Pointman News Creation

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Communications of Writers Guild of Canada

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) represents more than 2,500 professional English-language screenwriters in Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Pointman News Creation to accomplish?

• Debunk misconceptions about AI in a humorous way
• Reach a broader audience
• Generate public support for human creativity and “writers, not robots” on our favourite Canadian movies and TV shows

SOLUTION

How did you find Pointman News Creation?

Referral

Why did you select Pointman News Creation over others?

Great culture fit

How many teammates from Pointman News Creation were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

The campaign, titled "Nice Try, AI", involved feeding famous Canadian TV and movie lines—from Degrassi Jr. High, Schitt’s Creek, and Kim’s Convenience—into AI and asking it to "improve" them. The results were hilariously bad, reinforcing the message that productions need human and Canadian writers to create quality content. 

The campaign scored 95 hits nationally and in major markets across Canada including CBC Radio One (Nationally), CBC.ca, CBC ‘Commotion’ pop culture show, CFRB (Toronto), CJAD (Montreal), Moore in the Morning radio show, and VOCM.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The campaign helped us reach a wider Canadian audience outside of the industry/trade publications. In the past, the WGC has not appeared on radio or morning shows to talk about Canadian culture. In this campaign, we were excited to see Canadian screenwriters being discussed in a positive way. 

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

Throughout the campaign, project management was seamless, with all deliverables (media release, key messages, media requests, tracking, etc.) provided on time and in alignment with our needs. Pointman was highly responsive, ensuring that messaging, strategy, and execution met our objectives effectively.

What was your primary form of communication with Pointman News Creation?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

It was wonderful to work with someone who understood our campaign goals, and was willing to adapt the campaign based on our emerging needs.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Pointman News Creation could have done differently?

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Content Manager of Zensurance

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A small business insurance brokerage and insurance technology (insurtech) company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Pointman News Creation to accomplish?

• Secure consumer-facing, mainstream media coverage for the results of a national survey.

SOLUTION

How did you find Pointman News Creation?

Referral

Why did you select Pointman News Creation over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Pointman News Creation were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

We conduct an annual survey of Canadian small business owners, soliciting their opinions on economic challenges, liability risk mitigation tactics, and business insurance. We hired Pointman News Creation to revise and publish our press release, develop pitches to regional and national media, generate coverage and interviews, and report on progress.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Pointman News Creation's efforts and results surpassed our expectations. We received 84 media pickups (stories about our survey) primarily in mainstream media, including four interviews for our spokesperson on TV and radio that were widely broadcasted in several provinces. The coverage generated resulted in a significant increase in web traffic to our site and raising our brand awareness among our customer demographics.

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

Pointman News Creation was always ahead of schedule and responsive to our questions or additional requests.

What was your primary form of communication with Pointman News Creation?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Pointman News Creation comes as advertised: significantly enhancing our approach and messaging to grab media mindshare in an engaging, thought-provoking way and offering guidance and recommendations to improve our campaign tactics to produce optimal results.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Pointman News Creation could have done differently?

No. But we do. In the future, we will ensure we hire Pointman News Creation earlier to be more involved in the planning phase of our PR-focused campaigns.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of a social networking company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Social Media Marketing

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Pointman News Creation to accomplish?

• Raise Brand Awareness
• Target Financial Advisors
• Target Investors

SOLUTION

How did you find Pointman News Creation?

Past work experience

Why did you select Pointman News Creation over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Pointman News Creation were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

We involved Pointman Public Relations to support our client, an advanced online portal for investment advisors, who wanted to raise brand awareness with advisors, investors and the financial services industry overall.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Pointman Public Relations engaged a polling company to create a national survey to investors in order to uncover how little investors challenged investment performance and hold their advisors accountable. The survey was turned into a press release and aggressively pitched nationally. Coverage highlights include the Winnipeg Free Press, CTV News in major markets and major market radio.

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

We never had to chase Pointman for anything. They had a clear vision of how to successfully execute a PR campaign and kept us apprised at every stage of the process.

What was your primary form of communication with Pointman News Creation?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Pointman stood out to us from the beginning because of their unique perspective and approach that was exemplified by their storytelling and results-oriented focus.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Pointman News Creation could have done differently?

No. We have worked with Pointman on several projects and they have always stood out in terms of professionalism, creativity and impact.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a corporate learning support company. We launched a nonprofit project during the COVID-19 pandemic to help people worldwide get training at whatever price they could afford.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointman News Creation?

We wanted to get some media attention. At that time, the news cycles were so short.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Pointman News Creation to do our releases and get us noticed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, we had a discovery call to explain what we were doing, who it would benefit, and how. Then, we had an appointment to put together some draft releases to send out.

