BIG FISH PR

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a Houston-based oil technology and production company. We have slightly less 50 employees, and we're a publicly traded company. We work with alternative ways to recover residual oil from oil wells that others consider depleted.

What is your position?

I am the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

We hired them primarily to get the story out about what we do.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We wanted to do everything from brand the company, starting from a name, and getting a logo, a website, and then get the story out to the world. We've done little in social media. In the beginning, our primary customers were oil producers, from small independents to the major companies. We focused on getting our message out in more traditional ways, such as press releases and traditional media stories.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

I'm a scientist by training, so I had very little exposure to PR companies. I started with online searches, and then I talked to contacts I had from my previous work. I asked them about the approach they take, the firms they use, and who they recommend. I generated a list of about 25, and then narrowed it down to 10.

I did personal calls with about half a dozen firms, and then our CEO and I went out and visited three in person. We liked the creative eye we saw when we went to the offices of BIGfish. At that time, we were a small company, and they were a small firm, so we thought they would be very responsive to us, as well a creative. It's worked out great for us. 

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost has probably averaged $8,000 to $10,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2011, and we've had them continuously through that period.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

David [Gerzof Richard, founder and president of BIGfish Communications] and his team have been fantastic. They've been creative for us, and they're certainly connected. They're intelligent and responsive. They know what they're doing, and they get the story out for us.

In May, we had discussed the two or three key stories that we wanted to get out there, and get them in mainstream media. We worked together to identify the stories, write the storylines, and then identify who we wanted to get the story to. They were great – they got us a story in The Wall Street Journal, and that was the big one.

From there, we've gotten many other mentions in the media. I did an interview with The Wall Street Analyzer last month. We've had a story in BQ Magazine. We've been in Inside Futures, which is Chicago-based. Offshore Engineer is another one, and I could go on and on.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

BIGfish Communications creative, but also very intelligent. They're connected, and they're responsive. When I sent them a note, or give them a call, it's rare that it takes more than 15 minutes to get a response back.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

No. As I said, we brainstorm together every week on what we can do and how we can do it. They get the job done. Everything we discuss gets done quickly and gets done well.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I am the founder of Open Blue Sea Farms. We're one of the pioneers in open ocean farming. We work with cobia, a white fish species that we're raising here in Panama. We manage the entire lifecycle of the species. We raise fish from an egg all the way through the harvest, and then process the fish into various product formats and distribute it worldwide for gourmet and sushi restaurants.

We work with a new type of technology for farming the oceans, where our farms are actually located far off the coast, over the horizon, and in very deep water. Although this location is in very exposed conditions, it's a better place for the fish and better place for the environment. We're leading the effort to move fish farming in that direction. We're based here in Panama and, right now, we have sales operations in Europe, the United States and Asia.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

We needed help in establishing the look and feel of our brand.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They worked with us on some of the early designs for the logo. We got the logo that we have today through our work with BIGfish. They did a lot of the early look and feel of the website, and they developed our brochures, documentation, and presentation-type media. They helped with a lot of early messaging and market analysis and worked with us to develop our marketing strategy documents.

Later on, they did a lot of work with us on PR, both for social and traditional media. They set up a couple of high-profile opportunities, including CNN. They helped us get some good media coverage.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

We've worked with a couple of different firms through the years. While working with one of those firms, we attended a conference in Boston. BIGfish saw a presentation that we gave, pitched their firm, and we agreed to give them a shot. Things kind of snowballed from there, and they began taking on more work.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I don't know off the top of my head. I would say $25,000 to $50,000 a year early on – some years maybe more.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2008, and we still have a relationship with them. Our sales team is working with a different firm at the moment, but we still keep close contact with BIGfish, and I do expect to use them again in the future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?

They did a great job helping us with our initial logo and website design – we were very happy with that. Then, BIGfish helped us get quite a bit of media coverage. They wrote and placed a number of articles for us, but the CNN coverage was the real highlight of our work with them.

