she does so much that she would do it for free. And
because of that, she often found herself doing more free than paid work -
specifically for causes and organizations seeking to solve some of our most critical
social challenges. So, she considered starting a nonprofit organization, until a lunch
conversation with a nonprofit executive friend caused a lightbulb moment. She
determined to use her experience and passion for marketing, PR and market research
to propel those who could truly benefit - nonprofits and socially conscious for-profit
companies.
Specialized Marketing & PR Agency
Serving Clients Committed to Giving Back
Bloom
Communications:
—Brianna Mckinney
Founder & President
20
‘‘
‘‘
August 2018|
23. |August 2018
During its initial journey, Bloom could have easily been
overshadowed by the tsunami of countless challenges that
await new, small businesses. As the founding days of
Bloom were personally funded by Brianna, she spent the
first three years building up enough capital to begin hiring a
team. Bloom started with a one-client portfolio in 2012.
Since then, the company has grown to employ a team of
ten, has experienced over a 1066% growth in revenue and
remained profitable year after year.
As a small business founder and owner, Brianna could have
pursued faster growth and higher margins by taking on
different kinds of clients, but instead stayed true to her
personal mission of giving back to the community, and
through that focus has created a business that is truly
unique, while also being financially successful. In 2017
alone, Bloom experienced a 149% revenue growth over
2016, and personnel grew by 60%.
Under Brianna’s leadership, Bloom’s unique, differentiated
business model serves to attract potential clients, itself. Not
many agencies can say they are exclusively dedicated to
serving organizations that make a positive impact in their
communities.
Bloom’s purpose-driven business also attracts staff at all
levels that are aligned to Bloom’s mission and vision.
Brianna has designed a uniquely flexible work model that
attracts highly experienced staff who are seeking improved
work/life balance. Through these two methods, Bloom is
able to offer all nonprofit clients regular access to highly
experienced staff, ensuring work remains high quality — at
a level typically reserved for clients with big budgets at
other agencies.
In parallel, Bloom is able to offer staff interesting projects,
working with organizations that are making an impact in
their communities, leading to high employee retention. In
conclusion, in founding Bloom, Brianna created a business
that treats staff with respect and dignity and treats
nonprofits better than is typical in the agency world.
Providing heartfelt, high-quality and meaningful work is
how the Bloom team continues to grow professionally as
individuals and collectively as a team.
As another unique component of its business model, Bloom
invests 30 percent of agency services directed toward
nonprofit clients as pro bono, making Bloom’s services
more accessible to a wide range of nonprofits who are then
better able to achieve their missions through the agency’s
combined efforts. In 2017 alone, Bloom contributed 562
hours in pro-bono communications services to nonprofits
and faith-based organizations, a value of over $123,000.
Overall, Bloom Communications invests a minimum of ten
percent of its gross revenue in our communities on an
annual basis. In 2017, Bloom’s investment was nearly
twenty percent.
Bloom’s long-term vision is to thoughtfully grow to 25
employees over the next three to five years, while
consistently increasing its long-standing commitment to the
social impact space. It aims to continue to serve the local
and global community through the success of its clients,
acting as their communications consultants, and ultimately,
their advocates.
With a sole focus on serving nonprofits and socially
conscious for-profit companies, Brianna pushed forward in
building a business that people told her would fail. In fact,
the most common refrain Brianna heard when
conceptualizing Bloom was “you’ll never make money
working with nonprofits.” Every day she proves that’s
wrong. Leading from a place of heart and genuine caring
for others, and building a staff of like-minded individuals
who believe giving back is good business, Brianna is able
to care for a community of employees - and the community
itself - by running a company that is true to her convictions.
21
RP10
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The
24. he main reason for the invention of website,
TInternet and technology devices that provides the
platform for software to run and connect with each
other is mainly to make networking of services, products
and people possible. Technology leaders such as Cisco,
Arista and Apple are dedicating their resources to provide
various business enterprises and the masses the ability to
communicate their values through technology mediums
called as Networking.
The works and provisions of these organizations are very
outstanding, and are believed to last for ages. This is
because the growth of technology is not going out of style
so soon, but rather it is believed to continue into the future.
Technology networking strategies is good, but to make it
more effective there is the incessant need to incorporate
organic strategies.
You may be asking what I mean by Organic Networking or
Strategies. The organization that will survive in the market
in the near future, considering the increasing rate of
competition are the ones who take the necessary steps, to
develop more human connection for their business, more
than they do for machines such as provided by AI.
The Factors to Consider for an Effective Organic
Networking:
Even as our age is encouraging more of technology
strategies, if we must survive the future of it all, then we
must connect more people, than we do for machines. As an
The
Impressive Impactof
Organic
Networking
22 August 2018|
Editor’s Pick
25. innovative networking solution
provider, it is going to pay more, when
you include human intelligence and
physicality in your networking
strategies over machines.
Imagine a day that the machines are
going to have a serious breakdown,
and the owner organization do not have
the capable persons to figure out the
cause of the breakdown and possibly
provide a feasible solution? What will
be the fate of the organization? This
means that, there will be a great loss of
value and possibly a strike off the
industry. I know you would never want
that to happen. So, plan from now, to
never pay for the loss in the future.
Balance Your People to machine
Deployment
Social Medias are for networking,
Newspapers and various Medias are
also for networking, but there are
people behind the arc of this
innovation. The more you incorporate
AI and machine learning strategies,
always remember the need for Control
Engineers and those are human beings.
The most successful organizations
identify the major importance of
people networking and how best to
utilize human intelligence in their
business quest.
For example; if you write an article
and share it on a website, who do you
expect to read your article; human
beings or machines? It is obvious that
the organic networking aspect of
computing will never go out of style;
else, there will be a day in the future
that digital connection and values will
be measured on the number of bots that
read your articles and/or that paid for
your services. So, remember to balance
the rate of your people to machine
deployment, by acknowledging the
need of human networking over
technology networking.
The Need for Organic Sense in
Networking and the Future:
Technology is the miracle of our age,
Artificial Intelligence is a major
molding factor of this development,
IoT is the liberator from machine
isolation by providing the platform to
interconnect millions of them over the
virtual platforms, but humans make
these things possible.
