5WPR

I’m the Managing Director of a series A EdTech startup.

As a startup, we needed someone to help us build brand awareness and gain market share.

5WPR is our primary PR services firm and they help us connect with the press and gain visibility on a local, national, and international level. They get us placements on big sheet papers such as Time and The Wall Street Journal.

We work with the EVP, SVP, account director, and account manager.

We came across 5WPR through a referral.

We are on a monthly retainer and have invested over $100,000.

Our ongoing engagement started in May 2020.

We measure the success based on SoV, our NPS score, and quality of media placements they secure. 5WPR is very versatile, so we’re able to reach all categories and channels we need.

They’re exceptionally detailed, reliable, responsive, and well-connected. The team has strong communication skills and we typically communicate through bi-weekly calls and emails.

5WPR has an integrated and thoughtful PR approach that helps us drive results. Moreover, we’re impressed with their diligence and responsiveness to act as an extension of our brand, and ability to meet our objectives.

There’s nothing they need to improve on.

I advise you to have open communication and make sure you’re clear about what you’re trying to achieve.

I am the Communications Strategist for a financial technology company. I focus on internal and external communications.

Our company had just rebranded our mission and vision, so we needed to increase brand awareness and strengthen our position as a leader in the financial planning technology space. We hired 5W to provide general PR and media relations support.

We put out an RFP to several agencies, and after interviewing and reviewing each team’s proposal, we selected 5W as our agency partner.

Their services have included writing press releases, pitching various trade, business and consumer outlets, and providing event support.

We work directly with their associate vice president and team of PR account executives.

5W’s efforts have helped the company increase its footprint in both trade and consumer media outlets and establish meaningful relationships with reporters. The team has a pulse on the latest industry trends and leverages the company’s narrative to deliver media results, resulting in 5 to 7 earned media placements per month on average.

We have bi-weekly meetings with their account team to review outreach efforts, industry trends, and upcoming announcements. Additionally, we communicate over email on a frequent basis, and they make themselves available via phone or text if needed.

They are professional, responsive, detail-oriented and they take time to understand company goals.

The account team has changed over the course of the partnership, but each team member has been committed to learning our business and industry.

We are the leading digital media and promotions technology company for advertisers, retailers and consumers. Our omnichannel platform is powered by exclusive consumer spending data, location intelligence and purchase intent data to reach millions of shoppers daily and deliver measurable, incremental sales. I am the Senior Director of Corporate Marketing.

We hired 5W PR to lead the strategy and execution of our public relations. Our goals were to achieve high awareness through valuable exposure in relevant publications and conversations. In addition, we wanted to share the expertise of our team in the digital out-of-home space with honest and trustworthy content.

In a previous role at a different company I had already worked with 5W PR, with a team led by Jason H. and Sarah S., and had found them to be excellent. Therefore, this selection was very easy.

They began the process with a thorough exploration of our company goals and available assets and knowledge. They created a PR strategy to hit on those goals and mapped out the path both short and long term. Naturally, as things progress and evolve this strategy and execution adapted in order to always deliver the best possible outcome.

The team consisted of a Vice President, Associate Vice President, Senior Account Executive, Account Executive and Account Coordinator.

Since working with them, our B2B startup went from being a small company that not many knew about to being the main player in our space to being acquired by us in 2019. The exposure that 5W secured for us has been invaluable, which is a result of their carefully crafted strategy and excellent execution.

We hold weekly meetings to go over activities and they also send a weekly report on Monday that details accomplishments and priorities for that week. We have a live document to track coverage.

What I have found unique is the combination of their consistent strategy and spontaneous creativity. They are very resourceful, committed, and they continuously carve new paths to reach ambitious goals.

The public relations space is rapidly changing and I was happy to work with a team that is prepared for the next evolution.

I am the Chief Marketing Officer at Docupace - which means I oversee a lot: Content, Events, Marketing, Internal/External Communications, Strategy, Brand Awareness, Public Relations, Customer/Industry Insights and more.