They also helped us with trade shows. We attend the Boston Seafood Show every year, so they did the booth design, found a team to set it up, and helped us staff the booth. They did a good job with that as well. They're a well-rounded company. They can do a lot of different things.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

I think it is the fact that they can cover so many bases. BIGfish Communications is a small firm, so for small to mid-sized companies, they are a good match. Because they're so balanced, they can almost be a one-stop shop for design, web, copy and even PR for some smaller firms. I think they can do a good job for companies in that size range and pretty much cover all the bases for them.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

At the moment, off the top of my head, I can think of nothing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The company I was with at the time I worked with BIGfish was named Cignal Global Communications. We were a pioneer in integrated voice/data communications technology.

What was your position?

I was the co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

When we started working with them, Cignal was a small company, and we really had no public relations presence at all.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

BIGfish was basically responsible for doing all of the public relations and marketing work for the company. This was way back when BIGfish was just starting up, and there was a lot less social media than today. A lot of our PR at that time was print, and we had almost no online presence.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

I had worked with the founder of BIGfish in the past and had good experiences with him – I can't speak highly enough of him. He's a high integrity, hard-working and effective person, and he was very effective in getting us in front of the right people.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

No. I don't remember how much we spent. It was definitely a significant amount, but I don't know whether it was $50,000 or $100,000. I have no idea.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them when BIGfish started so around 2001.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

BIGfish made us bigger. They gave us almost an immediate impact in getting a presence in the market and in all the telecom magazines, as well as in Forbes. BIGfish Communications took a small company that was growing and gave us immediate visibility when there was no way we could get it otherwise. That's really their strength.

We were placed in a lot of magazines. From a PR perspective, we were getting articles written about us as the state-of-the-art voice-over IP [Internet protocol] network. I have collected a ton of articles that they wrote. My co-founder, who enjoyed the media much more than I did, was all over the place. BIGfish also got us on CNN.

The founder of BIGfish is great. The best part is his high integrity; he wants to deliver value – that's his big thing. He is very focused on making sure that he delivers value for every dollar that you spend. He advocates for his clients as well as anybody I've ever met. He's great at working with early stage companies and getting their names out there, which is not easy. I have a lot of respect for him because that's hard to do. He helped us get above the noise and positioned us well.

I've been following BIGfish now for quite some time and watching what they do. They have taken companies, given them a very clear message and have done a great job getting them out so that the world knows who they are. The owner is just terrific.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

They are one of the hardest pushing, the hardest driving companies I've ever worked with. They are very much out of the box – very unconventional. They were very aggressive in getting us into the market. The process was fast and not expensive. BIGfish was very quick to understand us and to place us correctly in the market.

You could work with a bigger agency, but with my experience in retrospect, there wasn't a lot of fluff. They are very task oriented and very aggressive. They understood what we were trying to get done and positioned us very well. They moved the ball forward very quickly and aggressively. They really were a great advocate for our company.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

We were a startup, so it was a very dynamic situation. I don't want to say that we were a difficult client, but we had a lot of moving pieces. We didn't exactly give BIGfish the easiest workload. It was a difficult workload, but they turned it around and adapted accordingly. Could it have been better? I don't know. The challenge was the size and the scope of what we were, more than it was what BIGfish was doing. They did a great job with what we knew and who we were.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a three-year old company called TYLT located in Simi Valley, California. We are a brand of a larger parent company. We created this brand three years ago with the intention of creating smart accessories for the mobile phones.

What is your position?

I'm the VP of product marketing and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

As a startup, we weren't in retail yet. Putting marketing together that drove people to Best Buy, for instance, wasn't something in our plans because we were not at Best Buy yet. The goal was to try and get product reviews. It's the startup budget way of getting your name out there – you just send a lot of free product out.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We were looking for BIGfish to put us in touch with some of the bigger reviewers in the marketplace and get some reviews. Ultimately, when a buyer or consumer would look for us, they would see some reviews for the product. Sending out product was key for us to getting what we do and why we do it out to the consumer.

They don't really do a ton of marketing work with us. They mostly get us into press and get products reviewed.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

We knew a gentleman who was a mutual friend of the founder of BIGfish. We were looking for a new company, and we heard about BIGfish and had a conversation with them. We went through the process of talking to three different agencies, and we settled on BIGfish based on what they had, their plan, and what they thought they could do.

