SOUTHFIELD – Airfoil Public Relations, which began its business life in 2000 as a five-person tech-focused PR firm, has since grown its staff eight-fold, built a portfolio of a dozen clients, and cracked the $6 million annual fees barrier. In April, Airfoil will pass another milestone when it opens an office in California to take on the big PR firms working Silicon Valley.
The former Detroit, now Southfield-based PR agency will use the office in San Carlos, California, to primarily service its eBay and PayPal accounts. Airfoil co founder Janet Tyler, who cut her PR teeth at Franco Public Relations in Detroit, will lead the new West Coast practice. Tyler is President of Airfoil.
?I?ve been going to California twice a month for eBay and PayPal meetings,? Tyler said. ?So we decided to open an office there. Economically, the region and market potential is so much greater than Michigan. Most of our clients are outside of Michigan.?
Such as launch client, Microsoft?s Great Lakes District, which Airfoil used to open the doors in August 2000 in a cramped office in the Penobscot Building. Airfoil Chief Executive Officer Lisa Vallee-Smith, a principal at Franco, took Microsoft and Franco?s other technology clients with her when she started Airfoil, so named for the shape of an airplane?s wing ? also the metaphor for Airfoil?s mantra, helping clients soar. Airfoil now handles Microsoft?s national PR.
Similar rapid expansion has occurred in its work for eBay; and today Airfoil carries out national and city-by-city public relations for several eBay categories, projects and companies, including eBay Motors, PayPal and ProStores.
Other top five clients include Starbucks, the high priced Seattle-based coffee franchiser that has taken the country by storm, and Faurecia, a French auto components manufacturer that?s looking to make a big splash in the United States, with the help of Airfoil.
Six years ago, Airfoil developed two primary practice areas, business to consumer, now headed by original five-employee Tracey Parry; and business to business, led by Eric Kushner, another founding employee. Both are now vice presidents.
Subsequently Airfoil built a research department, developed by Director of Research Christopher Yoon, to provide clients with intelligence on their competitive positioning and communications effectiveness. In 2005, a third practice area was created for automotive/manufacturing technology, directed by Vice President Kim Welch. The agency also added an editorial services department, headed by Director of Editorial Services Steve Friedman, to offer specialized writing for top-level executives, media and marketing materials, and executive training.
All this growth meant Airfoil last year had to move from its cramped, 6,500 square foot downtown Detroit headquarters near the Compuware Building to a more spacious 13,000 square foot office in the posh Southfield Town Center. Airfoil?s new office is only 13 floors away from the headquarters for Microsoft?s Great Lakes District.
Tyler said Airfoil?s future is so bright the staff has to wear shades.
?Our three-year strategic plan through the end of 2008 shows us growing our client revenue alone to $10 million,?? she said. ?We?ve done this by hiring the best associates who work very hard for our clients.?
Some of that new growth will come from yet another emerging technology market Airfoil has targeted, Health Care. Case in point, CareTech, a six year old IT and health information management services provider in Troy. CareTech has 750-plus employees and supports 19 hospitals in Michigan, and another 16 as far West as Colorado. The company outsourced its PR to Airfoil, said Jody Meehan, Director of Marketing and Communications.
?Everything they?ve done for us has been really good,?? Meehan said. ?They laid a foundation for us over time with the right audiences, getting with people they have relationships with. So we gained momentum with the media.
?A couple years ago, as a young company, we generated very little press. But the media exposure Airfoil has helped us generate brings increased awareness of what we do. Now we have press people contacting us wanting to learn more about us and the successes we?ve had.?
Such focus on client service is what has been driving Airfoil?s growth, said Paul Holmes, editor of the Holmes Report, a comprehensive source of news on the public relations industry.
Holmes said what Tyler and Vallee-Smith have done with Airfoil has been impressive, resulting in, ?The best PR technology firm in the middle of the country.
?What?s really remarkable is they started the firm at the wrong time and in the wrong place,?? he said. ?If you were going to start a technology PR firm, there are several cities you?d think of as lucrative markets, but Detroit certainly isn?t one of them. They identified a niche that a lot of people were not convinced existed. Then they carved it out.?
Can they duplicate their Michigan success on the West Coast?
?All PR firms have a mixed record in expanding into new markets,?? Holmes said. ?Mid-sized firms, where I?d rank Airfoil, find it particularly difficult to duplicate their culture when they open new offices.?
Airfoil?s size also works against it with big corporations looking to launch big national PR campaigns, Holmes said.
?If you were looking for regional help, they would be at the top of your list,?? he said. ?But if you want a firm to execute a national campaign, you would want to look to firms in the major metropolitan centers like Los Angeles and New York.?
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