Priscila Martinez founded The Brand Agency as a female-only, minority-certified PR firm operating across fashion, beauty, entertainment, and tech. This Q&A captures the agency at the five-year mark in November 2020, before the firm rebranded to Vicaria Multicultural. The original roster included Motorola, Amazon Studios, and Playboy. The agency was among the first PR firms to recognize the severity of COVID — cancelling all SXSW client travel and three major Los Angeles activations the first week of March 2020.
The Interview
Q: Why did you create The Brand Agency?
A: 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 collaborative teams that serviced accounts borrowing from different disciplines. Clients are used to dealing with niche PR firms — fashion-only, beauty-only, entertainment-only. Magic happens when you have a group of incredibly smart and creative communications experts who can borrow best practices from various disciplines.
Q: How long have you been running?
A: 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.
Q: Who makes up the team?
A: A female-only team made up of world-class communicators — 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.
Q: What clients do you typically service?
A: 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. PR and communications are always evolving — we weren't offering clients a TikTok strategy a year ago, but now that's a must for a few categories.
Q: Roster of clients?
A: Our current roster includes Motorola, Amazon Studios, and Playboy, to name a few. These give you an idea of the breadth of clients we take on.
Q: How was the firm impacted by COVID?
A: The news about COVID hit us like a ton of bricks at the end of February. The majority of our team was traveling to SXSW to service a few clients. 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 we were better off as a team working from home. 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. Junior team members learn by osmosis and creative ideas come up at the watercooler.
Q: Future of brand events?
A: Clients have done a phenomenal job pivoting to virtual events. Brands need to make sure they are only engaging in appropriate opportunities. There is Zoom fatigue — simply slapping signage behind a celebrity speaker won't draw a virtual crowd like it did at the beginning of the pandemic. Our client came up with a virtual escape room experience. The Brand Agency handled US and UK PR outreach as well as the press preview "appointments." We had over 3,700 sign-ups — a crazy turnout considering some brands are hard-pressed to secure a dozen attendees to their Zoom activations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Priscila Martinez founded The Brand Agency as a female-only, minority-certified PR firm operating across fashion, beauty, entertainment, and tech. This Q&A captures the agency at the five-year mark in November 2020, before the firm rebranded to Vicaria Multicultural . The original roster included Motorola, Amazon Studios, and Playboy . The agency was among the first PR firms to recognize the severity of COVID — cancelling all SXSW client travel and three major Los Angeles activations the first week of March 2020. The Interview Q: Why did you create The Brand Agency?
A: 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 collaborative teams that serviced accounts borrowing from different disciplines. Clients are used to dealing with niche PR firms — fashion-only, beauty-only, entertainment-only. Magic happens when you have a group of incredibly smart and creative communications experts who can borrow best practices from various disciplines.
Q: How long have you been running?
A: 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.
Q: Who makes up the team?
A: A female-only team made up of world-class communicators — 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.
Q: What clients do you typically service?
A: 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. PR and communications are always evolving — we weren't offering clients a TikTok strategy a year ago, but now that's a must for a few categories.
Q: Roster of clients?
A: Our current roster includes Motorola, Amazon Studios, and Playboy, to name a few. These give you an idea of the breadth of clients we take on.
Q: How was the firm impacted by COVID?
A: The news about COVID hit us like a ton of bricks at the end of February. The majority of our team was traveling to SXSW to service a few clients. 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 we were better off as a team working from home. 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. Junior team members learn by osmosis and creative ideas come up at the watercooler.
Q: Future of brand events?
A: Clients have done a phenomenal job pivoting to virtual events. Brands need to make sure they are only engaging in appropriate opportunities. There is Zoom fatigue — simply slapping signage behind a celebrity speaker won't draw a virtual crowd like it did at the beginning of the pandemic. Our client came up with a virtual escape room experience. The Brand Agency handled US and UK PR outreach as well as the press preview "appointments." We had over 3,700 sign-ups — a crazy turnout considering some brands are hard-pressed to secure a dozen attendees to their Zoom activations.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