Once we approved them, we left them in Pointman News Creation’s hands. They did several rounds of direct and blanket releases.

What is the team composition?

We only dealt with Patrick (Founder). We didn’t know how many people they had behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Pointman News Creation?

We found them through a referral; I knew about them through friends. Pointman News Creation was also in some big and cool campaigns, so they were in a lot of press.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from April–July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The biggest value we got was how they formatted and told our story; it had to be in a way that people would want to talk about it. At the time, many companies used the COVID-19 pandemic for promotion, so we had to clarify that we weren’t looking for monetary gain and ensure we were well-positioned.

Pointman News Creation helped us put that story out. We were interviewed on 5–6 radio stations across Canada in French and English, so it was important that we got wide coverage.

Overall, Pointman News Creation was an outstanding agency. They did everything right and gave us everything we needed. We were happy with the results.

How did Pointman News Creation perform from a project management standpoint?

We gave them tight deadlines because it was a short-term project. Pointman News Creation’s team was able to deliver on time. Moreover, they were very professional and communicative throughout the engagement. We used emails and phone calls to keep in touch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I loved most about Patrick was that he had a lot of candor. He told us everything like it was, which helped us set our expectations appropriately.

Additionally, we liked their network. Many of the hits we got were because Patrick was trusted across the news infrastructure. Before he was in PR, he was an assignment editor, so he was out in the field. He built an extensive network of trustworthy journalists and editors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I just hope that we can let them have more flexibility and creativity with the process next time we work with them. They had creative, out-of-the-box ways to get press. Unfortunately, we couldn’t utilize them because it was a short, nonprofit project. We couldn’t go above and beyond to do some cool PR. If we ever get to do that kind of work, we’ll go to Pointman News Creation.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them do their job and trust them. Pointman News Creation comes up with good ideas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the assistant director of communications at Scouts Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointman News Creation?

We had worked with a different PR agency for quite some time. Although we were getting the reach that we wanted to see in terms of media impact, we wanted to try some more innovative ideas to stand out even more from the rest and see if we could engage audiences in a new way. Thus, we sought insight from Pointman News Creation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Pointman News Creation to help us with our PR and signed a three-campaign contract for spring, summer, and fall 2022. Initially, they provided us with the pitch concept, which included surveying using Google search and doing internal surveying of our membership.

To support these campaigns, we created visual assets internally, including graphic designs, videos, and more. Once we created the assets, Pointman News Creation pitched media, drafted the press release, and ensured that we amplified the campaign we were currently running.

Then, we ran the press release that Pointman News Creation had created on National Wire, and they also pitched directly to the media. Throughout the engagement, they’ve also provided us with great reporting services to see the progress of campaigns and their impact.

One of the campaigns that Pointman News Creation ran earlier in the summer was complementary to a marketing recruitment campaign that we’re currently running to recruit new youth and encourage youth to return to us.

For this campaign, we wanted to find a PR concept that served as a soft sell where the main call to action wasn’t to register and join. Instead, we wanted something to hook media attention, engage them, and ultimately encourage them to join as a secondary call to action.

In scouting, we have a set of values that reflects who we are and which qualities we nurture in youth as they grow up in our program. Thus, our strategy was to identify Canadian celebrities, notable figures, academics, and advocates who we felt had values that aligned with our brand. Then, Pointman News Creation helped create a Google survey and an internal survey for our members to have people vote for the celebrities they felt deserved custom badges for their values. Finally, they created the badges, sent them to the chosen celebrities, and launched the campaign on the media.

What is the team composition?

I only work with Patrick (Vanquisher of 'Vanilla' PR).

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $30,000 CAD (approximately $22,000 USD), not including additional costs for Google surveying. In total, we’ve spent around $35,000–$40,000 (approximately $25,000–$29,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around April 2022, and our engagement is ongoing. We’ve already completed the three-campaign contract, so we’re now meeting to discuss future projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the celebrity advocates campaign last week, and we’re really excited about the results so far. We’ve been receiving a lot of visibility on morning shows where hosts discuss the results of our survey, have fun with it, and engage with it. Thanks to this, we’ve increased our brand awareness without utilizing the traditional hard-sell strategy for joining the scouts. In a week, we’ve had 95 million potential impressions and 121 media hits.

As for other metrics, our first campaign ran from May 1st–May 20th, and in those 20 days, we had 102.1 million impressions, 367 media hits, and 13 interviews with our spokespeople. Additionally, our summer campaign ran from July 25th–August 5th, and it achieved 53.8 million impressions, 221 media hits, and four interviews.

How did Pointman News Creation perform from a project management standpoint?

