Bastion Elevate

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder, CEO, and sole proprietor of "Nicole Malachowski & Associates, LLC". In this capacity I provide professional speaking and consulting services to Fortune 500 companies on leadership, teamwork, change management, and overcoming adversity.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bastion Elevate, and what were your goals?

I had recently retired from military service and was looking to move into the Speaking and Consulting industry. At that time, I had zero branding and a near non-existent social media presence. My goal was to have Bastion help me define my brand, develop a client-facing website to communicate my brand, and create ongoing social media content to interact with my audience and enhance my brand.

How did you select this vendor?

I'd interacted with two other companies prior to Bastion, but neither of them seemed to pick up the details of how I wanted my brand to be perceived. There was no feeling of connection, and our interactions were very transactional. That all changed with Bastion. When I spoke with the Bastion team, there was an instant energy and an almost unbelievable attention to detail that was unmatched. There was also a willingness to actually actively collaborate with me on the development of my brand and content. Bastion is exquisite about developing a personal rapport with me, and they have sustained that feeling for nearly 18 months.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

The Bastion team did a fine job of tackling my request in a very methodical fashion. They came up with a detailed plan and timeline that were reasonable and agreed to. We had regular weekly meetings (sometimes daily if I requested it), to chat about interim steps in the process. This allowed us to make the necessary small tweaks all along the way, it was very efficient. The Bastion team has always been very responsive to any inquiries from me, always happy to jump on a phone call or a Zoom. They have always been extremely timely in their responses, which makes me know they care about our relationship and my brand.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

My initial contact was with CEO of the Bastion Agency, USA. After understanding my needs, he handed me off to the CEO of Bastion Elevate, their PR, Branding & Marketing Firm. To this day, she maintains close contact with me as I work with her team. This team includes the Vice President of Digital, the Senior PR Account Manager, and their Social Media & Client Success Manager. I feel like I know each and every one of them very well, they know me well, and I can assure you that they work seamlessly together.

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

Because of the efforts of Bastion Elevate, I now have a website that is often complimented by my client and business prospects. It represents my brand to the highest standards and draws in business. I have a social media presence on three platforms which I never had before. My social media following grows exponentially every month and has been the linchpin to communicating and solidifying my brand.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The Bastion Elevate team is, first and foremost, collaborative in all they do. Not only do they keep open lines of communication with me, but its' clear they work very well together. Any one team member knows everything that's going on with my account, they share information, and there are no silos amongst them. I am able to e-mail, text, or call any team member at any time and I always receive a response within minutes. They make it very clear that they are at my service. They are also extremely open to feedback and happily welcome my input.

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

The feeling of connection I have with them. I know it's business, but they know me and my brand so well that I feel like they've become my friends. They care about me and the success of my company and, most importantly, they care about the positive impact my business is having on others. They stand behind me and my mission & vision.

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

I'm not pandering: I can't think of anything to critique.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

International Fruit Genetics (IFG) is a breeding company that develops new, grower-friendly and higher-yielding varieties of table grapes, cherries, raisins, and other fruit products. These varieties require little pruning and produce better colors without the need for different kinds of treatment.

We’re based in Bakersfield, California but we have around 75,000 acres of plantation in about 15 different countries. We’re an intellectual property company in that we develop these fruit varieties, license them to growers around the world, and collect royalties from their sales.

Our biggest crop is table grapes and we’re beginning to expand to low chill cherries. IFG has become known for developing fruits that have a special flavor, unique shape, and the ability to grow in otherwise unplantable conditions or temperatures. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Bastion Elevate?

We needed to make an important international press release but we didn’t have the wherewithal or know-how. We brought in Bastion Elevate to help us get internationally publicized.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have done three press releases in 2020 and three in 2021. These press releases have covered infringement cases, intellectual property rights for our fruit varieties, and our company’s 20th anniversary. We’ve also published our new branding, logos, and packaging artwork in other countries.

The team has also created the text and graphics for 30 paid advertisements that are posted across the Produce Marketing Association, Fruitnet.com, and various other publications and sites of international organizations. They’ve managed our industry trade shows and have secured us a spot on the panel board. 