Networking is an innovative concept
with high profile technology terms. If
one does not implore deep interest and
concentration while exploring this
realm, there may be a serious distortion
of original motive of indulgence, and
this can lead to serious breakdown of
enterprise infrastructure. Sometimes, it
maybe direct and other times, it will be
indirect, but in all, it will always have
an impact. The future of technology is
very bright, and that is mainly
dependent on how available we make
the resources to help manage what we
have today in the near future. For this
to be possible, the networking solution
providers must incorporate more of
organic sense in their solutions and
industry advancements.
Technology will advance, more
machines will be connected, devices
will be programmed to run
independently, but in all these things,
the humans in the network will still
rule the universe. The more organic
you make your networking strategies,
the lesser the fear of a disastrous future
for your organization.
23|August 2018
26.
27.
28. All business
is the
business of
relationships.
Since its founding in 1997, Bob Gold & Associates has grown into one of the
premier independent PR and Marketing agencies in the U.S., bringing
strategies that engage audiences across all media platforms with compelling
content. The agency specializes in entertainment technology. From tech innovators
to content creators, clients depend on BG&A to drive measurable results.
The company’s track record of success is based on an intimate and constantly
evolving understanding of how individuals perceive and engage with brands.
Clients know they’ll get more buzz for the budget with personalized attention,
reliable counsel, a robust network of contacts, and impeccable tactical execution.
Bob Gold & Associates’ team of results-driven former journalists and
communications experts transforms complex thoughts and insights into persuasive
stories.
Clients enjoy a solid return on their investment. In fact, one of the cornerstones of
their operations is guaranteed results. That means guaranteed story placements,
interviews and much more. And these deliverables are written into the contract!
With 22 years of experience to bank on, the firm is adept at recognizing factors
critical to a successful campaign before it begins and sets realistic and accurate
expectations prior to any engagement. The company has enjoyed many honors and
awards including Top 50 California PR Agencies by Los Angeles Business Journal,
Top Content Marketing Companies by Clutch, and Top PR Firms in Los Angeles in
O’Dwyer’s, among others.
As a co-founder of WIN PR Group, the company taps into a global network of
partner high-tech PR firms for boots-on-the-ground support anywhere in the world.
Accomplished Leader
Bob Gold has helped numerous companies and associations, from startups to
Fortune 500 companies, launch, re-brand, and execute campaigns that are not just
successful, but exceed expectations. He has helped raise millions of dollars for
charity, mentored hundreds of students, and also authored a popular children’s book
that his wife illustrated, called The Shiny Penny.
His career runs from handling publicity for the Academy Awards, to HBO and Fox
Sports before he began the agency which quickly counted ESPN, Charter and Bravo
as early clients.
Boosting Business through
Digital Engagement
Bob Gold &
Associates:
—Bob Gold
Founder
‘‘
‘‘
26 August 2018|
29. In 2007, Bob was inducted as a Cable TV Pioneer, a
prestigious achievement he shares with luminaries like
Comcast’s Brian Roberts and CNN’s Ted Turner. Bob holds
a Master’s degree in Communications Management from
the Annenberg School of Communications at the University
of Southern California, where he also sits on the Alumni
Board of Directors.
Digital Engagement
Bob Gold & Associates recently expanded its services to
include digital marketing, digital & print advertising,
website development, and meaningful social media
marketing campaigns.
Its full-service marketing team develops everything from
animated banners, sales videos, presentations, interactive
web destinations and digital content. The integration of
cutting-edge technology ensures each element can be
tracked and its efficiency measured.
Best of all, the company executes across the most popular
social media platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn,
Facebook and YouTube to directly reach millennials and
Gen Z consumers.
A Very Different Place
Headquartered in Redondo Beach’s Riviera Village, the
company is just two blocks from the beach, and in close
proximity to Los Angeles and the flourishing entertainment
industry.
Today clients include Cisco, which counts on the firm for
special events at international trade shows; Corning, to
promote its Fiber Optics advances; Ooyala, one of the
world’s premier digital video playout companies, Amazon
Studios, and others. Clients literally stretch from the UK to
China. One of the newest clients is the LIKE video app,
which is among the fastest growing video editing apps in
the world because it’s so much fun and easily shareable.
The staff is a tight-knit, collaborative group where everyone
knows and likes each other. A frequent comment is how
friendly everyone is. They work hard as a cohesive team to
help clients succeed and grow. The company fosters an
environment where employees are endlessly curious and
fascinated by innovation.
Guaranteed Results
The agency’s longstanding personal relationships with
reporters, editors, publishers and analysts benefit its clients.
They treat editors as partners in the content generation
business.
Clients want to know what they are buying. The agency
tells them in its contract what they can expect; and then
works to exceed its promised deliverables as measured in
coverage capture reports and its own exclusive S.M.A.R.T.
Report – SMART: Specific Measurable Achievable
Realistic Timely – for tracking KPIs. No other PR agency
does this.
“Bob Gold & Associates is smart, proactive, and gets us in
front of the right audience at the right time. The team is
simply invaluable.” Jeff Weber, CEO, zone·tv
Clients choose BG&A for its credibility. They are stalwart
brand stewards. BG&A has launched or serviced more than
25 TV networks, 30 technology companies and numerous
associations. The team is seen as indispensable partners and
have served as advisors to CEOs and heads of PR and
Marketing. In each situation the staff has made lasting
friendships that often result in repeat business.
“I look to Bob and his team for guidance on how to
navigate our brand in an increasingly complex media
landscape.” Guy Finley, Executive Director, Media &
Entertainment Services Alliance
Disruption. Challenges. Opportunities
Bob Gold & Associates is now one of the most reputable
media agencies in the country, but it has had to overcome
significant challenges along the way.
The reality of audience fragmentation means the days when
one major national story could make an impact has long
passed. Major media is struggling for advertisers and
audiences. Whether it’s the Wall Street Journal or Los
Angeles Times – papers are thinner, reporting staffs are
smaller, and competition for their reporters’ attention is
fiercer. And this is also true for TV, radio, digital, and trade
publications.