Pointman News Creation is very responsive and offers quick turnaround times on tight deadlines. They also keep us in the loop throughout the campaigns. We’re very data-driven, so we always appreciate the time and attention they put towards keeping us up to date with the reporting once a campaign launches. We communicate via email, Slack, and video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Working with Pointman News Creation has been great. Although they’re a one-person shop, they’ve managed to get more impact than some of the larger agencies we’ve worked with.

Patrick is a great listener, and he applies what he has learned about our brand to his work, presenting it in an innovative and fresh way while keeping it true to the integrity of who we are. Moreover, he’s full of creative ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ve had a good experience so far. Although we’ve had a short engagement, we’ve been working together long enough to identify any areas of improvement, if there were any.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you approach Pointman News Creation, don’t focus only on the things you want to hit for the campaign. Instead, give them a wholesome idea of everything you have going on that could potentially feed a PR brainstorm session. Give them as much context as possible so that they can decide which strategy would have the most media potential. Overall, come in with an open mind and be more collaborative than directive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Manly Man Co., a gift manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointman News Creation?

We needed someone to provide us with PR services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pointman News Creation helped us structure our PR efforts and outreach. We brought them on a contractual basis to focus on promoting our products on Valentine’s and Father’s day, two big gifting seasons for our company.

During that process, they reached out to big media outlets, devised creative ideas to stand out from our competitors, and generally created buzz through attention-grabbing headlines, TV, and radio spots.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Patrick (Vanquisher of Vanilla PR).

How did you come to work with Pointman News Creation?

We found them through Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2021–June 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve significantly improved our reach and helped us earn about 80–90 media spots for our campaigns, so the PR project has been a great success.

How did Pointman News Creation perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great from a project management perspective because they met all our deadlines and accurately accomplished their deliverables.

We typically communicated through Slack, email, and phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with the content and strategy they implemented for this project, because it gained the most engagement I’ve seen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did a great job of providing us with a refreshing and unique approach, so I can’t think of anything they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise you not to waste time looking elsewhere for your PR needs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of Rapid Test & Trace Canada, one of the country's largest online retailers of rapid COVID tests. We also have e-commerce operations in the United States and Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pointman News Creation, and what were your goals?

Our business was gearing up for the holiday season and wanted to build our brand via earned media exposure. We hired Pointman News to develop and manage a PR campaign in Canada, the United States, and Australia.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We checked Clutch for the top vendors and had a discovery call with three companies. Pointman News felt like the best fit for our company.

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

The scope of work for the PR campaign included:

• Ideation
• Writing a PR plan
• Creating media lists
• Writing, posting and interpreting survey questions
• Writing compelling news releases and pitches to grab media attention simultaneously in Canada, USA and Australia.
• Writing the holiday e-cards that were required for the campaign
• Aggressively pitching news media through bold brand campaigns to secure coverage
• Coordinating interviews requests
• Tracking all coverage that appears online, in print, on radio, and on TV.
• Sharing digital copies of media coverage (from Canada and the USA) for internal review

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

Just 1 person, Patrick McCaully. Patrick is the founder of Pointman News.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The campaigns were a huge success, generating over 180 earned media hits in three countries, including two live interviews on Canada's most-watched morning news program. The campaign was also recognized by an international PR publication as one of the top Christmas holiday campaigns of 2021, making a list with many mega-brands like Miller Lite and McDonalds. December was also a record sales month for our business.

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

Patrick was very flexible and easy to communicate with. We had scheduled team calls to plan the campaign. Patrick also made himself available to our team via a private WhatsApp group and was extremely responsive, bringing new opportunities to the team and coordinating the media hits. When there was a slight delay in getting the level of survey responses that we were initially targetting, Patrick kept us informed and offered tangible solutions and next steps.

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

Patrick is clearly a seasoned pro at what he does. Their recommendations were grounded in past experience, which helped to guide the campaign in the right direction. His creativity and campaign ideation skills were also impressive.

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

Not really, Patrick was accomodating and a pleasure to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Communications Specialist. We have been the world's leading travel bag manufacturer for over 110 years, and is a multi-brand, multi-product channel offering a wide selection of luggage, business cases, handbags, travel accessories, casual and outdoor bags.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pointman News Creation, and what were your goals?

Being in the travel industry, we were strongly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As travel has started to open up in Canada, we wanted to take a pulse check of how Canadians were feeling about travel, where they want to travel to, etc. and also stay top-of-mind with consumers who are looking for travel bags. We want people to connect us and travel together, in a positive way, while also being respectful of the fact that we're still in a pandemic.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I did a lot of research online and interviewed a few different PR companies. We wanted a company who easily thought outside of the box and who's process wasn't boggled down by "too many cooks in the kitchen". Pointman! News Creation really stood out for their creative ideas, and I find them to be really honest about what they think will work & what won't work. They seem to have a great sense of what will resonate with the media.

