2019 BCA PROFILES: Media Placement of the Year, Issa PR

We’re having a collective digital “cheers” to the 2019 Bespoke Communications Awards winners over the next few weeks. Meet Issa PR, our winners for the Media Placements of the Year Award. Issa PR is a luxury and lifestyle brand marketing agency headquartered in New York City with offices in London, and team members in Los Angeles and Europe. Our judges were wildly impressed by the coverage Issa garnered for the “I am Queen Mary”  campaign, which landed placements in NYT, The Washington Post and Refinery 29 just to name a few!

How does it feel to win the Media Placement Award? How is your team going to celebrate?

We are thrilled to win the Media Placement(s) of the Year award for the “I am Queen Mary” launch. It was a groundbreaking campaign that sparked international dialogue around the world and made history. We were proud to work on the campaign, and are honored to represent artists, Jeannette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle. We will celebrate with Kir Royals!

What is your team most excited about right now?

We are working on a cadre of exciting global and multi-market campaigns for new clients, as well as our new sister agency – Subculture, a new culturally defining marketing agency that will focus on the intersection of art, culture, music and fashion. Some new campaigns include: a mental health documentary with Dwayne Johnson and numerous top athletes and Olympic gold medallists, a secret luxury launch coming soon for a new brand, company and industry, and a Swedish pharma company who has developed a treatment for cancer using a molecule from breast milk.

We are master storytellers and hope to create as many new angles for clients, as possible. We also think outside the box with our strategy, tactics and overall programming. Leveraging new trends and insights can also work well for pitches.

What advice can you give our PR readers about landing client spotlights and media placements?

Always highlight the passion, strategy and creativity behind each placement. Metrics and ROI (return on investment) is also important and valued.

How do you make sure your pitches are fresh and relevant?

We are master storytellers and hope to create as many new angles for clients, as possible. We also think outside the box with our strategy, tactics and overall programming. Leveraging new trends and insights can also work well for pitches.

If we looked inside your purse/work bag right now, what PR survival must-haves would we find?

Oh, gosh! I carry so many things with me at all times because I travel pretty often.

I just came back from a conference and my work bag had everything under the sun (although it’s fairly lighter than usual): laptop, my personal and work phones, iPad, wallet, phone charger, business cards, headphones, hand cream, lip balm, sunscreen, cough drops, notepad, pens, and the latest issue of PRSA’s Strategies and Tactics.

What we can expect from PR agencies in the future?

More creative non-traditional PR to break boundaries and engage consumers from guerrilla marketing, strategic partnerships, word-of-mouth, digital and social etc. And evolving the business to blur boundaries between advertising, marketing and PR.

What’s new at Issa?

As well as working on groundbreaking campaigns, we just launched our sister agency Subculture – a culturally defining brand marketing agency that will focus on the intersection of art, culture, music, fashion and sports.

Congrats to the Issa PR team!