Bob Gold & Associates believes it needs to think smarter
and more creatively. Maybe the home for a story is best
placed on LinkedIn instead of a trade publication. Maybe
the news hook needs to be made sexier. And many times, a
one-minute video can be more impactful than a 1,000-word
article. The goal is to maximize recognition and ROI for
clients, whether it’s through PR, marketing, advertising,
web development, social media, or a mix of everything.
By constantly evolving and committing to always exceed
client expectations, the company guarantees its campaigns
will result in dramatic growth and deeper customer
engagement for its clients.
27|August 2018
RP10
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The
30. It doesn’t matter
if you
have the best
solution on the
market if nobody
knows about it.
K2 Global Communications uses inbound and digital
marketing, social media, and public relations to
aggressively target potential customers and investors
for its global clients.
K2’s employs an action-oriented, niche-focused philosophy
forged over a decade of experience in the nexus of Israel’s high-
tech climate. The organization has recognized what works, what
doesn’t, and why, allowing it to identify the gaps in a customer’s
worldview and meeting their challenges with creativity. The
company crafts narratives that relate its clients’ values to reach
key decision makers. “You must influence the influencers.”
Rather than following formulaic or traditional PR formats, K2
creates flexible, customized action plans to drive their clients’
market presence and strengthen the bottom line.
The Leaders: Strength through Diversity
Amy Kenigsberg and Larry Kenigsberg are the Founders of
K2 Global Communications. Amy banks on a wealth of
experience in journalism, marketing, and PR. She earned an
MBA from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor of
Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Larry’s first career was as a psychotherapist, where he worked
primarily in private practice as well as in a variety of agency
Influencing the Influencers
K2 Global
Communications
—Larry Kenigsberg
Co-founder
28
‘‘
‘‘
August 2018|
31. settings for 20 years “to see human nature in all its
forms,” experience he brings to bear when crafting client
materials. He graduated from New York University with
an MSW.
Collaboration is Key
Drawing on their diverse backgrounds, the K2 team
delivers a unique service in Israel, the “Start-up Nation.”
K2 believes that client collaboration is key to all its
services. “The more we know about a client’s goals,
vertical by vertical, region by region, the better we can
tailor their deliverables to match their needs.”
The other side of collaboration involves being totally
honest if a client wants something that is a poor use of
their resources. “We’ve been doing this a long time, so
while someone may be initially surprised by a ‘no, it’d
be better to spend your PR bandwidth differently,’they
also realize we won’t waste their time and money.”
The company’s niche-by-niche approach connects its
clients directly to influencers to reach their end
customers.
As a boutique company, K2 provides all its clients a
small, dedicated team, unlike most firms where work is
delegated to junior associates. However, despite
continued year-over-year growth, K2 fully intends to
maintain its small-team, hands-on approach.
Measuring the Challenges
K2 is essentially an American agency based in Israel,
providing U.S.-level service.
The founders are American immigrants in Israel who
initially faced struggles with the language (fortunately,
Israelis tend to be very proud of their high-level English)
and customs of conducting business in a different
culture. Simultaneously, both the founders were from
vastly different professional backgrounds and faced the
initial challenge of how to understand each other’s lingo
and perspective. Their complementary skills and
experiences forged the company.
Today, K2 measures success in several ways. It uses
traditional benchmarks such as year-over-year growth,
length of client retention, and referral source and
volume. K2 also uses myriad metrics to measure its
efforts on behalf of its clients.
Future Expansion
K2 Global Communications is continuing to focus on
organic growth by adding new services. The company is
enjoying robust success after adding inbound marketing
to its service roster. It is strengthening its presence
aggressively in cybersecurity, IoT, AI, enterprise
software, and biotech.
29
Amy Kenigsberg
Co-founder
|August 2018
RP10
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The
32. C
orporations are shifting their
marketing services in-house
and re-defining relationships
with their suppliers. This is a strategic
shift brought about by a confluence of
technical, social and political change on
a global scale. At the core of this
movement is the corporation’s need to
control global brand messaging quickly
in an increasingly regulated world. Is
this a temporary shift or is there more
to it, and how far might it go?
TShiftthat
broke
the pendulum
he
About the Author
Murray Oles is the President of
CHALEX Corp. The company is specialized
in Workow Management for Marketing
Communications Projects through the use of
SmartFlo and integrated third party tools.
Murray Oles
President
CHALEX Corp.
30 August 2018|
Virtuoso's Vision
33. The rise of mobile computing combined with an explosion
in SaaS software development has led to more intuitive
purpose-built applications with built in learning tools. The
net effect is that corporations can do much more with less.
Hence, the rapidly accelerating move to take internal
control of the corporate global supply chain. More
specifically, control of process, digital assets, resources, and
the brand message. Evidence of the shift can be seen in
global corporations like P&G who in recent years
consolidated their packaging prepress supply chain from
hundreds of companies to only three. The ANA
(Association of National Advertisers) committee for
in-house agencies includes members from hundreds of the
Fortune 1000. A Google search reveals many recent articles
detailing the rise of in-house ad agencies.
The drivers of this shift are affordable and effective new
technology and the need for speed to market. The value of a
middleman controlling portions of the marcom workflow
has diminished. This does not mean that everything is being
produced in-house, just internally controlled and managed
by in-house staff who are defining new best practices for
their agile enterprise. Many companies go back and forth
between insourcing and outsourcing, but this time it is
different. Companies are focused on process, and it is not
just marketing, legal and business analytics, recruiting,
employee services and even providing in-house healthcare.
With change comes opportunity. Demand for business
process management tools is growing rapidly. Many new
companies are developing SaaS products to further enable
the agile business. Online workflow modeling and business
process management tools are becoming main stream. File
sharing and digital asset management services are widely
accepted. Integrating these services to meet the
requirements of a project has never been easier now that
RESTful APIs have become widely available. Artificial
intelligence applied to big data analytics will provide the
agile business with insights previously inconceivable. Best
of all, the enterprise can securely access most SaaS services
without making any upfront investments or long term
commitments.