Our previous agency tended to get us into numerous blogs, and we got a lot of press from the free product we gave out, but no big heavy hitters. We were looking to get into The New York Times or some other key spaces, and we weren't getting that. We went to BIGfish and said, "Less is more. We'd rather be in 10 great publications a year than 500 bloggers." That was the main goal in switching from our prior public relations, and they have been able to do that – for sure.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We started at $5,000 a month, and we're now at $8,000 a month after a year. I know they brought their standard retainer down in order to work with us.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship started about a year and a half ago and is ongoing. A week doesn't go by when someone doesn't pitch me, but I'm happy with my relationship with BIGfish. I'm not going anywhere.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

BIGfish Communications has done a great job getting us into the heavy hitters. We've been in The New York Times four or five times since we signed up with them, and we had never been in The New York Times before. We've gotten onto many news shows. We've gotten opportunities to do many interviews in the local region about our business, who we are and why we started. Sort of getting back to the community, where we are, and why we are located in Simi Valley and Ventura County. We've had a lot of local press about the company as a whole as opposed to the individual products, which is good for the overall profile of the company.

They've been able to place us in many key reviews. One of the things about products and reviews is that if a review comes out for the top five widgets, and you make one of those widgets, but you're not in that top five or not even considered in that, that's a fail for the PR agency. They have been able to keep us in any relevant roundups that occur; we have been part of it. The Internet is key to search, and results, and consumers' opinions of products. We did our job of making quality products, and they did their job of getting it out to the big roundups in that space.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

I guess the key in my being pleased with what they're able to do is, we are not left out of any key product reviews. When iPhone Life does a review of the best iPhone battery cases, we're in it because they have a relationship with iPhone Life. They've built that relationship, and they can make sure that our product is part of that review. Whether we're "best of" or honorable mention, the end result is our responsibility as far as the product goes, but they were able to get us into the roundup. I think that's the key. When it comes to being part of a story, they are always able to throw our hat in the ring and get us considered.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work out of New York, and one of the projects that I oversee is a marketing program called "Iceland Naturally," and that's where most of my work with BIGfish has taken place.

What is your position?

I am the consul general and trade commissioner for Iceland in North America.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

We've been working with BIGfish since 2010. In the beginning, I was looking for an agency in the United States to assist us with building our online profile and presence.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The bulk of their work has been in online marketing. That includes social media, content management for all our online platforms and integration of online marketing and public relations around our event management. We run large events that we call "Taste of Iceland." Part of their work has been to integrate as much as possible the online marketing with our more conventional marketing.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

I visited three or four agencies in Boston, including BIGfish. We talked with some large agencies, but we decided that on the online marketing side, BIGfish was the one that had the most capability and potential to work with an organization like ours.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

If I were to give you the financial details, I don't think that would really provide an indication of what kind of work they do for us. If you look at us online, then you can see the extent of their work. It's obviously quite expensive. They take care of everything that we do online. With the "Iceland Naturally" project, we run probably close to 100 different projects every single year.

What is the status of this engagement?

As I said, our relationship with BIGfish started in 2010, and our relationship has developed with time. They still are our agency of record when it comes to all our online needs. We have also been working with them more on the PR side, with specific projects that we are running with our members, and they have done quite a few of those for Landsvirkjun, which is the largest power company in Iceland, with Íslandsbanki [Bank of Iceland], which is one of the three largest banks in Iceland, and with Isavia, which is our international airport.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?

BIGfish Communication is one of the best online marketing companies that I have worked with. They have a very deep understanding of their industry. They really follow what's new and what's happening – where the trends are going. Iceland is just more than 330,000 people, but we have somewhere close to 400,000 fans on our Facebook site thanks to their help. We are by far the largest of all the Scandinavian countries and our platform is larger than any other Scandinavian country in the United States. Strategically, BIGfish has been a major asset for our online marketing.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

Their understanding and capabilities are actually why we have grown so much. We do have interesting content, but they have done an exceptional job of getting that out and creating new content for social media.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

Not really. They keep us updated with anything that is going on in marketing technology or trends, so we are constantly moving forward with what we are doing. We've worked with BIGfish less on the PR side, but they have done a number of projects for us specifically on the technology side. For example, they have been working with Landsvirkjun, which is the power company we've been promoting as a location for data centers. They have been contacting and bringing key media in that industry to Iceland.

