Last November marked Fineman PR’s 25th anniversary as a San Francisco public relations agency. Our team has much in which to take pride.
Fineman PR has been recognized for many years as one of the top boutique communications firms in the nation, especially for our Brand PR approach to building trust for the organizations and products we represent and for clearly conveying their differentiating brand promises; for assisting clients survive and thrive through times of challenge and crisis; for our nimble responses to the dynamic, evolving and, sometimes, tumultuous marketplace in which we do business; for our substantive, indefatigable insistence on culturally relevant approaches to the multicultural communities that influence our current business environment (www.mosaicopublicrelations.com); and for remaining fresh in our outreach to both millennials and maturing audiences with social media strategy and tactics. After 25 years of successfully enduring and flourishing in the ups and downs of volatile economic cycles and the warp speed changes in communications, I am giving my agency a well deserved pat on the back.
This past year saw the agency succeed in terms of high profile client programs, the acquisition of new clients, and the stability and development of the Fineman PR agency team.
In 2013, we launched one of the largest initiatives in the agency’s history with the American Humane Association’s certification of our longtime client Foster Farms. The story was a front cover feature in the San Francisco Chronicle, and the campaign was profiled in PR Week. We also helped our client navigate challenges that would eventually lead the company to become an archetype for change in national food safety practices — a demonstration of the company’s fortitude, good faith and market leadership.
New clients pursued and won in 2013 include HNTB, one of the nation’s leading architecture/engineering firms; American Humane Association, the country’s oldest national humane organization; Dale Scott & Co., California’s leading K-14 financial advisory firm; Shelter Co., a pop-up luxury camping and event production company; and leading and highly respected wineries like Quintessa and Truchard. Our crisis practice is thriving in part by the goodwill and referrals of a number of law firms and insurance companies who continue to work with us in serving higher education, K-12 independent and private schools, and outdoor wilderness programs. This year we also helped several food, beverage, healthcare and hospital clients navigate crises and urgent issues.
A series of staff promotions in 2013 included the naming of 11-year agency veteran Lorna Bush to senior vice president; Travis Taylor to vice president; eight-year agency team member Karmina Zafiro to senior director of analytics and social media; Katie Young’s appointment as group supervisor; our talented, visual graphics master, Serene Buckley, to director of content strategy; and Dionicio Hernandez’ promotion to senior account executive. Vice President Heidi White has been a force in the agency for 16 years. Toby Baird, with the agency for four years, is now our full time wine practice director, and six-year agency veteran Juan Lezama continues as director of our multicultural division, Mosaico.
Also in 2013, we developed an innovative modeling tool to predict the news lifespan of crises in the food industry, introduced an executive media training product, created a new Facebook page and refreshed our website design.
As 2014 settles in, the agency is ramping up client programs for the year ahead across multiple client business categories. On a special note, we will be moving our offices from the city’s SoMa neighborhood to 150 Post, a quintessential San Francisco, Union Square address, near Kearny and bordering the Financial District. It is a beautiful office and gives us room for anticipated growth. We are ecstatic.