SOUTHFIELD ? They say the first signs of economic recovery are when businesses begin to spend money again on public relations and advertising. Then the announcement that Airfoil Public Relations has hired nine new employees and plans to hire more could be further proof the prolonged recession in Michigan is indeed waning.

Airfoil co-founder and CEO Lisa Vallee-Smith said 2009 and 2010 were sluggish years for Airfoil. But the company weathered the downturn, laying off only one employee.

?2011 is starting off to be a very strong year for Airfoil,? said Vallee-Smith. ?Our first quarter was way ahead of our business plan. Out second quarter is looking to be very strong as well. We are mirroring the slow economic recovery in the country and remain on pace with our PR agency counterparts. Our current accounts remain very loyal to us; we are increasingly winning new business.?

Vallee-Smith said she hopes Airfoil will end 2011 well north of $7 million in fee billings, an 11 percent growth rate over 2010. Now, with the economy rebounding, Airfoil is looking to add more employees.

Airfoil provides public relations and marketing services for business-to-business software technology providers, she said. Plus Airfoil works with enterprise software, virtualization, cloud computing, business intelligence, customer relationship management and more.

Functional categories include:

Consumer Technology PR

Enterprise Technology PR

Cleantech PR

Automotive/Industrial PR

Health Care Technology PR

The Microsoft account also remains a large piece of the Airfoil portfolio.

?We worked with Microsoft before we started Airfoil,? Vallee-Smith said. ?We still represent eBay. We?re the agency of record for two eBay lines of business: eBay Motors and eBay Classifieds. We?ve been working with eBay since 2003.?

Airfoil spread its wings about a half dozen years ago and opened a Silicon Valley, California, office. The agency now represents Nvidia, a specialist in computer graphics, competing with the likes of Qualcomm and Intel Corp.

?Our work with them is growing,? she said. “Nvidia is an interesting client for us. We?re also working with MobiTV. Bring real-time live streaming TV to mobile applications. We?ve worked with them for several years. All of our clients are moving towards mobile platforms.?

Now Airfoil is considering adding an office in the U.S. East Coast. She said the final location needs to make sense to Airfoil?s current clients and be synergistic for its marketing strategy. Airfoil also is looking to jump start or accelerate social and digital media offerings.

?And increasingly our clients, and new business prospects, want to know we can scale with them globally,? she said. ?We?ll have a presence in Europe or maybe Asia in the next several years. It’s probably better to partner with global PR were appropriate.”

Additional information regarding open positions in Airfoil?s Michigan and California offices is available at the following website AirfoilPR.Com

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