They have a good understanding of the technology. During all the work they have done with us, their owner [David Richard] specifically has been extremely helpful, investing his time and energy in ways that are not necessarily paid for. He is extremely well connected in Boston, and he has helped me out in my role as trade commissioner, connecting me with people, investors, startups and others that he has access to.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a global community of tech entrepreneurs. We started in London five years ago [2010], and our membership represents the largest technology startups in Europe. We launched in India in June last year [2014], and we already have 500 members in Bangalore. We launched in Boston at the end of April, and we're already at about 150 members. We're a community of tech entrepreneurs, and we operate co-working spaces in various locations. Our membership is around 5,000 people across the globe. The co-working is just one of the things they ask is to deliver for them, so they can all collaborate.

What is your position?

I am the cofounder of TechHub Boston, and I'm the cofounder of TechHub Bangalore. What that means is that I, along with some other people, bootstrapped into existence both of those entities. We are all tech entrepreneurs and we have both failed and succeeded in some way in the past. We do this as the founders of these centers and to help other entrepreneurs in those arenas that we really care about.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

We were concerned with a couple of things, actually. One of the first things was to help us be properly knowledgeable about what we were doing and to identify how we can truly add value, rather than just putting out another generic tech company. BIGfish has been great in helping us become localized and in reading the local environment. They've helped us understand how we can actually find unique things to bring to that environment.

Another thing we needed was their help in connecting us to local journalists. Although we've worked in Boston for a while, we've not necessarily engaged with the kind of press that TechHub would need. Some of the interviews BIGfish has set up for us have been game changing.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

We selected BIGfish because their owner [David Gerzof Richard] is awesome. He has a level of awesomeness that is different from other PR firms. He is a professor at Emerson College, and he works with his student public relations firm every year, where he engages with five or six different startups. They run his PR agency out of Emerson for free with startups.

He's got the kind of DNA we really empathize with. He is also a nice human being. What we realized was that we could work with him in many different ways. We knew we would enjoy working with him, and we knew he could help TechHub. We also knew he could help our vendors with his student PR company. To find all three pieces of value in the same place was unique, and that meant that we turned to BIGfish straight away. Even though we had evaluated a number of other agencies and worked with agencies in both India and London, we realized immediately that BIGfish would be excellent to work with.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We have a special relationship with the owner of BIGfish. He is our exclusive PR partner, and he functions as kind of a sponsor of TechHub, so we don't pay him anything.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first met with BIGfish in January or February [2015]. Actually, a part of our history and folklore is embedded with their owner. We had our first proper meeting in the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, and across the table from us was one of the major tech players in Boston. He walked in while we were in the middle of the meeting, and it was actually at that moment that we realized that we wanted to invite him to be our patron. He actually did become the patron of our organization, and that was a big game changer. While all this wasn't directly related to BIGfish other than that their owner was in the room, part of our own history has BIGfish in it. Obviously, we are still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?

BIGfish has connected us with a number of different journalists around the city, some of whom have come along to our events and to the center itself. That got us a number of articles in BetaBoston, BostInno, and The Boston Globe, among others. He set up an important interview with our sponsor and with BetaBoston and helped establish that relationship, which was great.

Most importantly, what BIGfish does for us is help us fine tune and reflect on everything we're doing. This includes not only how we take our company to market, but also how we involve him in the idea stage of what we're doing. As an example, we're looking at involving some of the Emerson students this fall, and BIGfish has already helped us think about that involvement a little bit differently.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

They've got a great team. I say this to all of our members as well because BIGfish Communications delivers free training to our early stage startups every month. When they ask me about BIGfish Communications, I tell them about what a great team they have. Their owner has hired incredibly well, and everybody seems very engaged and motivated. A lot of the BIGfish team has been to most of our events and met a lot of the startups in person.