Bastion Elevate has even prepped us for the interviews, providing us topics that they believe will be asked during the event.

We’ve begun to use Bastion Elevate’s services to gain worldwide exposure. They’ve helped us get a lot of media coverage for our initiatives and have assisted us with getting bylines for different topics. The team has also begun to oversee our social media presence across Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram. 

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact who we meet with twice a week. The owner of the company participates, too, along with the graphics team, writers, and social media specialists. I would say there are about six people who work with me in-and-out depending on the task at hand. 

How did you come to work with Bastion Elevate?

Bastion Elevate was recommended to our CEO. We found that they were extremely professional, very knowledgeable, and highly successful when it comes to press releases, so we hired them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Bastion Elevate in March 2019 and the partnership is ongoing.

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

Our worldwide exposure has opened up many doors for us. We’ve been able to get a lot of coverage and as of July 2021, we have around 400 million year-to-date circulations. From January–July 2021, we’ve secured 57 domain values for our 47  lifestyle media placements. We’ve also earned a spot in major publications in South Africa, Chile, Peru, and China. With around 300 social media, our total media outreach has reached 63 with 1.6 million total impressions.

Because Bastion Elevate has gotten our name out there, we’re now constantly being asked to make comments about different topics in various magazines and publications. The team has designated the best people from our team to respond to interviews and created a lot of exposure for our CEO and staff. 

How did Bastion Elevate perform from a project management standpoint?

Bastion Elevates’s experience and extreme organization have kept us on our toes. They’ve been able to handle and keep track of everything that we’ve thrown their way. The team has also been very involved when it comes to preparing for and participating in interviews.

We’ve held meetings to go over what would be posted on our social media pages, corresponding through email, text, calls, and Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bastion Elevate’s professionalism has been the most impressive thing about them. They know what they’re doing and they’ve been able to deliver exactly what we’re asking. We’ve had an unsophisticated marketing department prior to this engagement, but Bastion Elevate has raised the bar for us when they came along.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have anything negative to say about them at all. I’m so happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that Bastion Elevate knows your company culture and your industry. Spend time during the initial meetings to let them know who you really are and what you’re after because the team needs to be able to represent you. If you must, provide them with photographs, videos, and an opportunity to conduct staff interviews.

They're very bright and they learn quickly, so allow them to capture your voice and deliver your message to whomever you want to reach. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

NexSpring Financial is a fintech company that provides a broker platform to the brokerage mortgage industry. I’m the business development manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bastion Elevate?

Our platform and technology have been around for almost four years, but we only launched it last year. We needed someone to market and advertise the platform to the social media platform for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bastion Elevate provided us with video production, digital strategy, and social media marketing. We initially started the conversation about developing landing pages, and different items where we could collect broker needs. However, we also started with a video, so they filmed and produced a short advertising video — which they also marketed for us on Facebook and Instagram. This was done to drive visitors to our landing page.

They did a lot of planning, directing, and highlighted different points in a short period of time. We came up with some of the terminologies in the script, but they took over the whole project and provided us with directions to set up different landing pages.

Moreover, they presented us with a couple of great opportunities to produce other types of videos, and right now, we’re in the process of discussing them with our executive team. 

What is the team composition?

Our primary contact was Jordan (Social Media Director), but we also worked with about 6–7 other people from their team.

How did you come to work with Bastion Elevate?

I actually knew Jordan and the scope of work that he did, so he and I had a couple of discussions prior to me bringing them to NexSpring. Initially, we also priced out a couple of different competitors and the services they could offer. However, going with Bastion Elevate was the best avenue, and everybody just decided this was the direction to go. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $6,600 in advertising spend to date, and $2,500 for the video production. Overall, we’ve spent almost $10,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the discussions about the video in August 2020. The partnership remains ongoing as we’re still running advertisement campaigns right now.

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

Our industry is obviously big on metrics and reporting, so we’ve been doing conversion reports every week. We have the actual leads that we’ve got in contact with and we have an extremely high conversion rate — 77% of which are the ones we get on the phone to discuss the project.

The partnership was extremely successful in reaching the audience that we wanted.    