At the core of the agile business is an integrated business
process management platform. This is the tool that enables
distributed process control. In-house is only practical when
the technology enables the staff to do an order of magnitude
more with less. BPM systems capture huge amounts of data
that can be analyzed as a service in real-time. The ability to
analyze any combination of process and behavioral data
yields valuable predictive insights. Standards such as
BPMN notation and the XPDL file format have allowed
developers to simplify the user experience for defining,
managing, and sharing process maps across BPM
platforms. A virtual task can automatically serve up the
tools the user will need. SaaS tools have one thing in
common. They can be called through a RESTful API
without the need for a software developer. The workflow
can be configured to invoke access to tools based on the
nature of the task. For healthcare workflows a digital
radiology file format (DICOM Web) enables secure
cross-platform viewing and collaboration over a patient’s
scanned images and medical history.
Business agile companies adjust to market conditions faster
by adopting a culture of managed change. It is no longer
acceptable to be so disconnected from your projects that
you can’t even access your own brand packaging and
promotion files. The same is true for legal, regulatory and
compliance work. The agile company controls all of these
processes. Their DAM enabled BPM system interacts with
a SaaS reporting service like EZBI that concatenates and
reports on data across distributed systems. Lean
manufacturing and Six Sigma programs are used to
configure these systems to monitor compliance to regulated
processes.
These changes are far more profound than may appear on
the surface. The gig economy is fueling a virtual cottage
industry that circles the globe. Project managers are
increasingly in demand. This is not just an IT thing, every
business runs on projects. The certified project management
professional PMP is a new college certification. Rachel
Burger in a Capterra article explained The 5 Biggest Project
Management Trends Shaping 2018. In brief, “business
agile” is the new way of doing business. A visit to the
Fiverr.com web site will show how one SaaS service is
bringing buyers and sellers of creative services together.
This in-house trend is not just another swing of the
pendulum.
31|August 2018
34.
35.
36. Every part of our
customer service
approach is rooted
in speed, efficiency,
and making sure
we never miss a
beat for our clients.
Embracing the Pace since Inception
North 6th Agency:
—Matt Rizzetta
CEO
34
‘‘
‘‘
N
orth 6th Agency, Inc. (N6A) is an award-winning brand
communications and social media agency based in the heart of SoHo in
New York City and Toronto’s financial district. Its client roster includes
emerging, mid-sized and enterprise brands from more than 30 industries. Every
part of the organization’s customer service approach is rooted in speed, efficiency,
and making sure it never misses a beat for its clients.
The top-notch customer service, measurable results and team collaboration are a
few examples of how the organization “Embraces the Pace” for its clients in
today’s fast-paced, non-stop media environment. Working across 30 industries,
N6A’s Embrace the Pace approach has proven to be effective no matter the
industry, location or size of the client.
An Influential Leader
Matt Rizzetta has served as CEO since N6A’s inception. Under his leadership,
N6A has been ranked as the fastest-growing agency in the United States in its
revenue category by O’Dwyers, as well as one of the 50 most powerful agencies in
the United States by the Observer.
Matt has been instrumental in creating N6A’s Compete and Care culture and
Embrace the Pace atmosphere, which have been lauded as the most rewarding,
collaborative and unique in the agency world by Forbes, Monster.com, New York
Post, Chief Learning Office Magazine, Entrepreneur, and others. Matt serves on
the Alumni Board of Directors at his alma mater Iona College, and resides in
Westchester County, NY, with his wife and three daughters.
Embracing the Pace
N6A’s Embrace the Pace atmosphere defines the way in which its employees work
quickly and strategically to deliver the optimal results that clients deserve. Every
part of N6A’s customer service approach is rooted in speed, efficiency, and makes
sure that it never misses a beat for the clients. The organization’s top-notch
customer service, measurable results and team collaboration are a few examples of
August 2018|
37. 35
how it embraces the pace for its clients in today’s fast-
paced, non-stop media environment.
As a full-service public relations and social media agency,
N6A connects its clients to the audiences that matter the
most, whether it’s via traditional media, broadcast media,
trade media, analysts, or social media. The company
believes that the clients’ goals are its goals, which is why
N6A prefers to take a data-centric approach when it comes
to customer service. The organization’s proprietary 6PA
dashboard, a digitally interactive platform for clients, offers
full transparency on its performance, results, KPI tracking,
and other key outcomes that the clients care about. N6A
even asks its clients to provide feedback each month,
creating full alignment between the success of the team and
the success of the client’s business.
A Distinctive Organization
N6A’s company culture embodies an employee-first
mindset, focusing on appreciation, recognition, reward and
collaboration in order to ensure that employee engagement,
productivity, morale and overall happiness is always
present. Much of its culture revolves around individual,
group and team achievements, always abiding by the
concept that employees should be rewarded and recognized
for their success.
Understanding that there is no one size fits all approach,
N6A strives to create a culture of recognition that is
customized to the individual employee, customizing value-
driven programs that speak to each employee as
individuals. N6A’s systems promote the utmost
transparency in the workplace while creating an open,
collaborative environment for honest communication,
performance awareness and recognition in order to keep
employees engaged and productive.
Tackling Adversities
N6A opened its doors just under a decade ago. At first it
was tough for the organization to recruit top-notch talent
and clients when it lacked an established track record.
However, the organization was fortunate that some clients
and employees early on made a bet on N6A, believing in it
when few others would. This helped lay the foundation for
what it has become today. To overcome initial challenges,
the company has always been laser focused on creating
rather than copying.
N6A has always been committed to coming up with
innovative programs and assets that are unique to N6A and
help it stand out from others. This helped the organization
to attract talent and clients in the early days – everything
from experimenting with employee rewards programs that
went way beyond standard programs, to creating
measurement systems for the customers. These are
programs that have been a part of the fabric of N6A since
its early days, and helped the organization to overcome
initial struggles before it was seen as a well-established
brand in our industry.
Feedback and self-improvement have always been an
important part of the organization’s culture. Even back
when it was small and unproven, N6A always tried to listen,
solicit feedback, and learn from any mistakes it made. The
company’s business is nothing more than nine years of
learning and getting better from any missteps along the
way.
Envisioning the Future
At a basic level, N6A wants to keep getting better for its
employees and its customers every day. Improvement is the
name of the game, and N6A will continue to focus
relentlessly on making the work experience as warm and
rewarding as possible for its employees, and as impactful as
possible for the customers.
