Month: December 2020

Looking Forward to 2021 – MACIAS PR

Posted on by Mark Macias

I’d like to wish you and your family laughs, happiness, love and favor during this holiday season. Yes, it’s great to prosper in business but without happiness and love, what’s the purpose of work? And without favor, you really have no business. We all need favor with people and customers to grow our business. We need love to get up in the morning.

I also want to say thank you to our clients for giving us an opportunity to work with you. You have choices and options, yet you chose to work with MACIAS PR.

The nonprofit, NPower, is a great national organization that provides free work tech training to underserved communities. We’ve now worked together 3.5 years. It’s our second year working with the digital health platform, Lifesum. There’s nothing better than working with friends and with both of these organizations, I’m working with friends to build bigger brands.

MACIAS PR also got some new clients in 2020 across fintech, healthcare and politics. MACIAS PR launched three different media campaigns for Congressional candidates in Arizona and Illinois in 2020. I have no doubt all of those candidates are going places in the future. In 2019 and 2020, we worked with a member of Congress. She’s a great woman who I hope will get appointed to a cabinet position in the Biden administration.

There were also some hidden gems along the way that we helped – like the fintech, Flaist, and the digital health platform, Sleeprate. They are both revolutionizing the sleep and banking industry with their AI platforms. 

Putting Business & PR in Perspective

Personally, I’m excited to put 2020 behind me. I lost my father this year to Covid, and gained a son who is becoming the inspiration for my days. He’s the cutest kid. And of course, the office still has our team mascot “Einstein.

He’s in the photo above with me.

But enough of us. If you want to learn how relationships matter in business and PR, please email me. We can discuss a media strategy that works for your business. If PR is not right for you, I’ll tell you what I think.

Be blessed and good luck in the New Year.

Mark Macias

MACIAS PR Releases 2020 Annual Media Report

Posted on by Mark Macias

The top tech and healthcare PR agency — MACIAS PR— has released its annual media report, detailing the coverage secured in 2020. The list of prominent media includes Forbes, TechCrunch, CNBC, San Francisco Chronicle, Business Insider, New York Times, Politico.

MACIAS PR also secured targeted TV segments with CBS News, Fox News in Detroit, NBC Los Angeles, ABC Washington, News 12 in New York, NY 1 and NJ TV.

“It was a great year for our clients. We got their stories told with some of the most influential publications in 2020, even with the pandemic dominating the news,” said Mark Macias, founder of MACIAS PR. “As we look ahead, our media strategy and creative approach will continue to expand as we keep talking to reporters and producers.”

Marketing peers also named MACIAS PR the 2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year. The ACQ5 Awards recognized MACIAS PR as an industry leader based on expertise, media deliverables and innovation. Macias also became a PR and branding contributor for Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine in 2020.

Companies interested in receiving a free PR quote can click here to get an estimate and proposal.

Continue reading “MACIAS PR Releases 2020 Annual Media Report” →

Branding Fundamentals Critical to PR

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

Forbes recently ran an article,  “16 Branding Fundamentals New Businesses Should Remember.” As part of their research, their editors reached out to me asking what branding advice I have for their readers.

I didn’t want to give the obvious, so I thought about my own clients and mistakes I’ve seen them make over the years. Here’s what I told Forbes.

“The CEO is a crucial component for any successful branding campaign. Think Jobs, Musk, Zuckerberg—you know their companies. I’ve worked with a lot of brands that don’t like to use their CEO in the media and I don’t understand it. Any CEO must be receptive to speaking with the media, discussing business trends and thought leadership with reporters. The best publicists know how to leverage the CEO.”

Leverage Your CEO with Branding

A few years, our agency worked with a digital health brand that didn’t want to give us access to their CEO. I understand the CEO is likely busy, but the corporate gate-keepers actually made our job more difficult. How could we identify trends or position the brand as a leader if we weren’t given access to any of this insight?

I tried to share my concerns with their marketing team but they assured me the CEO didn’t want to speak with the media. Making this even more frustrating, their biggest competitor was leveraging their CEO for an IPO.

Don’t make that mistake. If you’re CEO, leverage that title and experience for media coverage. I understand if the CEO is shy, but the top sales guy needs to be over-exposed with the media.

Here’s more tips from other peers if you’d like to review that Forbes article by clicking here.

ABOUT MACIAS PR

Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the 2017-2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year, and PR Firm of the Year. Our founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He’s also a PR contributor with CNBC and Forbes, providing media analysis, insight and crisis advice on timely business topics.

Crisis Communications – Is your brand about to Blow Up?

Posted on by Mark Macias

I recently wrote an editorial for Forbes on crisis communications. How do you know when a PR crisis is brewing?

Many brands might believe a communications crisis pops up out of nowhere, but usually there were warning signs along the way that could have slowed or prevented the crisis. The warning signs were likely just ignored or not seen.

Here are three warning signs to watch out for. I went more in-depth in the Forbes article if you want to learn more, but here’s a summary.

Customers Complain about the Same Issue

The easier it is for journalists to find voices for their investigative story, the worse for your brand. An angry customer is always motivated — and that’s the best personality for TV. Keep your pulse on the customer. If you begin hearing similar complaints, get to the root of the problem — and fix it — before they go to the media.

Disgruntled employees will work against you

Former and current employees can be even more dangerous to any unfolding crisis because they have insider perspectives on what others aren’t seeing. They add color and commentary to any work situation, and reporters will be more receptive with their insider credos.

If the company is going down, and employees are on the ship, there might not be much you can do to control their desire to speak with reporters. But if you’re fair and honest with employees, you’ll at least lower their incentive to bash your brand in the media.

Media runs in packs — fix it fast.

A full-blown crisis will hit your brand from every area — and with the media, it’s the same situation. When TV reporters and newspaper and online writers all leave voicemail messages about the same issue, you’re in a fire.