How did Bastion Elevate perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed really well and they were extremely responsive. We’re the ones who actually got held up on the compliance side of things. We had bi-weekly check-in calls, they sent weekly reporting, and we had access to a dashboard where we can check the progress of the project at any point in time. Additionally, they were also very quick on the production side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m honestly looking forward to some of the other projects, because they really have great ideas on how to expand or look into new strategies. They’re always offering new suggestions and how to get everything out from what we’re doing — they really have great direction in that whole space.

Social media is a realm of its own and they were just so great with the direction, support, and ideas to enhance everything that we tried to accomplish.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really have anything to say because everything we needed, they respond to quickly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s just a matter of asking a lot of questions and deploying help for it. Our company was trying to save a little bit at the beginning since it was a launch of a new product. We were trying to do some things on our end, but we just let the experts do what they can do.

We asked a lot of questions about what services they can do that are outside of their scope, because it seemed like they can cover a large scope of items. Had we disclosed a little more at the beginning, we could've gotten more of their versatile services.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the e-commerce marketing manager for an e-commerce company that sells a medical device for hair growth. We also carry care products such as shampoo, conditioner, and supplements, as well as serum.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bastion Elevate?

Our goal was to create a platform that showcased our products, as well as showcased reviews and the results people had.

What was the scope of their involvement?

With Bastion Elevate, we had monthly calls and would come up with the strategy, as well as what we wanted to hit for the month. So, the initial call came a month prior to when we would go live and we collaborated on assets, images, and what we thought we wanted to feature. We provided them with those ideas and then we would collaborate and go in and provide them the assets.

If there were any videos that we wanted to create from scratch, we collaborated on the concept of the video and then they presented us with the final product. In order to post to our social media platform, they used Sprout Social to utilize, schedule, and provide analytics. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Shana (CEO), a social media director, and a copywriter. We also had various video editors and graphic designers.

How did you come to work with Bastion Elevate?

Our VP of operations used to work with Shana.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together back in 2017 and recently ended the partnership with them in January 2021.

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

Before we started working with Bastion Elevate, all of our processes were pretty outdated because we were still using Google Sheets. Them transitioning us into Sprout Social has really improved the process and got rid of spreadsheets to make it more efficient. Each year, since working with Bastion Elevate, our social media followers have grown by at least 20%–30%. 

In terms of engagement, that has always been one of the top metrics that we want to focus on, and that has improved as well. Social media also helps us improve our assets as well. Our videos were outdated before, but we’ve implemented a lot of new assets and graphics that help us align our feed and make it an account that people want to follow. The number of posts that we’ve published has increased as well by about 20%.

How did Bastion Elevate perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very organized and always very transparent with what they saw with any new trends that were going on and making us all aware. They were very in tune with what was going on in the market, particularly for social media. After converting to Sprout Social, they were able to share the layout and review comments back and forth on our assets before going live.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are certain things you can and cannot say with our products just because it’s a medical device, and they were very thorough in educating themselves and our audience on our product. They were very well versed on what we could actually say on our social platform. They were able to understand our brand, which is very important. It’s especially hard to understand the brand, the brand voice, and what we’re looking for and we were able to get into a rhythm, which was fantastic.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Reinventing new ideas as well as finding other new trends I think could have been done a little better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide all of the materials about your brand, your voice, your copy, and the main point you want to have on your social media. That way they guide their strategy and planning. When we had all of those items ready, it was easier for them to plan out their strategy, calendar, and think about other ways that could grow our social media.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Unispace partners with global brands to transform their business goals into inspiring workplaces. To achieve this, we provide a seamless project experience through strategy, design and construction.

As global head of brand and communications, I'm responsible for building and positioning the brand across the 46 cities in which we operate.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bastion Elevate?

Unispace had reached its 10th year in business and was poised to make some big executive changes for further growth in the industry.

Hired Bastion Elevate to work on a PR announcement about important executive restructuring at Unispace; the hire of two well-known executives in the commercial brokerage space – a CEO based in Chicago and a chief revenue officer in New York

What were your goals for this project?

The goals were to increase coverage in mainstream business media, and high-value publications in the design and build space, as well as the commercial real estate market. The team worked around the clock with other agencies hired in different parts of the globe to create a cohesive plan with consistent messaging.