Specifically, the company will look to expand its footprint
globally with an eye toward emerging geographic markets
and enhancing its service suite in service categories that are
complementary to its current core service offerings
(PR/Media, Social, Design). Innovation will continue to be
at the core of N6A’s plans in the years ahead it will continue
to look to innovate and improve on programs that it has
already created for its employees and customers.
|August 2018
RP10
Most Creative
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The
38. To achieve
great results
you have to work
harder and go the
extra mile to amass
the best results
in building
relationships.
Setting a Benchmark for Excellence
NRPR Group:
—Nicole Rodrigues
CEO & Founder
36
‘‘
‘‘
RPR Group is a public relations agency based in Beverly Hills,
NCalifornia, with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, and
soon, New York. NRPR offers unique services to clients to intertwine
marketing functions with strategic PR efforts, all built around helping clients
achieve their core business objectives and spark growth.
Launched in 2014, this PR powerhouse is a “strategic positioning agency”—the
first one ever, based in Beverly Hills, California, NRPR takes an anticipatory
approach to creating news rather than waiting for clients to have news. Proactive,
trend-focused pitching with thought leadership building and traditional news
announcement pitching keep clients in the news year-round. NRPR never has and
never will blast pitches. Every person on the team has heart, passion and skill, and
is accountable, responsible and responsive.
The Story of a Creative Marketing Pro
Nicole Rodrigues is the Founder and CEO at NRPR Group, whose career path
has followed her dreams every step of the way. Her passion has turned her
professional journey into many successful outcomes for her clients. Her career
path has molded her into a pillar of professionalism, strategic thinking, and
strength.
Nicole’s first professional PR job was at an enterprise software company, Portal
Software, in 2000, one year before graduating from college. In 2003 she took a
leap of faith to briefly leave tech in order to pursue a job with the Oakland Raiders
which led her to create balance on her resume and mold her more closely into the
consumer-tech publicist she is now. In 2005, Nicole became the PR manager at
MobiTV, the company responsible for the first live mobile video experience on
mobile phones.
After MobiTV, Nicole worked as a Senior PR Manager at Voce Communications,
with accounts such as Dolby, Yahoo!, Sony Playstation, and many others. She
learned the beauty of incorporating social media efforts and sharpened her
strategic media garnering strategies into all accounts. She was then recruited by
Demand Media (now the Leaf Group) as director of consumer marketing, where
Nicole gained the experience of consumer marketing and managing the marketing
August 2018|
39. 37
strategies for their most popular properties, eHow and
LIVESTRONG.COM. Nicole also served as a VP of digital
entertainment at Bender/Helper Impact, where she led
strategy for YouTube, Hulu, Hallmark, M-GO, and others.
Nicole has leveraged every position as an opportunity to
build the expertise needed to succeed in the role of CEO,
which she plays very well now. Her vision was to create
relationships, build friendships, and foster a special human
touch to benefit clients and media. Nicole was awarded with
Gold for Public or Media Relations Professional of the Year
in Bulldog Reporter’s Stars of PR 2017 Awards. She also
took home the Silver award in 2017 and Stevie Awards for
Women in Business in the Woman of the Year – Advertising,
Marketing & Public Relations.
In 2017, Nicole launched her second company, Young
Dreamers, an ongoing program which mentors and speaks
with students about setting goals, building personal brands,
and persevering through life’s downturns. Under Nicole’s
leadership, NRPR Group has won numerous awards which
include New Agency of the Year in 2015 and Small Agency
of the Year in 2016. NRPR Group was also hand-selected in
2016 and 2017 for the ‘Beverly Hills Small Business
Excellence Awards’ for Public Relations.
Strategic Public Relations of NRPR Group
NRPR focuses on industries in which Nicole Rodrigues is
well-versed. NRPR works with digital platforms including,
mobile TV, gaming, consumer tech, digital video and more.
NRPR Group also specializes in startups, large enterprise,
and consumer clients. NRPR Group believes behind the
creation of every company is a story, whether it’s the story
of the CEO or the actual product, the history of the product
or company’s development, or the momentum of the
company and services, in general, which has successfully
ripped dividends for its clients in the past.
As a strategic positioning agency, every person on the
NRPR team has heart, passion, skill, and is accountable,
responsible and responsive. The team at NRPR acts as a
relationship builder for clients, media and their audiences,
and they are very mindful of that. If something isn’t
working, the team takes all measures to fix the issue
immediately.
The NRPR team has a passion that clients recognize and see
in the results achieved. This is in opposition to a
lackadaisical, almost entitled way of doing PR. The agency
continues to attract clients whose leaders, including CEOs
and CMOs, understand and respect the art of strategic
public relations.
Overwhelming Proactive Approach
In 2014, Nicole Rodrigues set out to change the industry by
creating the model for what an agency should be in order to
keep the clients, media, and employees happy. The team
that she generated during that time has focused on building
the media relationships needed to gain the client’s trust and
deliver what they need with the end result of benefitting
both clients and media. It is always important to educate
clients on what public relations can and cannot do and how
it works.
NRPR measures success based on customer satisfaction.
The team compiles weekly client reports to remain
accountable to clients as well as monthly, quarterly, and
annual reports to help highlight initiatives throughout the
year and how they tie back to the client’s success. They
remain accountable all year long and love when they can
see the results have positive effects on their client’s
businesses.
NRPR Group creates new stories rather than waiting for
clients to distract themselves from their core objectives.
Future Expansion
NRPR Group is evolving alongside the changing PR and
marketing industries, as agents of positive change while
moving ahead of the times and setting a benchmark for
everyone else in the industries, for years to come.
As NRPR continues to experience healthy growth as an
agency, it will continue to expand and find better ways to
serve its clients. This includes thinking strategically and
planning ahead because its core foundation was built by a
passionate dreamer who believes in staying ahead of the
times. In line with its vision, NRPR is increasing its
presence across the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles,
Las Vegas, and New York.
|August 2018
RP10
Most Creative
Agencies in 2018
The
40. O
nce there was a time when the question was “Will
the media industry get digitally transformed?”, but
the scenario has changed now. The question today
is “How will the transformation take place?” and “How will
the media companies respond to this change?” Seeing these
opportunities presented by the digital video systems, new
players are joining the market, hence, capturing consumer’s
mind with new initiatives and grabbing their wallets. These
changes are bringing in aggressive modification in the
industry along with new business models, partnerships and
also acquisitions.