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

We were originally hoping to do many projects with Pointman starting back in 2020, but the pandemic delayed our plans. Patrick was ready when we were this summer & pitched a bunch of ideas - and we loved the idea of doing a survey on travel sentiment among Canadians!

Patrick has basically organized the entire thing for us - from suggesting the questions (with great insights on our feedback regarding what suggested changes would or would not work), executing the survey, compiling the responses, putting together the media release, pitching it to the media, setting up interviews and sharing results.

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

We worked directly with Patrick who is the owner of Pointman! News Creation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've had a great amount of TV and Radio hits! This campaign has been the most successful with the media by far, of the 9 years I've been in this role.

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

We communicate regularly through email and set up video and phone calls whenever we want to talk through something. He responds quickly to questions I have and I find him very thorough with details.

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

They have great ideas - they are great at thinking outside the box and they seem to have a strong knowledge of what the media cares about.

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

We've been incredibly happy with the work from Pointman and don't have anything to complain about!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Modern Concierge, a Toronto-based lifestyle management and planning company for modern-day professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointman News Creation?

We needed to get the word out about our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pointman News Creation led our PR efforts by managing our press releases and devising a campaign for one of our events. We thought of a campaign that highlighted the several activities people wanted to do after the pandemic — Pointman News Creation referred to our ideas and executed a card campaign based on those.

During our brainstorming session, Patrick (Director of International Media Domination) pitched a creative idea — he talked about how difficult it would be for people to put their pants on after being stuck at home. We went with that idea because it was bold and funny, and it became the central theme of our campaign.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Patrick.

How did you come to work with Pointman News Creation?

I met Patrick years ago at a networking event, and we kept in touch. I worked with him and his team on several PR-related projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement took place in July 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Pointman News Creation created a buzz-worthy campaign that met our expectations — three radio stations reached out to interview me about this project, and we were able to acquire two clients from our media exposure.

How did Pointman News Creation perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicated via email and phone calls. Pointman News Creation had phenomenal project management skills. We originally planned on launching this campaign in August, but they finished their deliverables way ahead of our deadlines. We were just surprised to see them wrap everything up so quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Pointman News Creation impressed us with their unconventional yet effective approach. They had a humorous campaign idea, but it still delivered the message that we wanted to convey to our audience. In fact, it actually improved our message — we were able to remind people that whatever they’re going through during the pandemic was valid, and they shouldn’t feel bad about themselves.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their entire team nailed it. We were very impressed, and we didn’t encounter any areas that needed improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Pointman News Creation is keen on delivering eye-catching results, so be open to considering their out-of-the-box ideas. 

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on April 25, 2019

Tina Laquinta

CEO, Modern Concierge

Other industry

1-10 Employees

Toronto, Canada

$10,000 to $49,999

Feb 2019 - Apr 2019

Project summary

Pointman News Creation developed and marketed a pop-up bakery, pitching media members and putting out press releases.

Feedback summary

Turnout was steady throughout the one-day event and included everyday people, bloggers, and industry representatives. Pointman News Creation was easy to work with at every stage and demonstrated a clear mastery of media relations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Modern Concierge, a full-service concierge and event planning company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pointman News Creation?

We needed to create a one-day-only pop-up bakery for one of our clients.

What were your goals for this project?

We set out to secure national earned media coverage and brand awareness for a bakery that was new to Canada.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We'd worked with Pointman on several PR projects for other clients. They were the obvious choice.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

To promote our client, Pointman came up with the idea for a blind taste test. At our pop-up, consumers weren’t aware that the food they were trying was gluten-free, so their reactions were honest evaluations of the flavor. Pointman executed their plan perfectly, pitching media members and putting out several press releases to drive turnout.

What was the team composition?

Patrick (Founder, Pointman News Creation) handled our project personally.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From the moment the event started until we closed, there was a crowd lined up to try the food. In total, over 400 Torontonians sampled the product, including multiple bloggers and a representative of the Celiac Association. We also saw 89 earned media hits, which represented hundreds of thousands in advertisement value.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was impeccable.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They contributed genius ideas and had a fantastic grasp of how to pitch media members stories they can't ignore.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not that I saw.

RATINGS

Overall rating: 5 —  They're the best PR firm we've worked with.

Quality: 5 —  They were extremely creative.

Cost: 5 —  It's competitive but worth the money.

Schedule: 5 — It was excellent.

Willing to refer: 5