How did you select Bastion Elevate?

Bastion Effect, which had been the primary agency for Unispace’s public relations in Australia, introduced us to Bastion Elevate in the U.S. We quickly saw the benefit to having sister agencies work together to collectively manage the global announcement in collaboration with a third European agency.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They conducted onboarding sessions with the new leadership team and agreed to a unified message as well as strategies and tactics to secure high-level business and trade media, including securing premiere media placements as early exclusives. Created a report to be merchandised with executives to prove ROI of the project

What was the team composition?

Worked with Shana Starr, CEO, Andrew King Director, of Public Relations and Brenlyn D’Amore, Account Manager, to set a strategy in place and for execution of that strategy.

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

Got up to speed quickly. Responsive. Strategic in placement, secured targeted coverage in publications like Fast Company and the Mann Report. Coordinated announcement globally with other agencies.

By the time the multinational project wrapped up, the Bastion Collective agencies secured 23 earned media placements reaching more than 213 million people.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Bastion Effect and Elevate connected early and often to stay aligned in their outreach strategy, keeping us informed every step of the way.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to get the brief quickly, secure the right publications in an incredibly tight timeframe, and I never had to chase them. I found it unusual, and impressive, that Shana the CEO stayed deeply involved in the project throughout. It showed me Bastion really cared about getting this right for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing. We were so happy that we've gone on to sign a retainer in the US with Bastion Elevate.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of SoberBuddy, and we are a virtual alcohol recovery coaching app and online service.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bastion Elevate?

They worked with us to help get us out into the media and to establish ourselves as thought leaders in drug and alcohol recovery.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been working with them for about 6 months, and their main focus has been to get our articles into different online publications. They have also targeted news broadcasts, and written content for our own site on our weekly blog.

What was the team composition?

There have been three members of their team working with us on the project.

How much have you invested with them?

The collaboration costs us about $6,000 a month, so in total, we’re at about $36,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2020.

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

Thanks to their team’s efforts, we’ve had over 50 pieces of earned media coverage in multiple different publications and reached an audience of nearly 30 million readers through those pieces of earned coverage. We’ve been featured in 40 news broadcasts, and received over 5000 social media shares across all of that content.

Everyone on their team has been incredible to work with. They take criticism and feedback really well and are always professional, no matter what. They’ve been particularly innovative in their ideas for how to position ourselves in the media so that we can get messages out quickly enough to be relevant to what’s going on around us.

How did Bastion Elevate perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is also extremely responsive, so I never have to wait before I hear back from them about anything. We have direct communication with all of their team members through Slack so that we have immediate feedback on most issues, and then they follow up with monthly reports on all of our media placements.

We use those as an opportunity to re-center the teams on our plans going forward, and they’ve been really thorough in making sure that we stay informed and they stay accountable to producing results.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Beyond just the number of media placements that they have been able to secure, which has been a huge success for us, I’ve been most impressed with their professionalism. They take feedback and hear about any issues that might come up and just get on it immediately.

I have never seen them take offense or push back on anything that I’ve asked them to do, which has made the collaboration incredibly easy for us to manage.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly don’t have any suggestions for things they could improve. They’re one of the most impressive companies I’ve ever worked with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to be totally open with your thoughts. They can handle anything you have to say and will work with you to find the best way forward, so just go for it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at Swiftpage, a software company, and I've been there for seven and a half years. I am the corporate engagement and communications manager. I do internal and executive communications and act as our company’s main liaison with our PR agency. I also work with nonprofits and organizations on community work here in Denver. Finally, I manage our blog with the marketing team and contribute to our media presence and digital reputation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bastion Elevate?

We hired them to handle all our PR services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handle media outreach, product launches, organizational news, press releases, and core thought leadership. They also provide support on applying for awards, crisis communications support, analyst outreach, and general corporate communications and PR strategy. They also managed our CEO’s social media presence for a while before he resigned last year. Hopefully, they’ll do the same for our new CEO. Finally, they’re in the middle of helping us kick off a social media influencer campaign.

What is the team composition?

