Firecracker PR

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Content & Communications of MedCerts

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

MedCerts is a leader in online healthcare and IT certification training focused on building in-demand careers and applicable job skills for our students and bridging the gap among students, employers, higher education institutions and workforce agencies to build a network and affordable talent pipeline for all involved.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Firecracker PR to accomplish?

• Develop and implement an effective PR strategy to amplify brand presence in the healthcare and education spaces
• Secure media placements – including print, digital, broadcast and podcasts – for brand leadership, positioning them as thought leaders and subject matter experts in their respective industries.
• Assist brand in reputation management, crisis communications strategy and award submissions to increase positive brand awareness

SOLUTION

How did you find Firecracker PR?

Online Search

Why did you select Firecracker PR over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Firecracker PR were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

summary of deliverables: Review of product and messaging, create PR strategy and key media messages, research competitors' media efforts, Create target media lists, Press releases as needed: draft, finalize, publish, Targeted, 1-on-1 personalized media outreach, Thought leadership activities, Monitor press coverage in real-time, Provide weekly and monthly reporting. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

developed a comprehensive playbook, including crisis communication protocols, and coordinated media placements in more than 20 publications year-over-year. Additionally, assisted with drafting and submitting awards - resulting in 10 award recognitions over our 3 year partnership. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The Firecracker team was incredibly organized and excellent at managing multiple projects and opportunities at once. They provided project briefs and outlines for all opportunities and consistently generated new ideas for us to pursue. They were open to feedback and shifting priorities adn delivered all projects in a timely manner. 

What was your primary form of communication with Firecracker PR?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I was most impressed by the Firecracker team's consistent ability to provide new and innovative ways to promote our brand and engage media. Over the three years of our partnership, they had their finger on the pulse of industry trends and relevant news and were able to position our brand as an industry leader. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Firecracker PR could have done differently?

No, I am extremely happy with all parts of this partnership and do not think there was anything they could have done differently. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sales Admin & Marketing Coordinator of Saritasa

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Saritasa provides custom software development services to businesses looking to embrace technology. We build everything from web applications to mobile apps to virtual reality experiences. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Firecracker PR to accomplish?

• Get featured on high-quality media outlets
• Increase brand awareness and recognition
• Establish Saritasa as an industry expert

SOLUTION

How did you find Firecracker PR?

Online Search

Why did you select Firecracker PR over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Firecracker PR were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Firecracker handles all of our PR initiatives, from creating abstracts to drafting thought-leadership articles and press releases to getting media placements. They also pitch our team members as experts and spokespeople for podcasts, media mentions, quotes, etc. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We consistently get between 20 to 30 media mentions a year (about 1-2 a month) since we started working with Firecracker nearly 4 years ago. These media mentions include everything from press releases to thought-leadership articles, to quotes and podcast appearances across a variety of outlets. We've been featured in VentureBeat, Forbes, The Fast Mode, and others. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We have two main points of contact from Firecracker's team: our Client Success Manager, Megan, and our Publicist, Chelsea. Between the two of them, we get fast responses to any questions or communications we send their way. They are both great to work with and feel like a natural extension of our team. 

They send over a weekly recap every Friday that highlights any recent placements and current initiatives in progress. We also have access to an Asana board if we need real-time updates to tasks. 

Plus, Edward, the founder of Firecracker, stays closely involved in our account. He'll often jump into email chains or calls if we have questions or concerns.

What was your primary form of communication with Firecracker PR?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Firecracker's communication and flexibility are top-notch. They are on top of communication and quick to respond to any questions or ideas that I have. Whatever they can do to push things along, they do. Whether that is copywriting, drafting outlines or article abstracts, or conducting stakeholder interviews. 

The Firecracker team truly cares about our success and goes above and beyond to ensure we feel heard. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Firecracker PR could have done differently?

Firecracker is great at communication and quick to respond to questions or concerns but can be overly optimistic about timelines. For example, they may estimate an article or mention will go live at a certain time, but the reality is weeks (or on the rare occasional: months) later. But it's not a big deal, because they always deliver what they say they will, and oftentimes these things are out of their control. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing VP of an dental technology company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a tech company that operates in the dental industry, and aimes to better the oral health journey for both dental professionals and patients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Firecracker PR to accomplish?

• Get the company known in the industry
• Get our product known in the industry
• Generate press traffic at tradeshows

SOLUTION

How did you find Firecracker PR?

Online Search

Why did you select Firecracker PR over others?

