Media Frenzy Global

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the previous VP of marketing at Stratix Corporation, a large mobile managed services provider based in Atlanta, Ga.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Media Frenzy Global?

We were trying to promote our brand and messaging in the enterprise marketplace, so we engaged Media Frenzy to help us with PR services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Media Frenzy provides PR services, including pitching to media outlets, getting articles placed in targeted publications, and securing interviews relevant to our industry. They've done PR pushes for trade show events, including the National Retail Federation show in New York. They've also started managing our social media outreach, creating a content calendar in the process.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with most of their team, including Sarah (CEO and Founder, Media Frenzy Global) who helped us create an overall PR strategy.

How did you come to work with Media Frenzy Global?

Our CEO had worked with Sarah at another company in the past, so we reached out to her team when she opened up an office nearby.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested around $110,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We'd worked with them a couple years ago and reengaged them in November 2017. They continue to handle all of our PR efforts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Media Frenzy's efforts have significantly increased our media coverage, impressions, and inbound opportunities. Our followers on LinkedIn and Twitter have increased 20–25 percent and conversions are up by about 25 percent. Our engagement on LinkedIn is also up by almost 70%.

How did Media Frenzy Global perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job overall and maintain continuous communication with our team. They call us each week to go over the content calendar, articles, and our expectations for each quarter, and we review our performance against our targets each month.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They genuinely understand the mobile market space and bring a lot of expertise and industry knowledge to the table. They know exactly who we need to target when it comes to engaging local industry magazines and websites.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the assistant city administrator for the city of Alpharetta, Georgia. We’re an employment and business hub located 30 miles north of Atlanta with a resident population of approximately 65,000 and a daytime population of 130,000.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Media Frenzy Global?

In the 2000s, we grew rapidly from a traditional, suburban, small community to an employment and business center that serves a metropolitan area, which gave us some identity challenges. At the same time, we, as an organization, hadn't really thought about communications, public relations, or marketing in a cohesive, organization-wide manner. We were trying to establish ourselves as “the” technology city in the south and introduce ourselves on a national stage, while also creating affinity with our existing residents.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first had to identify a communications strategy and better define the voice of our organization. We began with focus groups of citizens, business leaders, and business leaders from nearby communities that we saw as peers within metro Atlanta. We also reached out to target markets throughout the southeastern region and other parts of the country. Elected officials also had to be interviewed and brought on board so we could find a balance between what they wanted and the perceptions of our targets. From there, we began to identify common issues, perceptions, and misperceptions that needed to be addressed to position ourselves in our desired manner.

This engagement cost more than the city had ever put on any kind of marketing, so we had to ease the council into it of a couple of years. We started with an affinity campaign built around the concept of "Alpharetta Proud" to instill pride in the community and show why our existing residents and businesses liked being here and thought everybody should be here. We also used it to highlight community volunteers—people who were excelling, businesses that were excelling.

There was also a business direct focus, which was our economic development arm, built around making us “the” technology city of the south. It was a public relations project that aimed to attract press coverage of what we were doing: launching incubators and innovative programs and fostering an environment of entrepreneurship and creativity. We targeted national media and trade publications, and Media Frenzy was also interested in working with our economic development director on targeted trade shows, but he chose to not engage them for active assistance in trade shows and promotional events.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the founder and CEO, who took a direct interest in the project, as well as their vice president. Everyone else in the firm was engaged in one way or another or at one time or another.

How did you come to work with Media Frenzy Global?

There were two reasons we wanted to utilize a company like Media Frenzy. First, they're based here in our community, so they understand us well, and they're engaged with a lot of our technology firms. Second, they were the right size. We didn't want to work with one of the large public relations and marketing firms available near us because we didn't want to be passed down to a junior associate who couldn’t understand the nuances of dealing with local government, which is different than engaging with typical corporate clients.