Whether one is a movie freak or a mad TV watcher, it is
quite known to them that the technology today is not what
they have seen few years back. The media and
entertainment industry has seen rapid changes and
modification in the recent years. The most observing
changes that the world of technology has witnessed are as
follows:
Multi-tasking and Multi-Channel Experiences
Time has changed now. Those days are gone when people
used to see the advertisement of a film on the road-side
billboard or on their newspaper and then go to a movie hall
to watch the movie. Today, people are multitasking and they
are more into multi-channel experiencing. People now are
not just into watching a movie or Television show with all
their concentration. They are watching a movie, uploading
status on their Facebook wall and tweeting about the movie,
all at the same time. They are sharing their views and
opinions about whatever they are watching on their social
media platforms. It clearly indicates that marketing is no
more a one-media thing; rather it’s an event of all channels.
An extensive research clearly proved that most people
watch clips and user-generated content on their phones and
simultaneously they prefer watching movies on a device
with larger screen like computer or television set. This is
something of which entertainment companies must take
advantage of by prompting the viewers to use hashtag (#)
and share using branded content to bring more traffic to
their content. Those days are no more when the writers and
marketers used to be focused about only the writing of the
content, rather they are now focusing a lot on how their
promotional content on social media platforms should look
like and how they can gain more attraction.
Curated Content is more in demand
The audience has changed a lot and so is their demand.
People are now demanding more curated content. And the
trend is already growing at a very successful pace. It has
been observed that media giants like Netflix and Amazon
have already been effectively using the curated content for
about four years. It is a procedure where the platform
suggests what the audience would like to watch or
subscribe. When these are used effectively, it can create
new audiences instantly for the provider’s new shows and
products. This is a better way to advertise products than
other means of advertisements.
Getting more creative with Artificial Intelligence
It sounds crazy to hear that the projected amount of
spending for AI (Artificial Intelligence) for 2025 is $30
billion which was earlier observed to be $300-350 million
in the year 2015. But the main reason behind such a huge
projection is that AI is changing the way completely in
which creativity was expressed earlier. There are already
various companies which are using the AI technology to
create interesting movie plot points based on the
performance of box office results.
Recent reports informed that McCann Erickson in Japan
owns an AI creative director which can actually analyze
briefings from clients before pitching a story. From image
recognition and language processing to speech recognition
and deep learning, AI is analyzing everything to create new
levels of impactful pitches through creative process in the
entertainment and media industry.
38 August 2018|
Understanding Reformations
41. Wireless media is the new upcoming trend
Gone are those days when people had to pay for all 300 channels which their satellite or cable TV channel providers used to
give though the viewer actually watches only four to five channels. Now the definition of the entire media and entertainment
industry has changed. The companies like Netflix and Hulu has brought in the new generation of wireless entertainment. The
new users are going online. From YouTube, Netflix, Hulu to Amazon and even the cable companies are going to wireless and
replacing traditional offerings with special and customized packages to attract more consumers.
Smarter Advertisements is the future
The present day technological advancements have brought an analytical approach in machine learning and have opened
doors to combine AI and reality. This is which is making advertisements much smarter. The pundits say traditional product
placement will be soon replaced by the just a click on the dress of one’s favorite actor or actress, that too just when it appears.
Experts mentioned that marketing agencies with the help of big data, will be soon able to switch out specific product
placement to the one the viewer will most likely buy. The advertisement is soon going to be another mode of entertainment.
After the new digital transformations taking place, certain changes are observed in the media and entertainment industry.
Traditional revenue models are decreasing in their growth as the new models are emerging. Digital enterprises are gaining
much prominence as their ability to deliver multi-channel experience and individual business models are replaced by the
modern day complex ecosystem of the new comers including new startups and super-platforms. The concept of
generalization is fading away and the personalized content is taking stand.
39|August 2018
42.
43.
44. We are the
one point of
contact accountable
to our
client’s senior
leadership team.
Every business wants to communicate their brand message
in a sophisticated way that resonates with the target
audience. Innovation plays a vital role in crafting the right
message at the right time for the right market. One agency that
excels at all three is Pietryla PR & Marketing.
Pietryla PR & Marketing is a boutique PR firm in Chicago. It works
with clients that are managing a watershed moment, be it launching
a new product, seeking funding, going through a branding shift, or
implementing a new automation strategy. It serves the energy,
materials, and professional services sectors.
Diverse Range of Services
Pietryla PR specializes in media relations, marketing automation,
crisis communications, communication content development, and
corporate strategy. It also offers copywriting, digital marketing, and
online reputation management services.
In addition to those core services, its broad range of solutions also
includes:
Ÿ SEO strategy and execution
Ÿ Blog writing
Ÿ Press release, case study and article copywriting
Ÿ Feature story writing
Ÿ Surveys and marketing data
Ÿ Website and blog development
Ÿ Social media strategy
Ÿ Event planning and management
Ÿ Project management
Ÿ Investor relations
Scaling Businesses Digitally
Pietryla PR
& Marketing:
—Christine Wetzler
Founder
42
‘‘
‘‘
August 2018|
45. An Experienced Leader
It is not easy to find a PR and marketing person who is also
well-versed in running a successful business. Christine
Wetzler, Founder of Pietryla PR & Marketing, does
possess that unique confluence of skills.
Over close to 20 years of practice, Christine has assisted
clients throughout significant Mergers &Acquisitions
(M&A), funding announcements, product launches, and
strategic thought leadership programs as well as directed
policy-changing public affairs campaigns.
Throughout her career, she has worked with high-profile
clients as like Dow Chemicals, 3M, Rexam Beverage Can
Americas, International Truck and Engine Corporation, and
the Hyster Company as well as for startup companies like
KidKlass.com and Oval Brand Fire Products. Since 2002,
Christine has been in private practice. For most clients, she
typically serves as an interim CMO or department lead.