Company values aligned

How many teammates from Firecracker PR were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Our objective was to get our company, which has a new technology, known in the dental industry. We established a strategy to get the Brand known, the Product known, and get us to talk with KOLS in th industry.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Social media traction was a key success measurment for us. 
• Working with Firecracker helped us achieve that goal.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Items were all delievered on time. We worked on many different press releases and articles that were written with high attention to detail, in a timely way. They were very flexible meeting our needs!

What was your primary form of communication with Firecracker PR?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We were very impressed by their level of knowledge of our specific industry. That put them in a unique position to help us spread our message to the right people.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Firecracker PR could have done differently?

Not that I can think of. We really appreciated our experience!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a department director for GIGABYTE, a PC hardware manufacturer. In my role, I’m in charge of our company's marketing in North America.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Firecracker PR?

We hired Firecracker PR to help us secure video exposure for our new products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Firecracker PR helped us run a few different campaigns on multiple product lines, including gaming monitors and laptops. Initially, we gave them direction on our target, such as specific gaming channels and people who could talk about the product in detail.

Then, Firecracker PR reached out to different qualified influencers on YouTube and TikTok and had them agree to do a review of our product. Once Firecracker PR confirmed the collaboration, we sent the product to the influencers for them to do a product unboxing and review, creating the video exposure we needed.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three teammates from Firecracker PR in total. Edward (Managing Partner) was our original contact. After the project started, they assigned two other teammates. One of them was in charge of providing updates on the exposure, and the other one was the one who coordinated the collaboration with the influencers.

How did you come to work with Firecracker PR?

Our previous marketing manager had worked with them in the past, so we continued the relationship. However, I don’t know how we originally found them because it happened before my time.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $20,000 on our latest project. Their fee was around $6,000–$7,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company started working with Firecracker PR around 2020. As for our latest project, we started working together around August 2022, and the project ended in Q4 of 2022. We haven’t engaged with a new project with Firecracker PR since.

Given that we already had direct contact with some of the reviewers and influencers that they were reaching out to, we noticed a little overlap between our efforts. Thus, we ultimately decided not to renew their service.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Firecracker PR helped us get good media exposure for our products, which included articles and videos. However, given that we don’t sell directly to consumers, we couldn’t measure if the media exposure caused a direct increase in sales.

How did Firecracker PR perform from a project management standpoint?

Firecracker PR was always very professional and timely, and their communication and project coordination were great. Ours was a three-month agreement, and every week, they updated us with new candidates. Moreover, they were always on time for our weekly meetings. As for collaboration tools, we communicated around 80% of the time via email, and our weekly meetings took place on Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Firecracker PR was very well-versed in various industries and operated within other networks, so they knew other agencies that have contact with celebrities. Moreover, they’ve addressed 1–2 inquiries they’ve received regarding our brand. Doing so is outside of their scope, so the fact that they keep us in mind even though we don’t have an active project with them is outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was nothing Firecracker PR could have improved on. The only reason we stopped working with them was that we had a contact overlap, so continuing to work with them wasn’t a good fit.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on the scope of the project, including your target audience and timeframes. Our biggest issue was that the people Firecracker PR found for us weren’t very qualified candidates because we already knew them, so we eliminated them. If we had communicated better from the beginning, we would have changed the outcome of the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior marketing specialist for a manufacturer of electric yard trucks. In my role, I oversee a number of marketing programs related to PR, advertising, trade events, and market research.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Firecracker PR?

We needed help with expanding our brand and message to the markets we were trying to reach by eliciting interviews, podcasts, and other media outlets to increase our company and product awareness.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Firecracker PR helps us with our PR efforts continuously. Their regular projects include developing press releases and white papers, as well as following up on those press releases to get us interviews and podcasts. Whenever we launch a press release, they pitch it to publications to obtain interviews with a number of our leadership teammates — Firecracker PR is constantly pitching us.

The interviews they get for us are conducted in various ways, including via email, phone, Zoom, and Skype. Additionally, they’ve got us interviews on-site whenever we’ve been at trade shows. Besides those continuous efforts, Firecracker PR has been working on developing our Wikipedia page for the last year, which is one of our largest projects.

What is the team composition?

We work with Edward (Founder & Managing Partner), who is in every conversation; Len (Senior Media Relations Outreach Specialist), who is in charge of pitching and acts as our media representative; and Dakota (Account Manager). Len and Dakota communicate daily with us, whereas Edward occasionally participates in our conversations based on what we’re working on.

How did you come to work with Firecracker PR?