Our core people are Dave (Senior Managing Account Director, Bastion Elevate) and Shana (CEO, Bastion Elevate). We also work with Fred, Lynn, and Jordan (Social Media Director, Bastion Elevate). We’ve also worked with a few other people over our eight years together.

How did you come to work with Bastion Elevate?

We acquired a company that worked with Bastion Elevate. We were happy with them so we kept them on.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $1,000,000 with them including $10,000 per month on PR and thought leadership.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since 2013.

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

Every year is our best year ever in terms of PR coverage. We always seem to beat what we did the year prior. We can’t be mad at that. I’m always doubtful we’ll beat last year’s numbers, since we don’t spend more and more money, but they always hit that mark. It’s awesome, I think.

Throughout the engagement, they’ve gotten us 1,100 pieces of unique coverage (including product launches, thought leadership, and other news), which resulted in 750,000,000 in total circulation and over 100,000 social shares.

How did Bastion Elevate perform from a project management standpoint?

They come in and meet in-person once a year to plan the entire year. That planning includes corporate communications and PR strategy, as well as our marketing strategy. I’m in contact with Dave every day, though, and consider him an internal team member.

I’ve asked them for more ways to increase our reach and leads and they brought this social media influencer campaign to me. They’ve stepped up to help us at every step by curating a list of influencers and assets that we’ll use in the campaign. They’re great at laying out different tactics and holding us accountable to give them what they need to be successful. They’re a great partner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to other vendors I’ve worked with, Bastion Elevate isn’t about selling us something or getting something out of us. They care about our relationship and want us to do well. If we do well, then they believe they’ll do well. They would never suggest we do something they didn’t think would benefit us. I thought that at the beginning and it’s only become truer as the years have gone by.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any complaints. They’re already doing this, but they should keep coming up with new ways for us to increase our reach and grow our brand.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and honest with them about what your goals are and rely on their expertise to reach those goals. I put a lot of trust in them, and you have to be willing to do that.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Cyrex Labs is a high-complexity clinical laboratory offering innovative tests designed to detect and monitor autoimmune reactivities and their possible triggers. Cyrex is focused on the fast growing health issues of autoimmune disorders now affecting tens of millions of people in the United States. Cyrex test panels are designed to evaluate your immune reactions using our proprietary, advanced technology. I have worked in several different areas of Cyrex including, Customer Support, New Account Specialist, Patient Services, Marketing (social and otherwise), Emails, website content management Liaison for all PR related initiatives.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bastion Elevate?

Bastion Elevate primarily provides PR services for Cyrex, including media outreach, product launches and organizational news, press release drafting and distribution, thought leadership, speaking engagements, crisis communications, spokesperson positioning as leaders.

What were your goals for this project?

We hired Bastion Elevate on a continual basis for all items pertaining to raising public awareness of Cyrex Testing. We wanted to expand our visibility to consumer base, as well as take our place as a leader in the testing field among healthcare professionals. We wanted to increase interest and obviously sales.

How did you select this vendor?

My manager had secured them for an interview. I was one of the people involved in making the decision of what PR firm would best fit our needs/tone.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After an initial meeting to interview Bastion Elevate in 2015, we quickly made the decision to hire them. From there we scheduled a meeting to discuss the first steps, decide on the first press releases, timelines and who our industry leaders would be to use for bylines and interview opportunities. In my roll I was responsible for getting them any necessary collateral that we had including all marketing flyers, images etc and keeping them apprised of the new website additions I was designing for patients.

What was the team composition?

While I don't know the exact number of team members they use, I work very closely with Dave Fiestel on a daily basis. He is WONDERFUL! I worked With the owner as well mainly during our monthly in-person meetings and also worked with two other members of her PR team. Everyone is very responsive and helpful and a complete joy to work with.

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

Bastion Elevate has secured more than 3 dozens radio and podcast interviews and more than 100 pieces of thought leadership coverage for Cyrex. They have secured more than 500 pieces of total coverage for Cyrex for an estimated total audience of more than 300M and a total advertising equivalency of nearly $3M.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I've always been a huge fan of their work ethic. They meet deadlines and always manage to be flexible with us when it comes to the review process and timelines. Dave, who I work with the most is extremely knowledgeable, helpful and overall a great person to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by the types of high profile media organizations that Bastion Elevate was able to gain interest in our product/services. They secured leading media outlets for byline pickups and speaking engagements..

