PR Case Studies

Public Relations Case Studies

MakerKids

Company: MakerKids, an edtech company

Role: CEO, Strategy, Marketing and PR

Actions: Developed strategy, brand, and messaging; developed press release, journalist pitch and leads, reached out to leads, arranged interviews

Results: Press in Forbes, Fox, Popular Science, Wired and more.

Ardulab & Atmel

Company: Atmel (makers of the microcontroller used by Arduino) and Ardulab (a startup that allows anyone to send an experiment to space for under $5K).

Role: PR and Marketing Consultant

Actions: Developed key messaging, wrote press release, developed journalist pitch and leads, reached out to leads, provided media training to founders, arranged interviews, ensured articles were published.

Results: Landed Ardulab’s first major press - in Fast Company, Make magazine, Huffington Post, Mashable and more.

Matter & Form

Company: Matter and Form, the world’s first affordable home desktop 3D scanner

Role: PR & Marketing Consultant for Matterform 3D scanner Indiegogo campaign (raised over $471,000)

Actions: Came on board at the end of week 1 (at $140,000 raised) and helped raise campaign to $471,000 in 3 weeks. Re-wrote press release, contacted journalists, executed social media strategies, provided interview prep, helped develop press stories, incorporated company, sought legal counsel and recommended new re-branding, created new reward levels, did financials, recommended two price increases and developed messaging for them, wrote text for campaign updates, created successful referral contest, negotiated significant discounts with suppliers, helped hire developer full-time, found grant proposal writer, secured and organized placement in major conference (OCE Discovery Showcase, with visit from Ontario Premier), etc.

Results: During 3 weeks of involvement, campaign went from $140,000 to $471,000 (5.8X the original goal of $81K); $471,000 was the highest Indiegogo raise ever outside the US at the time. Garnered press in major media outlets such as Fast Company, MAKE Magazine,Venturebeat, GeekDad, Wired Italy, CBC’s the Drive Home with Mary Ito, many international outlets, and more.

OroEco

Company: Oroeco, the world’s first automatic purchase impact tracking tool. Created by a group of Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley and MIT professors

Role: PR & Marketing Consultant for Indiegogo campaign ($15K fundraising goal)

Actions: Re-wrote press release, contacted journalists, executed social media strategies, helped develop press stories, etc.

Results: Exceeded $15K fundraising goal. Garnered press in major media outlets such as Venturebeat, Huffington Post, Forbes,Discovery News, Reuters, many international outlets, and more. 

NeedMapper

Venture: NeedMapper, a SMS disaster recovery tool created for Hurricane Sandy. The service allows those without power or internet to text a specific phone number with what they need and where they are. An online map is automatically populated with requests for help so that volunteers can see where people need help, what they need, and whether the request is still active (people who post requests are able to remove them once fulfilled via text message as well).

Role: Creator

Actions: Did market research, came up with idea, recruited a team, managed development and design, secured sponsorship from Twilio, did customer development, identified and reached out to relevant aid organizations to establish partnerships, managed partnerships, managed Twitter account, and did press outreach. Worked with aid organizations to begin development and implementation of a Spanish version of Needmapper for countries such as Guatemala.

Results: Featured in many major press outlets, including The New York Times, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Forbes, CBS National Television, Venturebeat (here and here), Metro News, Yahoo News, Good.is, CHCH, and many international outlets.