One of Media Frenzy’s specialties is working with businesses in the technology arena and using modern platforms to reach new and expanding markets. That kind of company was a key target for us so there was a natural draw there. We engaged them with our technology incubator first; and, after seeing how they worked, we sat down with the CEO and vice president to discuss the potential for them to take on the city of Alpharetta as a client.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $330,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2015 until June 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were less interested in individual counts than we were in seeing an overall increase in awareness of our brand and the affinity of our existing businesses and residents for the community.  Our overall exposure to target markets and the engagement level of our existing businesses and residents grew month over month, quarter over quarter, and year over year at around 15 or 20%, which beat our expectations.

How did Media Frenzy Global perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been hands-on and engaged in every single effort in every organization I’ve been in, even when we’ve engaged outside firms for marketing and public relations services—so much so that I’ve questioned why I was engaging an outside firm and still felt that I was having to do more than I should. With Media Frenzy, there were times when I was sitting on the sidelines asking if they were sure that I couldn’t do anything. It just didn’t feel right to me.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In terms of creativity and strategic thinking, they're outstanding. They're extremely attentive and extremely well-versed in the campaigns that they pursue, and they're creative and aggressive in positioning their clients. Once a decision is made, they run with it.

What makes the biggest difference, though, is the relationship that they build with their clients. They get to know their clients well and reach a point where they can anticipate changes in direction and preferences effectively. They become less of an outside agency and more of a natural part of the team that's integrated into operations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They had a couple of ideas that I personally thought were great but our council and Mayor didn’t want to pursue, for political reasons. Media Frenzy continued to push those ideas, because, again, they were good, effective ideas, but we both would’ve been better served if they’d let them fall by the wayside.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an immersive experience lab headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. We focus on augmented reality and virtual reality and help brands and companies find uses for those technologies. We help a number of companies across different industry verticals experiment to find good use cases. I'm the company president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Media Frenzy Global?

Augmented reality and virtual reality are new for a lot of people and many companies don't understand the technology or how it might be relevant to their business. Our story is exciting, but it can be difficult to market these technologies to companies that haven’t experienced them. We hired Media Frenzy to help us find the right audiences among all the companies headquartered in Atlanta and deliver a message that would resonate with them and drive business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a series of conversations that culminated in a formal intake session. They worked to understand our business successes and challenges and to workshop an editorial pitch. They presented a variety of ideas, some of which we liked and some we worked on to fix.

Eventually, they worked through a media list with us for different industry verticals so we could target specific publications to pitch stories and garner interest. They fed us opportunities to write editorials in technology publications and some key verticals, such as automotive, manufacturing, and education. They’ve found us interview opportunities, speaking engagements, and features with important websites. They give us regular updates on the success of each initiative.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with the founder, another partner there, an account manager, and a day-to-day contact. I think their core team is bigger, but we interact directly with four people.

How did you come to work with Media Frenzy Global?

We engaged a number of different vendors for specific tasks, including a social media freelancer, SEO and PR consultants, a marketing manager, and a senior director of strategy. That director had an existing relationship with Media Frenzy and made the introduction. We were interested in a full-service marketing agency and they allowed us to consolidate some of responsibilities and streamline parts of our business.

How much have you invested with them?

The contract value of their services is $48,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around March 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our visibility is greater than our competition. We have more mentions in our targeted industry publications, a larger social media audience, and a higher level of engagement. We get a good value for the attention and credibility we gain from their work.

How did Media Frenzy Global perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re strong project managers. We receive regular communication and almost daily status updates. We have a weekly review meeting with them and a bi-weekly planning session. They also alert us whenever there’s a new opportunity and we have a lot of ad hoc emails and texts from them. They’re very diligent operators and are always on top of the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked in media and marketing for about 30 years. Media Frenzy exhibits a tenacity and inventiveness that I haven’t seen in larger PR firms. They always seem to be on the clock and I get emails and texts back at all hours of the day. I can tell they’re always thinking about my business. From a technology standpoint, their clientele shows how much they understand the field. Their founder was responsible for a lot of marketing with a major mobile phone provider during the 1990s and 2000s. She grounded her business in the intricacies of storytelling around technology and its inherent challenges. They help us understand what’s important.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

PPRO Group is a payment facilitating company. Our headquarters is in London, but we recently launched an office in the United States. I'm a PR and marketing manager at our U.S. office.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Media Frenzy?