Leveraging Challenges as Opportunities
Pietryla PR has been in business since 2002 but was
founded almost by accident. Christine was an account
director at a downtown agency, where she personally
managed close to $1 million in billings. When the agency
closed, many of her clients simply asked to continue
working with Christine.
Christine took a brief hiatus from her business to serve as
SVP at a Chicago tech agency. This was terrific for her in
terms of broadening her portfolio and leadership skills, but
ultimately only confirmed to her that she preferred
managing her own firm.
Started as a means to an end, Pietryla PR turned into an
excellent proposition for small and medium-sized
businesses that needed the strength of a major agency’s
expertise but didn’t want to pay the associated high fees.
Christine and her team have helped two companies to
manage their Initial Public Offering (IPO) while she has
served as director of communications for three clients,
written and produced 12 annual reports, and has had two
key pieces of legislation introduced.
As success followed success, the firm’s reputation grew and
the number of clients grew even faster.
A Wider Perspective
The recession of 2009 and the gig economy forced change
upon what had been working for Christine for almost 10
years. In 2011, she went back into public practice in
executive positions to broaden her experience, waited for
the recession to pass, and learn a bit more about the overall
PR ecosystem.
When she returned in 2014, a new and improved
consultancy hung out its shingle. This time, Pietryla PR &
Marketing decided not to focus purely on media relations
but offer an integrated approach.
Many agencies are still isolated. As a result, they offer
disjointed results, which can incapacitate smaller clients
that do not have the budget to absorb mistakes. Having one
point of strategic thinking will smooth over the rough spots
in a quick-reaction communications plan. This is what
Pietryla PR & marketing now offers.
It is a single point of contact to its clients’ senior leadership
team for smart results. This breaks the silos that stall
creativity and innovative thinking. Sometimes, it works as
just the brain, like an interim CMO. At other times, it is the
brain as well as the hands, like an entire marketing
department.
Distinguished Versatility
Pietryla PR prides itself on its versatile range of
capabilities. One of their strengths is the ability to scale at
short notice in response to a client’s needs. The company
utilizes technology and a vetted on-demand team to meet
the requirements of every project and in any place,
geographically or online.
43|August 2018
RP10
Most Creative
Agencies in 2018
The
46. Every single brand
has a story to
tell that can raise
awareness, generate
leads, change
behaviors and
build reputations.
Delivering Tailor-made Solutions
and Building Unwavering Trust
TrizCom PR:
—Jo Trizila
Founder & CEO
44
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‘‘
Marketing agencies around the world have come up with range of
innovative concepts like creative and branding services, digital,
media planning and buying, public relations, and market research
over the years. However, the companies with the most groundbreaking
approaches and strategies have dominated the long run, and TrizCom PR is
one of them.
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, TrizCom PR is dedicated to providing clients
with unified and best-in-class teams and has evolved as a mid-size, boutique
PR agency. By combining best practices with innovative approaches, it
empowers communications with bigger, bolder ideas that can break through
clutter and achieve results.
A Resourceful Leader and Trailblazer
Jo Trizila is the Founder and CEO of TrizCom PR. She is also a multi-
talented, high-caliber public and media relations marketing professional. Jo
holds over 25 years of experience in building and leading, integrated and
strategic public relations operations for globally renowned companies. She has
an in-depth background in crisis communications, publicity, expert
positioning, promotions, influencer marketing, investor relations and
legislative affairs.
For Jo, creating a public relations agency from scratch was a natural
progression. Although the journey has not been a cakewalk, Jo has
significantly managed to make her mark in a highly competitive industry. Her
team’s work has been recognized by the Public Relations Society of America
where she earned the prestigious Best of Show and three Pegasus Awards. Her
firm is also a certified woman-owned business as established by the National
Women Business Owners Corporation.
As a former PR expert at the Dallas Regional Chamber, City of Irving and for
a variety of nonprofits, storytelling is her linchpin. Currently, Jo serves as a
City of Dallas Cultural Affairs Commissioner and is very active on nonprofit
boards; she contributes as a Vice-President of the Board of Directors for
August 2018|
47. 45
Heroes for Children, a Texas based charity that ensures
no family fights childhood cancer alone.
An Adept Team of Professionals
TrizCom PR believes that personal relationships are at
the core of any successful public relations campaign.
This is a human-capital business that relies on the value
of storytelling as well as story selling for their clients.
The unique factors that TrizCom PR brings to a client
include nimble and scalable campaigns that are designed
to fit their specific objectives with measurable results.
It’s a tailor-made approach in raising a brand’s awareness
and consideration of both products and services for B2B
and B2C companies. While they use the same tools, and
perform much of the same work as the large global firms,
TrizCom PR is able to keep their billable hourly rates
and retainers much lower with white glove service. Led
by analytics and measurable results, their clients have
access to the lift public relations provides in the way of
website traffic, conversions and other bottom lines.
While collaboration is often a word one hears from the
agency side, TrizCom PR employs this tactic as a
strategy to achieve success and is an integral part of their
culture. TrizCom PR, includes team members from
interns up to senior account supervisors, who
collectively collaborate across accounts to realize their
client’s successes. TrizCom PR believes that their
collaborative style is one of the advantages of working
with a mid-sized agency and one of the prime reasons
that their account retention level beats industry
expectations.
Unfolding the Story of Inception
TrizCom PR began ten years ago in a spare room of Jo
Trizila’s home, as a one-person operation that has grown
in size and structure. Beginning with a staff of
independent contractors, she later added salaried
employees. Their client roster began to grow as well,
from startups to nonprofits to iconic brands. They have
chosen their clients and partners very carefully, making
sure that they are a good fit for the agency ensuring their
relationships can work on both sides of the equation.
TrizCom PR credits its team’s competitive spirit and
integrity for its astonishing success. While taking pride
in their own work, they produce unique customer
experiences for every single client. There hasn’t been a
magical formula or any type of a magic pill, but the team
has collectively created an agency that is collaborative,
innovative and proactive that consistently produces
client ROI.
Internally, TrizCom PR is an agency that is fun, cheerful
and dedicated. Together, they celebrate team and client
victories. TrizCom PR steadfastly believes that everyone
needs to stop and smell the roses--and then share them
with others. Every member of the team has the work-
hard, play-hard mentality and celebrates disruptions with
their proactive and crazy creativity.
