The Hoffman Agency: The San Jose Global Tech PR Independent With Deep Asia-Pacific Roots

Edited on July 18, 2026.

The Hoffman Agency is the San Jose-headquartered global technology public relations firm founded in 1987 by Lou Hoffman. The firm operates one of the deepest Asia-Pacific practices of any independent U.S. tech PR agency, with a nine-office footprint spanning the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. More than half of the firm's client work is executed in the Asia-Pacific region.

Positioning

The Hoffman Agency operates one of the most distinctive positionings in independent tech PR: a Silicon Valley firm that built a genuine Asia-Pacific practice rather than a satellite one. The APAC exposure is not a secondary market for Hoffman — it is the operating anchor of the firm's identity and represents more than half of its total book. That structural fluency has made Hoffman one of the go-to firms for U.S. technology companies expanding into Asia and for Asian technology companies pursuing global visibility.

The founding story

Lou Hoffman launched the firm in 1987. The following year, Hoffman helped HP publicize its new CD-ROM concept — the engagement was successful enough that HP transferred its entire PR business to Hoffman. That anchor account established the firm's technology-PR positioning at Silicon Valley scale from year two.

The first global campaign came in 1994: representing Hyundai's (now Hynix) MPEG-2 chip across Asia-Pacific and Europe. That engagement built the firm's Asia infrastructure and established the operating model — global campaigns executed by local teams with senior firm oversight — that Hoffman continues to run three decades later.

Practice Areas

Corporate & Executive Storytelling

The firm's category identity. Storytelling workshops, executive positioning, and narrative development — grounded in a specific methodology Hoffman has developed and taught publicly.

Media Relations

Business, trade, and vertical media placement across U.S. and Asia-Pacific markets. The Asia media relationships are the firm's structural advantage over U.S. tech PR firms without deep in-country presence.

Corporate Blogging & Content Workshops

Long-form B2B content strategy and executive-blogging programs — an early Hoffman specialty that became a category-defining practice.

Media Training & Broadcast

Executive media training for U.S. and Asia-Pacific principals, including cross-cultural preparation for global executive tours.

Digital Marketing & Social

Integrated digital communications programs, including web strategy and social-media execution.

Named Clients

Historical and current engagements span enterprise infrastructure, consumer technology, mobility, and industrial B2B:

Automotive & mobility: Mercedes-Benz.

Financial services: Barclays Bank.

Enterprise technology & industrial: Hitachi, 3M, Dassault Systemes, Alcatel-Lucent, Evernote.

Consumer & robotics: iRobot, Nautilus.

Nonprofit & public sector: Center for Creative Leadership, City of Fremont.

Recognition

Hoffman has been a finalist for multiple Holmes Report SABRE Awards and captured PR Daily Digital and Social Media Awards. The firm consistently ranks in the top tier of independent technology PR agencies and is recognized for the durability of its client relationships — several of which have run 20-plus years.

Operating philosophy

Hoffman's stated operating model is built on the tenets Lou Hoffman identifies as the ones that built the great Silicon Valley companies: never let status quo be the measure of satisfaction, take intelligent risks, build team-oriented culture, keep hierarchy flat. The firm hires for ingenuity, initiative, teamwork, and creativity — and stated policy is to de-emphasize billable-hours accounting in favor of judgment-driven client outcomes. That operating model has been one of the drivers of long-term senior-talent retention.

Where Hoffman fits in the PR firm landscape

The independent global tech PR category includes firms like Highwire, Racepoint Global, InkHouse, Method Communications, and Mission North. Hoffman's differentiation inside that set is the Asia-Pacific practice depth and the 38-year founder-led continuity. Very few independent tech PR firms have both.

For the full landscape, see the Technology & B2B section of the PR Firms Directory and Top Technology PR Agencies in 2026.

Related Coverage

• PR Firms Directory — A–Z, by Specialty, by Region
• Top Technology PR Agencies in 2026
• International Markets & Country Coverage
• Japan PR Firms
• Leading PR Firms Guide