In Europe, people use alternative payment methods all the time, but those methods are not known in the United States. We were looking for a PR company to help us educate the American public about the alternative payment methods.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a PR team in Europe that produces a lot of our content. Media Frenzy is our PR and marketing agency in the U.S., so they help us make our content accessible and understandable to the American public. They're in charge of our media relations and pitching efforts in the American market.

What is the team composition?

We mostly work with Nikkia Adolphe (PR Director, Media Frenzy Global), who is our account manager.

How did you come to work with them?

We went through an extensive vetting process and met with many PR agencies. We liked Media Frenzy's approach to our educational standpoint. Also, they offered us a level of creativity we were looking for, so we chose them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have a strong hold on the media landscape in the United States. Their extensive knowledge of publications has been helpful to our customer base.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. We have a significant PR and marketing team in-house, MFG provides really great support and collaboration on the projects we're launching and helping adapt them to the United States market.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Even though they're a global PR agency, they give us special attention. They always try to attend to our needs on a very personalized level.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager at Unosquare, a software development firm that specializes in banking financial services, life sciences, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and high-tech startups. I am in charge of all our social media channels and work within our account-based marketing (ABM) program.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Media Frenzy Global?

We didn't have much of a marketing presence. We relied solely on referrals because we focused more on our quality and customer satisfaction than marketing. We didn't get any inbound leads or marketing leads. However, we kept growing (from 300 employees to 600) and needed to keep up with our growth.

With Media Frenzy Global, we're trying gain leads from our website and ad campaigns, because we can no longer rely on our referral model. We don't want to be a spam marketer, but we need a new marketing direction. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first walked them through our marketing program, and they got a better understanding of what we were trying to achieve. Currently, their team develops a lot of PR strategies for us, connecting us to speaking events and exposing our president through the media to increase his presence. Their CEO spearheads this campaign and conducts monthly discussions with us. 

Their team connects us to monthly publications and blogs; conducts case studies for our clients; and creates/edits/reviews our landing pages. We work together to curate all of our content. Tawanda Carlton, an account executive at Media Frenzy Global sends us relevant topics and articles to buff up our content. Using that resource, our president or Tawanda will write articles and approve each other's writings to be published. They also track all of our PR metrics and update us on improvements we could make. 

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with their CEO and an account associate. However, we also work with two other employees. Previously, there was a specialist that led our ABM campaign, but she left the company.

How did you come to work with Media Frenzy Global?

I used to work at a technology association in Atlanta. This company put on an event with Media Frenzy Global, and Giancarlo (President, Unosqaure) got a lot of business out of it. Giancarlo hired me later, and I recommended Media Frenzy Global as a great PR company.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $100,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in July 2017 and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don't have metrics yet because we're trying to perfect this our first go. We're extremely careful with keeping things high-quality and keeping track of everything is a little difficult. We'll start seeing a lot more feedback once we launch the ads and landing pages. However, their publications significantly increase our web traffic thus far, which is fantastic.

How did Media Frenzy Global perform from a project management standpoint?

They're fantastic. They make sure to track everything, updates us on their progress, and keeps us on task. We might forget an email or a call, but our account manager makes sure we meet deadlines. We now conduct bi-weekly calls and also meet in person. We receive weekly tracking updates on what's published and what's being worked on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're a fantastic company that's always on top of everything we need. Their team does a great job of explaining the importance of their work using extremely detailed and mapped out plans. They meticulously configure every detail to make sure that everyone is happy with how everything is set. Everyone has their flaws, but we love working with them and hope to continue our partnership. Media Frenzy Global provides so many resources and connections, even outside the PR industry. Similar to us, they're not cheap, but provide quality services and don't push their own agenda too hard.