Tag: top financial pr firms usa

Health Tech PR – Why Experience Matters

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

Medical and health reporters are typically the most experienced journalists in the newsroom. Their experience and understanding of medical studies runs deep and that will play a critical factor in the success of your health tech or healthcare media campaign.

You can’t approach these medical reporters with a story that is half-baked or full of fluff. You need to identify the research and understand it from a news editorial perspective before you even get on the phone with them. And when products aren’t yet peer reviewed, your publicist needs to identify unique story angles that can still position your brand on the news.

Why Experience Matters with Health Tech and Healthcare PR

During my time with NBC, I oversaw the medical and health units, approving the scripts and story ideas of reporters and producers in those units. Our three medical reporters all had post-graduate degrees from Ivy-League schools. Likewise, our medical producer had more than a decade of news experience in New York. These reporters and producers could see a bad medical story idea within the first three sentences.

This is why it is so important to make sure your publicist has experience when it comes to pitching your health tech or healthcare company. PR teams only get one shot with these medical reporters and if your publicist doesn’t present the story accurately or succinctly, reporters will be less likely to listen to their pitches in the future.

So as you begin vetting potential publicists to sell your health tech or healthcare ideas to the media, don’t assume a bubbly personality will get you on the news. It’s not youth or personality that persuades these experienced medical reporters. It’s a solid understanding of the news angle that succeeds with media placements.

Macias PR was named the 2016 “Financial PR Firm of the Year – USA” and the 2015 “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. We have launched and led media campaigns for clients in healthcare, finance, tech and the nonprofit sectors. The founder of Macias PR – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He is also a PR contributor with CNBC, providing media analysis, insight and crisis advice on timely business topics.

Macias PR Named Top PR Firm of the Year

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

We aren’t even in the 4th quarter yet, but 2016 has already been a great year for Macias PR.

Finance Monthly just selected Macias PR as the 2016 “Financial PR Firm of the Year – USA.” We are the only public relations firm in the USA honored with this award, and recognized for the second year in a row.

So how did we get it?

I like to say that this isn’t some made up PR award given by other publicists. This award was given by the people who matter most in the world of PR – journalists, researchers and clients. Without clients, we don’t have a business; without journalists, we don’t have media placements; without researchers, in-depth reporting doesn’t exist. All of these people were part of the selection process in naming Macias PR the firm of the year.

How Finance Monthly Identified the PR Firm of the Year

Researchers with Finance Monthly applied a 10-point criterion in selecting the best firms in legal, accounting, public relations, consulting and asset management across Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and the Middle East. Other big names honored with the award in other sectors include: KPMG for Taxation Firm of the Year, UBS Wealth Management for Investment Firm of the Year, Deloitte for Business Outsourcing Firm of the Year and China Bank for Banking and Finance Firm of the Year.

And then you have Macias PR – the scrappy PR firm that lives with the motto we must out-think and out-work the competition. We might be smaller than the larger firms, but we are more hungry – especially around 12:30pm EST when we go to lunch as a team.

Public relations is competitive, especially in New York. Every year, agencies are forced to merge or shrink in size as the competition gets tougher. But Finance Monthly described it best how public relations is changing. In their profile story on Macias PR, which you can read here, they wrote:

The world of financial public relations is changing rapidly as new regulation and technology disrupt the finance industry.

The outdated PR business model of writing a press release and distributing it on the newswires no longer ensures media coverage like it did a decade ago. In most cases, a press release today doesn’t even land your business in the news section of Google.

Despite this industry change, most PR firms continue to stick with the outdated approach of writing and distributing press releases. They rarely bring creativity and innovation that is desperately needed in finance, but there is one public relations firm in New York that is completely revolutionizing the world of financial PR.

And that public relations firm is Macias PR.

While these awards hopefully bring an extra sense of confidence with our firm’s ability, what ultimately matters most is what I said at the end of this Finance Monthly article, “I have no desire to become the biggest PR firm in the world or USA. I just want to be the best.”

 

Top PR Firm of the Year – USA

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

New York City is an artist’s muse and for creative publicists, it’s equally inspiring. Our team put this video together to showcase our home – the place where we work around the clock to make sure your business gets the attention it deserves.

Here’s a glimpse at why Macias PR was named the 2015 and 2016 Firm of the Year by Finance Monthly.

Find Investors with Financial PR – SEC Regulation A Rules

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

How valuable is a press release when it comes to moving the market? Try $30 million dollars. That’s how much a 28-year-old Ukrainian hacker generated by hacking into PR Newswire, Marketwired and BusinessWire last month.

According to the FBI, the hacker stole 150,000 unpublished press releases and traded on the information before it hit the news.

What does this mean to you as a firm or company trying to reach investors?

Use Financial PR to Find Investors

Press releases – when done effectively – can influence the market. A recent study by Engleberg and Parsons revealed that trading volume increased by 75 percent after a stock appeared in the news. Another 70 percent of investors said they reallocated their portfolio after reading a story on the news, according to Cogent Research.

This ability to influence investors will only grow larger as more companies actively go after investors following the recent SEC Regulation A changes.

I’m constantly meeting with fund managers and business owners who are trying to attract investments to their fund or company. Most of these people seek investments through the traditional route: via networking at investor conferences and investment forums. But as the SEC Regulation A changes become more accepted and smaller companies begin seeking more funding through mini IPOs, the pool of quality investors via friends and family will get smaller and become less effective.

At the same time, the ability to reach targeted investors via the financial media will continue to remain the most influential medium for introducing your fund or business to investors. The job of securing media placements will get harder for financial PR firms, which is why even more so – you will want to make sure you do your due diligence on your financial PR firm before signing up.

Did we mention that Macias PR was named the 2015 top “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly based on our expertise, media deliverables and innovation in PR?

 

Top Financial PR Firms – A Global Trend Story

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

I recently read a story in the Financial Times, Financial PR spins a new global story, which takes a closer look at the evolution of financial PR in the UK and USA.

Their article described how the biggest PR firms are consolidating and in many cases, putting the PR boutique business models under pressure to sell to the global PR giants. As the owner of Macias PR, I am always trying to stay ahead of the trends on where my industry is going and how it is evolving.

The PR industry is quickly evolving into a content-marketing oriented business model that places a larger emphasis in reaching the online reader. If your product or service is not on the first few pages of Google, your business doesn’t exist. But getting your website on the first few pages of the search engines is more than an SEO strategy. It begins with content marketing.

At the same time, clients are also placing a larger emphasis and desire to get their stories told with the largest media publications. Bigger and smaller brands are realizing it is harder to get their company above the clutter, but a big story in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New York Post or their local newspaper, gets consumers talking instantly.

This approach also applies to industry PR. A reporter with Bloomberg News, CNBC and Fox Business News all appeal to a business audience, but they are vastly different with editorial. A successful media strategy takes this editorial into account when identifying a media strategy.

Finally, this FT article explored a disturbing trend that is hitting the PR industry: multi-nationals and global conglomerates, like PWC and McKinsey, are buying PR firms because they see their value. This is bad for all businesses that hire those global financial PR companies. These consultancies might be great at tax law and regulatory matters, but the media is neither.

As your business begins looking for a PR firm, take time to research the owners or specialists who will be leading your media campaign. Don’t be deceived by big-name PR firms that razzle and dazzle you with power point presentations. During my time consulting global PR firms, I saw how great sales people sold PR to clients, even though they know nothing about PR or the media.

I hope if you Google the top financial pr firms in NYC, you will see Macias PR on the first page – and read why we were named the PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA by Finance Monthly. And for the record, we were the only PR firm named in that bracket by their financial journalists.