When I came on board, Firecracker PR was already a partner of ours, so I wasn’t part of the decision-making.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $8,000 per month. That budget rarely deviates, depending on side projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Firecracker PR around June 2021, although I didn’t join the company until August 2021. Our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Firecracker PR has helped us get interviews in important outlets in the industry, including FleetOwner, Transport Topics, and Bloomberg. Until September 2022, they had achieved 255 articles for us, meaning that some people read about us around 21 times per month. As a result, we reached a potential audience of 95 million readers.

How did Firecracker PR perform from a project management standpoint?

Firecracker PR is very accessible and receptive. We have bi-weekly meetings, and although we’ve had to cancel some of those meetings on our end, they’ve never canceled one. Whenever I cancel a meeting, I still provide them with updates. For example, I recently canceled a meeting, but I sent them updates on the projects via email.

In addition to that, Firecracker PR provides us with a weekly report of the opportunities out there. They also provide us with a monthly report detailing the placements, the markets, and the sectors we’re reaching, which includes pie charts.

On top of that, Firecracker PR’s response time and communication are excellent; there has never been an instance where they’ve taken more than half a day to respond. We communicate via Microsoft (MS) Teams, phone, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of Firecracker PR’s main strengths is that they understand our industry. We make electric trucks, and Firecracker PR is based in California, a state currently working on a zero-emission program for vehicles. Moreover, Len is a seasoned media person who knows how to work with various editors and reporters.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything Firecracker PR could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Both parties need to come in with an open mind and open communication and be receptive to constructive advice. Each party can benefit from the suggestions the other might have.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Smart Eye Technology. We provide privacy to the enterprise market through the use of biometrics, such as facial and fingerprint recognition.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Firecracker PR?

We brought them on board to do PR services and help get people to understand, download, and try out our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hold weekly meetings to see and gauge exactly where we are in terms of our company’s PR. After that, they proceed with the work, helping us get in front of several major media outlets. At the moment, we’ve slowed down our PR efforts, but we plan to re-engage with them by the end of the year; we’re currently focusing more on development at our company.

What is the team composition?

We work with 3–4 different people from their team, including Edward (Founder & Managing Partner).

How did you come to work with Firecracker PR?

One of our associates found them through a Google search.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2021, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Firecracker PR has been able to get articles published about us across several media outlets. As a result, we’ve been getting calls from different types of people who’re interested in what we do. Overall, their team has helped us create a lot of buzz around our technology.

Also, they’ve gotten us into media outlets that are rare to get into, such as CNBC and Acorn TV.

How did Firecracker PR perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very professional, organized, and strategic in planning what type of media to focus on for each week. If they couldn’t find anything, they would tell us straight and continue staying on the hunt for the following week. For communication, we talk with them via Zoom most of the time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate how Edward has taken a personal interest in getting our story told.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Li-Cycle, a resource recovery company in the clean technology and sustainability space. We recycle used lithium-ion batteries, which can be found in common items such as cell phones, laptops, e-readers, e-scooters, and vacuum cleaners. Li-Cycle extracts non-renewable, finite resources from these lithium-ion batteries – materials such as lithium, cobalt, and manganese.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Firecracker PR?

We needed a PR firm that could take highly technical information and simplify it for a broader audience, such as investors and an increasing amount of stakeholders. At the same time, the PR firm needed to be able to highlight how our work is beneficial to the planet and our environment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Firecracker was brought on to oversee our PR initiatives, increase our media coverage, thus improving the ‘third party credibility’ of our company. Their team writes thought leadership articles and press releases. For each of these articles, they need to do extensive research. Usually, we help with the research because often these articles are 1,000-2,000 words in length.

Firecracker then pitches these press releases or stories to trade publications and/or mainstream media outlets. After the piece has been published, our team can then highlight the stories in the “Newsroom” section of our website. After that, we use the content to further promote our company on LinkedIn and Twitter. None of this would be possible without Firecracker.

They have also helped with our social media strategy. They have collected relevant hashtag holidays for us which have helped with our strategic content calendar. These hashtags holidays help us to join a conversation that is naturally and organically happening online. For example, they were instrumental in ensuring we launched content that was aligned with #internationalwomensday. 

What is the team composition?

Edward (Founder & Managing Partner) is our lead, Jennifer (Client Success Manager) manages our relationships, and Len (Media Relations) is the journalist who created our thought leadership pieces and press releases.

How did you come to work with Firecracker PR?