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only time we hit some bumps was in the beginning while working on the tone of Press Releases/ bylines. This was mainly because there was a disconnect on format and who the audience would be for each type of press piece. Healthcare providers or patients. In the end Bastion Elevate was able to communicate to my superiors what the best tone would be, why, and carry out a successful piece.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO and CFO of a software company that specializes in clinical documentation solutions for hospitals.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bastion Elevate?

When our company first started, we were operating in a fairly new industry. We needed a lot of PR work to increase awareness of our firm and the services we provide.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Early on, Bastion Elevate worked to secure interviews and unpaid media placements for our company.

The team handled all of our press releases around product launches and upgrades, as well as any organizational news. They also managed our social media and SEO efforts. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of about five PR specialists. 

How did you come to work with Bastion Elevate?

We were introduced to Bastion Elevate by some marketing consultants we had partnered with when our company was first established. 

At that point, they were involved with another group of marketing specialists. Over time, they split into two groups, and we began our formal engagement with Bastion Elevate as a PR firm.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $800,000-$900,000 with Bastion Elevate.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership spanned from 2010-2019. At that point, we ceased our PR efforts as a company.

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

Bastion Elevate secured our firm’s position as the undisputed thought leader in our industry. 

We were sought after for speaking engagements with increasing regularity after having partnered with their team for only a short while. We found this especially impressive given how new our industry was and how little they had to work with.

How did Bastion Elevate perform from a project management standpoint?

Their performance was outstanding. The team was wonderful to work with and they were always proactive in their efforts to reach out to outlets and secure media engagements. We can’t give them enough praise.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were amazed by what Bastion Elevate was able to accomplish in the time they worked with us. At the beginning of our partnership, the team had very few healthcare contacts, but within only a few months it was as if they knew everyone everywhere.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hand them the reins and let them do their thing. Throughout our entire engagement, we never needed to prod or nag them. Bastion Elevate always did independent, outstanding work. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work with Avalara, which a sales tax automation SaaS company. I am a senior marketing manager, and my role is in providing lodging tax automation services to vacation rental owners and property owners such as commercial hotels and online travel agencies.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bastion Elevate?

We originally contracted with Bastion Elevate to provide PR services for our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handle our media outreach, promoting product and technology launches, drafting and distributing press releases and thought leadership, and any crisis communication that may arise.

All of their work focuses on positioning our company as a thought leader within the vacation rental industry. That includes securing earned media with local press outlets or podcasts and other feature opportunities, as well as managing social media accounts for our company and one of our executives.

What is the team composition?

We work with up to five members of their team at any given time. They provided us with a social strategist to draft and execute thought leadership content for our channels, an account director to manage the deliverables of the project, and one of their founders who was in charge of the overarching strategy for the engagement.

How did you come to work with Bastion Elevate?

I inherited the relationship from the previous marketing manager, but they were selected for their reputation as a service provider in the industry.

How much have you invested with them?

Over the course of our work with Bastion elevate, we have spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in 2015 and is still ongoing.

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

One of the things I’m especially happy with about their performance is the detailed reporting that they provide to us on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Those reports make it really easy for us to keep track of the impacts that their work provides, despite some of those metrics being particularly hard to evaluate. We continue to be satisfied with the results that they deliver in those regards.

How did Bastion Elevate perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is fantastic at project management. They lay out really clear project plans, and their project manager checks in regularly when we are working on larger initiatives. Not only that, but deliverables are on time or early every single time, so we’ve been really happy with their performance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We operate in a very niche space when it comes to the intersection of the vacation rental industry and the sales and transactional tax industry. Bastion Elevate has really dug in to understand not only the needs of the vacation industry but also how those relate to sales tax on a broader level.

That allows them to do a really good job of identifying opportunities or current events that have the potential to benefit our business or generate earned media opportunities, which we really appreciate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing immediately comes to mind. I’ve been completely satisfied with all of the work that I’ve seen from them since we started working together.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Assemble as many educational resources as possible, because the better the agency understands what you’re looking for and the needs of your space, the more they are going to be able to do for you.