They're very human beings, if that makes sense. They're really nice people. I actually enjoy their company and enjoy working with them. Besides being creative, they have people who are very good at execution and at tying people down to deadlines, making sure that things are happening and reports are coming out on time.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

This is a tough one because, as a sponsor and a partner, I'm very grateful for all the work they do. If there's any one thing I might point to it would be to give us clearer directions about what we might be able to predict or how we might be able to improve in the coming months. At the moment, we get a report that tells us where we've received placing or positioning within the press and the kind of coverage we've had. It would be nice to see, on top of that, an objective for the next month. For example, maybe we should plan on growing by 10 percent during the month, or maybe what type of journals we're going to get into – that kind of thing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The company I worked for made screen protectors for a variety of devices, and our products were sold anywhere from Staples to Wal-Mart to carrier stores.

What is your position?

I was the chief marketing officer and co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

My focus on retaining BIGfish was to market our products through test cases and so forth.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They provided public relations services primarily. There might have been minimal social media, but the overall retainer focus was on PR.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

We had a different PR agency previously. We wanted someone local – someone nimble. I had a lot of respect for David [founder and president of BIGfish Communications], and it just felt like a good fit. They understood the space well.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was probably around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I don't remember when we started working with them. Completion would have been probably in November 2012, which is when we sold the business.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any results from this engagement?

The quality of the work was very high. Our focus was to get test products into the hands of opinion makers, so they ended up spending considerable time researching the right folks to send the product to, and then communicating with those people, following up on the samples that were sent out, and then crafting stories around it.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

I think first and foremost is, BIGfish Communications really understood the mobile space, which was incredibly important for us. There's certainly no shortage of PR agencies, but David and his group seemed to understand the mobile device industry, the consumer electronics industry, and understood how to maintain our authenticity within the space.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

No. I think they were right on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Action Proof is a company established a couple of years ago, and we develop top-end products for the Apple world. We make accessories for Apple products. We are based in Italy, but we sell worldwide, and our main market is the United States.

What is your position?

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

BIGfish is focused on digital public relations. Their business was about getting us seen by the press.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We are really just starting up. We launched our first product, which was an accessory for the Apple Watch, only about six months ago. The objective was to get awareness – from being nobody to becoming a brand. That's where BIGfish started their work.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

I contacted them after searching many digital PR companies in the U.S. After my chat with their owner, I had no doubt that they were the company for us, and we started from there.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We are speaking of something around $3,000 to $5,000 a month. At the start, there was a major fee because things needed to get started, so I think we began with a $10,000 retainer fee.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together somewhere around March of this year [2015]. We are still happily working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?

I think that BIGfish did a great job. I come from the digital advertising world, so I know what they need to do to make me happy, and they certainly did that. Here in Italy, I'm a partner of one of the main digital agencies, so I personally know about advertising, digital PR, and social media. You can see that background even if you'll just visit our website. You'll get a feeling of what we do and what we understand.

I must say that I was very surprised about what the team at BIGfish was able to achieve. We had an incredible initial response. We had huge visibility in the media, and when I say huge, it was huge. We were everywhere we wanted to be. Certainly, we had a good product, and certainly the timing was good, but we still had great visibility, which was at the core of our strategy. Certainly, BIGfish did a great job, and that's why we are continuing to work with them. I'm very happy. If you ask me to score that, it's 10 out of 10.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

I would say mainly two things. First of all, BIGfish Communications is professional. I know many companies have serious professionals working for them, so maybe this is not so uncommon. But, if the issue is professionalism, BIGfish is top notch, and I'm speaking about everybody on the team.

To give you an example, professionalism is not just about getting awareness, doing great PR, and being in the media. It's also about giving us advice if there's something wrong with our social media. If some texts had been poorly written, they automatically correct them and send them back. This is important because we're based in Italy and produce some things that aren't perfect. They're not required to let us know, but they take that very seriously and help us out.

The second thing, which is very important, is the fact that they understand our business and understand that we were a startup – maybe we still are. What this means from a business perspective is that every time I spoke to their owner, we could actually work out what we wanted to do in any particular month.

There was always maximum availability from the owner. BIGfish is not a company that says, "Hey, you need to pay me this because otherwise I will go and work with someone else." BIGfish Communications is a company that listens to your needs, which is great for a startup.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

I wouldn't have given you a 10 out of 10 if I thought something had to be done differently. I would never change them.

BACKGROUND

What did your company do and what was your position in that company?

