Yulu Public Relations

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the former head of strategic growth at a mission-driven creative agency called enso. I oversaw all growth functions, including business development, marketing, and special ventures.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Yulu Public Relations Inc.?

After five years of steady organic growth with little media exposure, we hired Yulu Public Relations to help expand our brand narrative, putting enso in front of a broader audience on a bigger stage.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were twofold: we wanted more brand awareness within the marketing and social impact circles, and we wanted to show that people could use creativity to advance positive change.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We met with a number of PR firms that specialized in social impact communications and serviced creative agencies. However, we found that none of them understood the intersection between those fields. In contrast, Yulu Public Relations demonstrated a clear understanding of these concepts from the first conversation, so we went with them.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They embarked on a three-month strategic planning process, interviewing enso employees, stakeholders, and decision makers. This process also included a benchmarking report, where they conducted research on industry peers to gauge their positioning and strategic direction. They then executed curated media relations pushes for various campaigns such as the Literacy Summit, the Brand World Value Index, and #PasstheERA in addition to working on general profile pieces for us and our clients.

What was the team composition?

I worked closely with Melissa Orozco (Founder and Creative Director, Yulu Public Relations) and Clare Hamilton-Eddy (Managing Director, Yulu Public Relations). They directly led our projects but also had support from various members of their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their media relations efforts for our campaigns resulted in more than 40 media hits in the first three months of engagement, securing media coverage in reputable outlets such as Fast Company, Mashable, The Drum, Business Insider, and Adweek.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The results speak for themselves. We had more press in five months of working with Yulu Public Relations than we did in our first five years.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I appreciate the people. They’re a rare combination of smart and heart.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They're going to need to prepare for future growth as the market catches up to them regarding impact relations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of marketing for Merchant Advance Capital. We are a small business lender headquartered in Vancouver.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yulu Public Relations?

We didn’t have someone on our internal staff that was getting our story told, so we sought PR expertise from an external firm to focus on press and publicity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yulu PR has a great combination of the right contacts and a unique perspective to make a story more interesting. They have a local media contact list that made it easy for them to get us stories early on. They had a lot of really unique angles and ideas that helped us get landed in local media.

What is the team composition?

I worked with their founder, managing director, director of client services, and an account manager.

How did you come to work with Yulu Public Relations?

We found them through an online search of local agencies in Vancouver. We hit it off really well and I felt they understood our story. They offered some interesting ideas on how to get things going right away which was a huge indicator to me that they were the right firm to work with.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $190,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January 2016­–January 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After hiring them we found ourselves in a lot of local publications right away. They produced some of our best articles, which gained us a ton of new business partnerships. As a result of their work, we have been mentioned in some of the highest caliber national publications. When people tell me they have heard of us, I attribute it to Yulu.

How did Yulu Public Relations perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really good. I worked with a few different people at Yulu and each one had their own style, but everyone was always engaged and attentive. We communicated over email, but if I had to call them after working hours they always answered and were clearly happy to be working with us. They would also put together monthly review statements for us that were very helpful and professional.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very focused on social impact and how that ties into the communications space, which is something no one else in Vancouver is doing. The fact they are trying to wield their power for good in the local, national, and even international community is really impressive to me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As wonderful as I believe their community engagement is, we couldn’t always find an alignment between that and what my business needed in order to grow. This was more of a misalignment between our brands and not a reflection of their agency. In the financial sector, it is sometimes hard to have the same social objective they do.