LaunchSquad Named Agency of the Year Finalist
We closed out a fantastic 2008 with a very nice commendation from the PR industry’s main trade publication, PR Week. We have been named a finalist for PR Agency of the Year award in the boutique agency category. Winners will be announced at the PRWeek Awards dinner in New York City on March 5. Wish us luck!
Separately, we were also recently named to the annual Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in the America, a first for LaunchSquad. We came in at number #1368 and #55 in the San Francisco region.
Chocolate and Beer at LaunchSquad
December was a pretty big LaunchSquad bonding month; here’s a slightly belated addition to our roster of fabulous holiday events: the LaunchSquad Chocobeer Party. And what is a chocobeer? It is, quite simply, a potentially (but not necessarily) delicious pairing of chocolate and beer. After leading all sorts of chocolate parties for various clients over the past few years, I was honored and thrilled to be able to put together a tasting for my very own company for the very first time.
Our pairing menu consisted of six artisanal chocolates meticulously paired with six craft beers. Responses to the various beer and chocolate couplets varied greatly; the very same pairing could elicit utter bliss from some and unmasked distaste from others. During the many chocolate tastings I’ve organized, I’ve learned that creating a curious, stimulating group experience is key – much more important and interesting than pleasing each person’s individual tastebuds at every turn. And it was quite the lively afternoon!
Here is our full menu:
Valrhona Jivara Lait 40% + Chimay
Michel Cluizel Mangaro Milk 50% + Anchor Steam Holiday Brew
Recchuiti Dark Milk 55% + Aventinus Eisbock
Amano 70% Madagascar + Westmalle Tripel
Domori 70% Venezuela + Ommegang
TCHO 70% Ghana + Lindemans Raspberry Lambic
This holiday festival of chocolate and beer was also just the right occasion to inspire me to make my long-awaited comeback post to my personal chocolate blog The Tasty Show. Check out the post to read a little more about our pairing menu, as well as a few of the comments gleaned from tasting notes Squadders jotted down as they sipped and savored.
Digital Marketing for Good
We’re excited about something really good that’s been brewing this month at LaunchSquad. Along with other leading Bay Area public relations agencies, we’re helping to organize the conference, “Thriving and Surviving in Uncertain Times: Practical Digital Marketing Techniques for Nonprofits”. The conference is part of a series of national workshops being thrown for the ten-year anniversary of The Council of PR Firms.
Digital marketing is an effective and inexpensive way spread a message and raise funds, but all too often nonprofits don’t know that they have the resources to carry out these important campaigns. We’ve helped compile a panel of Web 2.0 experts to address the ways nonprofits can bolster their reputation and influence through social media and online engagement.
The half-day event will take place the morning of February 26th at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. Registration is limited to 100 people, so help us spread the word to your non-profit contacts today.
Register here to attend “Thriving and Surviving in Uncertain Times: Practical Web 2.0 Marketing Techniques for Nonprofits”
InsideView Gets New Round to Fuel Sales 2.0 Growth
It’s official: LaunchSquad client, InsideView, had a great 2008.
Today, the company announced the closing of a $6.5 million round of funding led by current investors Emergence Capital and Rembrandt Venture Partners. This announcement caps a very strong year for the company, which included record sales and revenue growth as well as key CRM partnerships with Microsoft, Landslide and Oracle, along with Salesforce.com and SugarCRM. The New York Times featured InsideView today, writing about their funding announcement and the importance of technology that can make sales teams more efficient.
InsideView’s flagship sales intelligence application, SalesView, was launched in March and has quickly positioned the company as one of the true leaders in the emerging Sales 2.0 industry. We are thrilled for InsideView and excited to see more great news from them in 2009.
Evernote Rocks the Crunchies
Our client Evernote is off to a blazing start in 2009.
Last week, the company announced the closing of a $4.5 million round of funding from Troika Dialog. The great news was followed on Friday with a win at the second annual Crunchies Awards for Best Mobile Startup — all this on the heels of eclipsing the 500,000 user mark a couple of months ago.
Co-hosted by TechCrunch, GigaOm, VentureBeat and Silicon Alley Insider and presented at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, the Crunchies recognize “the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year.” Other notable winners this year included Google Reader, GoodGuide, the iPhone 3G, FriendFeed, Twitter and Facebook.
After an incredible year which included the re-launch in February of Evernote’s flagship cross-platform note-taking application and the release of Evernote for iPhone in July, we couldn’t be more proud of Evernote’s win and are looking forward to a fantastic 2009.
Big congrats from the LaunchSquad team!
Evernote and LaunchSquad teams celebrate the Crunchies win
(January 9, 2009)
LaunchSquad Featured in PR Week’s Critical Hit
A couple of months ago, we posted about a campaign we coordinated with client Networked Insights around their first “Measuring the Social” report. PR Week’s David Ward took a closer look this week at the program, focusing on one of the great stories the team generated out of that campaign by James Erik Abels of Forbes.com. Ward talked to LaunchSquad’s Jeremy Frank, who spearheaded the project: “The piece led to new business leads from several large media companies,” he said. “It also generated plenty of good word of mouth about Networked Insights and its tools for measuring social media.”