Jo says, “The admiration I have for every single
TrizCom PR team member can’t be expressed with
words. They have taught me that in unity, there is
strength enough to construct a colossus. From the
foundation to the ridgepole, the parts reinforce and
support one another to create a cathedral that echoes
with sounds of success. TrizCom PR is a success because
of the synergism our team, individually and collectively,
provides in building solidarity.”
Promising Future
TrizCom PR has been successful in partnering with some
of the world’s leading organizations. Most recently, it
created an alliance with Stryker-Munley Group to extend
its national offerings. Stryker-Munley Group is the only
national integrated public relations and marketing
communications firm of its kind, with all offices being
independently owned and run by seasoned professionals
who are leaders in their respective markets. TrizCom PR
aims to build more subsequent relations and envisions
adding value to its services through such developments.
|August 2018
RP10
Most Creative
Agencies in 2018
The
48. No More
Staying
Home:
stores and malls can hardly keep their
doors open. In 2017, movie attendance
hit a 25-year low. And restaurants are
in their worst slump since the 2009
recession.
So are we just going to sit back and
watch as our communities turn
increasingly sedentary, secluded, and
lonely? Heck no.
As the largest social sport community
in the nation, we are fired up about this.
Here are the 3 things we remind
ourselves every single day in the fight
against Stay Homerism.
1. Give customers what they truly
need, even if they don’t know they
need it
Plenty of our players come to us
thinking that what they really want is
to play soccer, plain and simple.
They’ve played the beautiful game
their whole lives, and just need a
weekly fix.
But if you look at the statistics, many
of them join our leagues when they
first move to one of our markets.
They’re looking for a chance to play
the game they love. They’re looking
for an opportunity meet new
teammates.
After all these years in the business,
what we know is that our players are
not just looking for a game. On a
deeper emotional level, what they want
is a sense of community. They want
real personal connections, friendships,
and real-life interactions.
So that’s what we offer. It’s not just
about the product or the service your
company provides, it’s how it serves
some deeper, emotional need for your
customers. We constantly remind
ourselves of the bigger picture—and
how we play a crucial role in
delivering something our players don’t
even know they need. It’s deeply
validating, it gives us purpose, and it’s
the reason our business keeps growing,
despite the momentum against us.
Let’s assume you have the right
ball and a pair of sneakers. At
that point, it takes two to play
catch. Two to pass a soccer ball. And
sure, you can go shoot hoops by
yourself, but that’s just practice. If you
want to get a game of one-on-one
going, it’s a pretty simple math.
Most people think about sports as a
way to stay fit, active, and healthy. We
love those things. They are universally
positive, fun, and help us get a sense of
competition. But there’s something
even bigger. Sports bring people
together in real life—on the field,
court, or for a post-game drink—in a
way that very few things do anymore.
And that’s what we’re fighting for.
Haven’t you heard? Young adults are
increasingly staying at home to Netflix
& Chill. They’re not getting their
drivers licenses. They’re overstaying
their welcome, living with their
parents, way longer than in previous
decades. And in the most boring,
depressing news ever, staying in is the
new going out.
It’s an actual crisis. Not just for our
company, or for sports, but for the
society at-large. Retail sales are in a
massive decline, and brick-and-mortar
3 Ways We Get
Our Customers to
Come Out & Play
46 August 2018|
Sports Insider
49. 2. Meet your customers where they
are
You know what should make us
nervous? The fact that our prospective
customers are spending more and more
time snapping, scrolling, and sharing
through social media and less time out
of the house.
But instead, we see it as an opportunity
and a challenge. Now that the player
and the game have changed, we can’t
keep doing the same thing we did in
2002 and expect it to work now; we’ve
got to keep up.
If we want to reach our target market,
we have to meet them where they are.
We have to embrace Instagram and
Facebook and Snapchat as dynamic
tools, platforms to help us amplify our
message, purpose, and worldview. We
can’t run away from social media—we
have to make ourselves relevant in the
new media landscape. There’s really no
alternative solution. We have to lean
into it.
To be honest, we haven’t quite nailed
our strategy or execution yet. It’s a
work in progress, and things are
constantly changing. But we’re excited
about where we’re heading.
We’re beginning to share content that
lets our players and prospective players
truly feel what a ZogSports experience
is all about. We need to convey our
opinion on the world—that life is
better with real personal connections,
caring communities and a sense of
play.
And if people don’t buy that? Well, no
sense wasting time trying to convince
them. Life’s too short to spend it with
boring people who don’t like fun.
3. Take it personally
So often, we hear people say “It’s not
personal; it’s just business.” Well, let’s
agree to disagree. If we’re going to
spend a third of our lives working, we
does, it’s worth trying. But if it doesn’t,
then we move on.
When we set that WHY as our true
north, it became a lot easier to navigate
all the complex business challenges we
might face. Our WHY gives us a
framework and a purpose, so we can
be flexible in our approach to any
problem.
We can tack around obstacles or
change our products, marketing
strategy, or organizational structure if
we have to. So long as we keep our
vessel pointed oriented toward our
WHY, we know we’ll get to the
promised land.
The truth is that it’s not easy to succeed
in our business. But it’s not easy to
succeed in any business. You really
need to be committed. You need to
remind yourself of these things every
single day. But if you live your WHY
and stay the course, think of all the
great things your business can do.
better be personally invested. If not,
what’s even the point of showing up
every day?
That’s not to say we don’t analyze our
data, pay attention to the numbers, or
care about delivering hard truths when
necessary. It’s just that there’s
something much bigger than just
making cold, calculated decisions.
There’s a purpose. A sense of WHY we
do what we do.
We believe that life is better with real
personal connections, caring
communities, and a sense of play.
At ZogSports, we have a very clear
understanding of our WHY. We talk
about it at every all-hands meeting, in
every interaction between our staff and
their managers, and in every
management meeting.
We can use that WHY to pressure test
some of our ideas or priorities. If we
want to test out a new league or
customer experience enhancement, for
example, we just need to ask ourselves,
does this idea fit into our WHY? If it
Robert Herzog
Founder & CEO
ZogSports
47|August 2018