Despite nearly 20 years in business and a well-established market position, Docupace did not have the best reputation and basically had no voice in the fintech/wealth management marketplace. We weren't demonstrating our expertise in the business, weren't providing insights, etc. My goal was simple, engage 5W PR to tell the world about all the great work the people at Docupace do every day.

With 15+ years in the financial services space and extensive public relations experience myself, I knew who the most common agencies were. However, Docupace already had a poor history of poor ROI when investing in PR. I narrowed my formal vetting list to 4 firms, then narrowed to 2 and 5W came out the clear choice. They had clearly listened to the vision I laid out when conducting due diligence and they proposed an engagement that aligned with it.

5W will support Docupace by working toward the following goals and objectives:

Core "hands-on" team was 6 people, ranging from Assistant Account Executive to Vice President.

Our engagement has been a smash hit from square one. It's only July and we have already achieved all of our PR/Media goals for 2021. Our web metrics (referrals, content engagement, organic search traffic) are all up. Here's a metric for you - Share of Voice (SOV) offers a competitive look at total mentions for Docupace amongst competitors. At the beginning of 5W's campaign with Docupace, our industry SOV measured at <1%. In just two quarters (Q1 and Q2 2021), 5W was able to help us raise Docupace's media profile to a staggering 18% SOV against competitors.

Very hands on and strong project management. The Account Executives always communicate in advance and they have been responsive and flexible to any request I have of them. But what is most important, they have adopted my belief that we can have fun/enjoy our work and we'll be better for it. They have showed up with positive energy at every meeting and it's just a joy to work with them.

They were able to see the massive opportunity we had, just like I could. It takes courage to change market perception and turn what was considered "not exciting" into the story of the moment. They have shown no fear in trying different strategies. They also have always followed up post-effort to help us brainstorm how we can improve.

We had some changes in the support team due to some team members changing jobs/leaving 5W. I totally understand but our business is a little complicated and takes time to ramp up. But that's not a criticism, just a reality. The new team members on the account are just as wonderful as those we started out with.

I’m the senior brand manager for the brand Essence Makeup, which is a subsidiary of a cosmetics company. We sell drugstore-priced cosmetics throughout the US and Canada.

We wanted to increase our sales in the US by increasing our brand awareness.

We hired 5W Public Relations to be our PR firm and drive our US brand awareness. They operate on a monthly retainer, handling all of our relationships with key influences, key editors, and the press. They’ve done bigger, one-off campaigns, but we really rely on them for more of the day-to-day management of our US PR.

I work with Lauren (Associate VP), Todd (Senior Account Executive), and Elizabeth (Assistant Account Executive).

We were previously with another agency but wanted to switch to a new one. I wasn’t a part of the initial scouting, though I know we met 5W Public Relations through recommendations from other people we knew in the industry. Out of the 4–5 agencies we looked at, 5W Public Relations just seemed like they were the best fit for us because they had the most to bring to the table.

It’s normally between $100,000–$150,000 per year, but this year will be higher because we’re doing more promotions.

The engagement started in January 2020, and we’re still working with them.

Their work is outstanding — I can’t say enough good things about them. Compared to our previous agency, the level of service has been night and day. Our overall brand awareness has increased, and we’ve seen more press hits, impressions, and placements. They’ve also gotten us some TV placements that have led to direct sales increases that have been 10–15 times the daily average.

All the projects that we’ve initiated with them, from the day-to-day to the one-off campaigns, have always run incredibly smoothly. Everything is always on time and executed to an amazing standard, too. We have biweekly meetings and speak through Slack and email. If there’s an issue or if something comes up, their team has great communication.

Their professionalism, results, and the overall ease of working with them are impressive.

That’s hard to say because we’ve been working with them during a pandemic. With how the last 18 months have gone, I don’t think there’s anything they could’ve improved on given the circumstances.

Sign them on immediately. I’ve worked with a couple of agencies in my career, and 5W Public Relations is, by far, the best one I’ve had the pleasure of working with.