Q & A Priscila Martinez of The Brand Agency

Today, a feature interview with Priscila Martinez of The Brand Agency

• Why did you choose to create The Brand Agency? What’s the story behind it?

The Brand Agency was created as a direct response to the pain points I felt while working for a very large firm. I wanted to create an inclusive environment where everybody had a work/life balance. I wanted to create collaborative teams that serviced accounts borrowing from different disciplines. Clients are used to dealing with niche PR firms: some only service fashion, some only service beauty, some only entertainment, etc. Magic happens when you have a group of incredibly smart and creative communications experts who can borrow best practices from various disciplines. 

• How long have you been up and running?

We’ve been up and running for over five years. It’s great to see our team grow year after year. It also gives me great satisfaction to see the caliber of client we service change with our growing capabilities. 

• Who makes up the team?

We are a female-only team made up of world-class communicators. I can honestly say that we employ some of the brightest and most creative minds in the field. Our firm is also minority certified; you can see all of our different backgrounds expressed in the diverse solutions we offer clients. 

• What type of clients do you typically service? What services do they come to you for?

We service a variety of disciplines, from venture-backed startups to publicly traded companies. We also advise a few tech clients and handle events for another handful. At The Brand Agency, we believe PR and communications are always evolving. The landscape is changing day-to-day and as such, the services we offer will also change with the times. We weren’t offering clients a TikTok strategy a year ago, but now that is a must for a few categories. We like to progress along with the times and our client list and services will always reflect that. 

• Who is on your roster of clients?

The Brand Agency is incredibly lucky to work with some of the most amazing names in the field. Our current roster includes Motorola, Amazon Studios, and Playboy to name a few. These entities give you an idea of the breadth of clients we take on. 

• How was your firm impacted by COVID? Are you working remotely? 

The news about COVID hit us like a ton of bricks at the end of February. The majority of our team had slated travel to SXSW to service a few clients. We would be on non-stop calls with in-house teams deliberating if we should head to the festival or not. We had three big Los Angeles events also scheduled that week. We had worked for months planning these activations, but we ultimately decided to cancel. It was an incredibly dark period. We had a big team meeting the first week in March and decided that we were better off as a team working from home. The world seemed to shut down a few days after we had settled in our remote workspaces. I was proud to be one of the first firms to acknowledge the seriousness of COVID, but it also broke our hearts to realize that we wouldn’t be seeing each other day-to-day. Our junior team members learn by osmosis and creative synergies come up at the watercooler. Working from home meant forgoing all of those organic opportunities for growth and cooperation. 

• What do you predict for the future of brand events?

In the olden days, I was often tapped to talk about things like Oscar or Golden Globe predictions. Who would’ve thought those types of conversations would be non-existent for the better part 2020! Our clients have done a phenomenal job of pivoting to virtual events and I don’t suspect that trend slowing down. That being said, brands need to make sure they are only engaging in the appropriate opportunities. There is Zoom fatigue and simply slapping signage behind a celebrity speaker won’t draw a virtual crowd like it did at the beginning of the pandemic. Brands need to get creative and find their audiences where they are. For instance, our client came up with an amazing virtual escape room experience. The Brand Agency was tapped to handle US and UK PR outreach as well as the press preview “appointments.” The program was so creative that we had over 3,700+ sign ups. This is a crazy turnout considering some brands are hard-pressed to secure even a dozen attendees to their Zoom activations. Virtual events will continue to be the path forward, but marketers need to get incredibly imaginative and resourceful to get eyeballs.