I inherited the partnership. I joined my company last year, and Firecracker PR was already their agency of choice. From what I understand, my company chose to work with them because they were impressed with their work and they offered a reasonable price.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $10,000 a month with them. Since the project began before I was brought on board, I would estimate that we’ve spent between $180,000–$240,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with my company in September 2020 and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Thanks to Firecracker PR, we’ve seen significant growth in our media coverage. We’ve probably doubled our reach thanks to the broad media coverage they’ve helped us to get – and we continue to get more and more interest from third-party journalists working for a wide variety of publications. Because of Firecracker PR’s work, we have also been featured on some major podcasts.

How did Firecracker PR perform from a project management standpoint?

They provide us with weekly and monthly reports. Once I stepped in, they began providing us with robust media monitoring reports; this was a process and reporting system that we developed together. Firecracker PR is great at keeping us updated on ongoing media coverage. As a team, we utilize a status update report – which is essentially an activity tracker – as well as the aforementioned Media Coverage Report.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to meet deadlines quickly. They never drop the ball.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think Firecracker PR needs to change anything. Instead, I think my team maybe needed to be instructed as to how to do a better job of simplifying our company’s highly technical story and sharing it with a much broader audience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to really simplify what it is your company does so that Firecracker PR can best help you t share your story with a broad audience. Think about your storytelling endeavors – your story should resonate with a ninth-grade audience or with your grandparents. Potential customers can help Firecracker PR by simplifying your company’s story – especially if this is highly technical information – and making sure those details are digestible. I think a lot of companies forget the importance of communicating back to their PR agency – and that’s a huge mistake. Communication goes both ways and you’ll get the most out of an agency if you collaborate and help them their job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company, Sand Studio, is a developer and publisher for mobile device management (MDM) software solutions. We launched our B2B product called AirDroid Business back in 2018, and we decided to turbo-charge the brand awareness of the product. I am Head of Business Operations for AirDroid Business, overlooking the sales, marketing, and service teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Firecracker PR?

Firecracker PR was known for PR services for the It industry. We were able to learn several success cases done by Firecracker PR. We decided to have Firecracker PR take charge of public relations in the US for our B2B software product - AirDroid Business. The monthly retainer services included monthly press releases, blog article composition, contributed article composition and pitching, and maintenance of Quora posts.

What were your goals for this project?

While AirDroid has already been a very well known brand in the consumer space, we wanted the AirDroid Business brand to catch up and penetrate among businesses of all sizes who needed a software solution for remote Android device management. For every feature we newly announced and any verticles we wanted to tackle, we expected Firecracker PR to help us shorten the path in terms of brand awareness.

SOLUTION

How did you select Firecracker PR?

We spoke with several other PR agencies during our survey for the most suitable one. The reason why we landed on Firecracker PR was that they were experienced with the IT industry and had a portfolio that proved their expertise.

After a full presentation for their unique Five-Step Ignites Program by the CEO, Edward, we knew that there was no need to look elsewhere. As a company that had never done PR before, Firecracker PR was also willing to work with our initial budget and the outcome of their work was worth way more than the dollars we paid.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope of work was very straightforward. When we just got on board, it did not take Firecracker PR very long to learn our industry, company, and product. Off a monthly retainer, they had been working very closely with our marketing team and stay aligned with our dynamics and market strategies.

They helped us compose press releases (picked up by hundreds of online media), contributed articles (published by many well-known media in various verticles), blog articles that gained a good amount of traffic, and they even got us on one of the most popular tech podcast "This Week In Enterprise Tech" as a special guest.

What was the team composition?

Initially, it was the CEO, Edward, who discussed the strategies and the scope of work with us. After everything was agreed upon, Edward handed the project to our dedicated project manager as our primary point of contact. As far as we knew, there was another team member who had been actively pitching the media with our stories and another who helped monitor our website SEO performance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

To see is to believe - the work done says it all! If anyone searches for "AirDroid Business" on Google, there are pages of results of mentions and pick-ups by hundreds of media. All these exposures gave us true confidence in terms of market status when our prospective customers do any background check on us. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication was excellent! We were provided weekly and monthly reports and conference calls took place when necessary. Due to the time difference (we are in Asia), email was our primary communication tool, but we usually received next-day responses with things fully interpreted and answered. During the project, when there were things that needed to be escalated, we were able to reach their CEO directly on Skype when necessary.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We understand that the biggest challenge a PR firm has is having to quickly understand customers' industries, companies, products, and goals. While Firecracker PR has been serving the IT industry for over a decade, we had our uniqueness that the firm needed to learn - and they did it in an impressively short amount of time.