[The company was a supplier of clean natural gas.] I was the co-founder and chief operating officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

From the very moment that we conceived the idea and built our first website, BIGfish was there developing ideas and working with us around the look and feel of the site. They helped us develop a strategy to promote our message not only to the world of consumers, but also to essential partners we were targeting for strategic relationships and business development opportunities. They were very much involved in how we wanted to position ourselves publicly to both investors and customers, not only in the media world, but also in the investment community.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We started out getting our public profile right: image, brand and website. BIGfish helped us lay the groundwork for our look and feel and our branding. We then needed some public relations and marketing to get ourselves known. We did some initial PR, choosing the publications that we wanted to target, and BIGfish took the lead on that. I know the people at BIGfish personally, but it's fun how they are taking on that persona of being extraordinarily entrepreneurial.

The owner of BIGfish [David Gerzof Richard] is a go-getter. He's not afraid to do the heavy lifting that's required to get people where they need to be. I've worked with a lot of PR firms before, and they'll make you do a lot of the work and just provide a couple of their junior associates. Both the owner and everybody at BIGfish were involved in the process. It's not like the owner is delegating a lot of the work to an intern and billing at a partner-level rate. That's not their model.

We started off looking at branding, then the website, and then the whole web development process. From a social media standpoint, we pushed all the right channels, including Twitter and Facebook. In general, we kept ourselves visible to the public, so that if people did a search, the right community of people would see us.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

I had worked with the eventual founder of BIGfish at another company, where he was just a junior marketing person. After that, he started BIGfish. I have worked with a lot of other firms, but it's just very hard to find somebody who is genuinely willing to do the work and be entrepreneurial about the way their company approaches marketing.

There are a lot of providers that have good access and good connections and have worked with really top firms. But, it's very hard to find people who are genuinely hard working and will really go the extra mile. That's how I would describe BIGfish – they really do that kind of work. From a value standpoint, there are many vendors that will charge you a fortune in retainer fees and do very minimal work. BIGfish charges very little, but does a tremendous amount of work.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We probably started paying them $1,000 a month, and then we bumped it up to $5,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship started in 2004, and we still currently work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

In PR, it's a little bit difficult to talk about hard data. Everything is a combination of hustle and luck. You actually have to put in the effort in order to get lucky. BIGfish Communication is relentless in their pursuit of getting what they want for their clients. You may not be covered in The Wall Street Journal all the time, but you have to find a way to get to the right audience.

The owner is very creative and entrepreneurial. That's something that nobody else does. Of course, that's not literally true, but he will do almost anything to get his clients to the right place. He's always willing to go that extra mile. It's a combination of the kind of creativity and entrepreneurial drive you want from people who are working for you. They're sweating it out alongside you. When you are starting a company and you're running a business, you want somebody who is as paranoid as you are, and as thoughtful and energized as you are, to get your message out. He's got to be somebody who's going to live my business and celebrate my successes.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I currently work at Ditto Labs, which is an image recognition company, but BIGfish helped us promote my last company, which was called Vitality, which made Internet-connected medication packaging, called GlowCap.

What is your position?

I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with BIGfish Communications?

We just wanted to tell the world about my product. We wanted to get deals with pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, and pharmacy benefit managers – essentially online pharmacies.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They primarily helped us with PR. They got us into The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Lancet, which is an industry periodical for the medical industry. They really did a fantastic job of getting the message out about our product.

How did you come to work with BIGfish Communications?

I have worked with a lot of other PR firms in my past, and we were looking for somebody with a small team that would be responsive. We wanted a full-service agency that could help us with design work, with the website, and even with some of the copy for the packaging of my product. We found that BIGfish was a high performance marketing team. They were fantastic to work with. We actually met with them in person every week. They were very collaborative, and it was a fantastic relationship.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It cost $5,000 to $7,000 per month – something around there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together more than two years ago [2013], but we've since stopped.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The team was excellent. I've recommended them to many other small companies that are at an early stage in the product development process. BIGfish Communications can understand and explain a young, nascent product to the world.

What distinguishes BIGfish Communications from other providers?

They are very skilled at guerilla PR: taking a tech company, especially in an early stage, and giving it national exposure.

Is there anything BIGfish Communications could have improved or done differently?

No. We were very pleased.