PR Firm of the Year – 2015 Milestones and Media Placements

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By Mark Macias

2015 was a big year for Macias PR. Finance Monthly named us the “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” based on the media placements we delivered for our clients. And while that award did bring us some international attention, there were many other milestones and achievements that Macias PR delivered for our clients.

Here’s a look back on the 2015 milestones that led to Macias PR being named the PR firm of the year.

  • Macias PR secured prominent national and international news coverage for our clients in healthcare, financial, tech, legal, political and nonprofit. Our clients appeared multiple times in the Wall Street Journal, Inc Magazine, Bloomberg News, Washington Post, Daily Mail UK, Bloomberg News, CNBC, CNN, CBS News, ABC News and others.
  • Mark Macias became a PR expert for CNBC, giving weekly political and media analysis on topics ranging from the US Presidential elections to timely business issues.
  • Macias PR organized two hedge fund and private equity forums in New York and Connecticut. The hedge fund publication, All About Alpha broadcast video portions of the New York forum. Other online financial news sites also ran video excerpts of the panels.
  • Macias PR launched two mobile communications apps – The Publicity App and Blush No More. The Publicity App guides business owners through the initial steps of launching their own PR campaign, while Blush No More helps consumers through those awkward silent moments. Blush No More became the fastest growing communications app in the summer of 2015, according to its publisher Mobincube. Macias PR ran the publicity campaign for Blush No More, securing stories for the app in Yahoo News, Yahoo China, The Daily Mail UK, GQ Italy, Channel 11 in New York, AOL News and others. It has since been downloaded in more than 60 countries, including China, Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan.
  • Mark Macias addressed the Alternative Asset Summit in Las Vegas, giving fund managers from around the world advice on how they can use the media as a client acquisition strategy.
  • Macias PR was selected as the 2015 top “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. Researchers and journalists with the financial publication applied a 10-point criterion to select and identify the top PR firm. Their team quietly assessed the number of media placements we delivered for our clients, they interviewed reporters who assessed our expertise and interaction with them, they assessed our strategic thinking and looked at the innovation we delivered from a PR perspective.

Macias PR was named the 2015 “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. The firm was founded by Mark Macias – a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. Macias is a weekly contributor with CNBC.com and author of the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media, which has been featured in the NY Times, Fox Business, NY Post and others. Macias PR has run media campaigns for tech startups, financial groups, service providers, nonprofits and politicians.

PR Firms – East or West Coast

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By Mark Macias

East or West Coast – is there an advantage to choosing a San Francisco PR firm versus a PR firm in NYC?

In today’s world, publicists are able to pitch reporters from anywhere. Few publicists meet reporters in person so an office in New York, Miami or San Francisco shouldn’t provide an edge when it comes to pitching stories to journalists. However, there is a large advantage to being on East Coast time if you are pitching national news outlets.

Look at it this way: if you’re a publicist in LA, beginning your day at 9am, you’ve pretty much lost half the day with reporters in New York. Many reporters in New York, Boston (or any city on the East Coast) go to lunch around noon, just about the time when publicists in LA or San Francisco are getting to work.

Making it even more challenging for PR firms in San Francisco or LA, most reporters are under deadline after 3:30pm EST, so you don’t want to pitch them a story in the late afternoon.

Do the math and you’ll see a publicist in LA or San Francisco has only 2.5 hours to get a story in front of reporters, while a publicist in New York competes on the same time zone.

I can already feel the heat coming from publicists in California who will say they work later than people in New York. True – but as a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York, I will tell you a publicist is wasting his or her time by pitching a story to reporters outside of work. No reporter or TV producer wants to read his work email at 7pm, which is only 4pm in California.

PR Firms on East Coast Time Have an Advantage

In addition, most news cycles only have a shelf-life of 24 hours. If there is a story that develops overnight, our team learns about it while we are getting ready for work. If we can position our clients into the news, our team is pitching that story to journalists before the morning news meetings. This is roughly the same time that publicists in California are hitting their snooze buttons.

I say that in a snarky way, but there is truth to the news cycle running on East Coast time zone. Even the entertainment TV shows, like Extra and Access Hollywood work on East Coast time. I have many former colleagues who work on those entertainment shows in LA and they loathe their morning meetings that take place at 5:30am – local time.

But what about tech startups who want to reach Silicon Valley? Yes – it will help being in the Bay area, but a PR firm in NYC can pitch stories just as easily to tech reporters and time the pitch so it hits their inbox as tech writers are logging onto their computers.

Click here if you would like to learn more about how we can help your business on the West Coast.

Finance Monthly named Macias PR the 2015 and 2016 PR Firm of the Year. Mark Macias – a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York – founded the firm after spending time consulting other global PR firms. Macias is a frequent contributor with CNBC.com and author of the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media, which has been featured in the NY Times, Fox Business, NY Post and others. Macias PR has run media campaigns for tech startups, financial groups, service providers, nonprofits and politicians.