Throughout the year of the service, we spent a minimal amount of time training them to learn our new product features and market strategies. Instead, we spent the most time seeing the publications go live and spread. Occasionally when we saw things that needed to be adjusted, they were able to shift in no time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly, I don't want to just fill in this blank because I'm asked to do so. It was super pleasant working with Firecracker PR. We would be very willing to continue working with them if COVID-19 didn't slow down our business.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global marketing manager for an Android SaaS platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Firecracker PR?

We needed someone to do PR for our flagship product. We were launching our business product and it had no brand presence. We wanted to start with the English-speaking companies. We decided to hire a local PR firm to be the voice for the market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did one PR release and 3–4 blog posts per month. They would try to get us 1–2 thought leadership articles on some of the vertical industries that we were interested in as well.

After getting market feedback, they framed how we should promote the product and how we should position ourselves in each of the industries.

For the first three months, we were working with them on PR and SEO. SEO lasted for 2-3 months.

What is the team composition?

I work with Nicole (Client Services Manager).

How did you come to work with Firecracker PR?

We found them in a Google search. We collected a bunch of names and emailed all of them. Firecracker PR is the only one that got back to us. We started talking and we felt they had a good approach to PR. We just wanted a solid firm to establish fundamentals and get us off the ground. They’re a smaller firm, so we felt like they would be more attentive to us. They seemed knowledgeable, and we felt they’d be able to cater to our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $90,000. For the first few months, there was a larger set of fees.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2019–August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

For PR, we look at how many media outlets picked up our news and how notable they are. Usually, we're covered on 3–5 platforms. There might have been a few hundred media sites that pick up the article but the majority of them were news aggregators. They didn’t really count.

How did Firecracker PR perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really responsive. From the beginning, they were willing to take on calls when it’s late for them. That was really helpful. They were able to get back to me on all my emails and responses within a day. It’s pretty satisfactory.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They always meet deadlines and are quick to respond. They’re willing to communicate and make changes. They were really accommodating. We had a lot of requests and suggestions and they never complained or refused.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We needed the quality of content they produce to be insightful and knowledgeable about the industry and market.

Overall, the quality was decent, but we struggled in the first few months because we didn’t really know the product and the markets. We hired a local firm because we expected them to have insight into how we should position our messaging, our brand, and layout the strategic framework going forward.

I thought that was a little bit lackluster, and I don’t think they have a lot of big experience on that. I ended up spending a lot of time providing guidance and think through the strategy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s better if you do the strategic planning yourself. You then can count on Firecracker PR to execute on your behalf. They have the PR knowledge and know-how to write a press release and can pitch, but you really need to guide them through a long-term strategy. Overall, it was good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the marketing, communications, and events manager for an industrial AI company focused on high impact demanding sectors, including energy, utilities, and health care. In my position, I co-lead the marketing team and am responsible for communications and PR initiatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Firecracker PR?

My company actually brought on Firecracker before my time; I’ve been with the company for almost two years now. I believe they were initially brought on to support our Series B funding announcement and to help grow our company from a startup to a growth-stage company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Firecracker was our PR agency, supporting us specifically with traditional PR, media outreach, strategic communications positioning. They also help out with strategic thought leadership for our executive team.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people: one of them was the manager partner, one was focused on media outreach, and one filled more of an account manager role.

How did you come to work with Firecracker PR?

I believe our CEO had a recommendation or had even possibly worked with them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

When I was there, I believe it was $10,000–$15,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Firecracker was part of our 2017 Series B announcement. We wrapped up our engagement with them in June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We looked at specific unique mentions as well as the quality of the publications, so whether they were tier one or two and if they were in our correct verticals. It was also important that we made sure we had a good working relationship with the team, and I believe our executive team was very happy with Firecracker.

How did Firecracker PR perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of communication, they were really responsive. They almost always responded to us within a 12-hour period. We had weekly calls with all three team members from Firecracker to go over updates and talk about ongoing initiatives. It was really nice having constant communication with them.

Besides the weekly phone calls, we coordinated everything else through email. It was pretty easy to jump on a call with them if we needed to.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our company was evolving from a startup to a growth-stage, and they fit that really well. They were able to propel us into our vertical industries. They also had a good working relationship with the executive team, and they offered advice on different PR initiatives. For our company size and what we were looking for, they were a good fit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, they were a really great team to work with. I can’t think of anything offhand that could’ve been improved upon. They were the right fit at the right time for our company in terms of helping us reach the growth-stage.

Any advice for potential customers?

Firecracker is a great boutique PR agency specifically focused on US initiatives. If that’s what you’re looking for, I’d say Firecracker would be a good fit. You definitely get more than just an account coordinator on your team; as I said, the managing partner was part of our weekly calls. You’ll get attention from them; just make sure your company is the right size for them.