San Francisco-based LaunchSquad, a PR agency that works primarily with technology companies, recently moved into the Boston market, opening the doors to their Cambridge office. PRWeek’s 2009 Boutique PR Agency of the Year, LaunchSquad sees their unique brand of “handcrafted PR” as a perfect fit for Boston’s thriving tech market. Citing the city’s wealth of intellectual capital, patent innovation, venture capital driven start-ups, and a few big companies to lead the way, LauchSquad’s Boston GM, Mike Farber, sees endless opportunity. “We’re here to make our clients bigger and louder,” says Farber.
Founded in San Francisco in 1999, LaunchSquad Co-founders Jesse Oddell, Jason Mandell, and Jason Throckmorton met at Schwartz Communications, where they worked closely with Farber. Entrepreneurs at heart, they sought to create an agency, “less focused on rapid growth and more focused on delivering kick-ass results,” says Farber. The company currently has 42 squad members in their San Francisco headquarters, 8 in their New York office and 4 at their Cambridge location.
Farber sees LaunchSquad’s success as a result of their unique brand of PR, one which he says focuses on three pivotal differentiators. “We are the type of firm that will push and push clients to try new things with innovative new technologies,” says Farber. A second core competency, story creation, is at the heart of all of LaunchSquad’s business, with a focus on telling unique, impactful, and interesting stories for each client. The company’s relentless metabolic rate is the final piece of the puzzle. “Our clients are moving fast, and we need to move fast to keep up with them and continue to push them,” says Farber. “We’re relentless.”
As for the difficulty often associated with selling cost-conscious start-ups on PR, Farber sites the move away from traditional media and towards technologies like social media, blogs, and video as a selling point. Farber shared,
“Our clients experience is often that communications and PR are the most cost effective things they can do. New technologies allow us to speak directly to consumers, to pop out of the noise in extremely crowded markets, and to ultimately drive user adoption.”
This process has already resulted in enormous success for Boston companies such as SCVNGR and Heywire, a social hub app that allows free texting worldwide. LaunchSquad was brought on board by SCVNGR to help the company launch their consumer business following their success on the enterprise side with clients like MIT and the US Navy. “SCVNGR is a remarkable company,” says Farber. “They think big, and we think big.” This thinking has led to increased visibility for SCVNGR, resulting in over 700,000 downloads and clients such as Coca-Cola, Nissan, and Buffalo Wild Wings.
With growing opportunities in Boston’s tech sector, Farber says that LaunchSquad will continue to deliver PR campaigns that are, “Story-driven, creative, and fearless.”
