Welcome to "Office Hours!"
Hello to followers old and new!
We’re Jenny and Melissa, partners of boutique media relations agency Jennifer Bett Communications. We started JBC in 2014, decades deep into PR careers that, frankly, felt like they were missing something. JBC became our answer to a more thoughtful approach to public relations that, eight years later, we’ve scaled into a full-scale agency that services uniquely competitive brands addressing the evolving consumer market in sectors from beauty to home.
Though we can’t pin down our specialized take on media relations to any one formula, we can tell you what goes on behind the scenes. Our creative, multidimensional approach to consumer and brand awareness has been proven time and again to generate results and lasting success.
All of that is to say: We love what we do, and we love the partners we get to do it with, too. But PR is still exclusionary, and we know that it’s not always appropriate, yet alone accessible for every brand, especially those just getting off the ground. This is why we launched our original Office Hours program, during which we open our doors—both physically and virtually—to founders and small-business owners to encourage them to pick our brains on everything that may fall under the JBC umbrella, free of charge.
In an effort to even further support the next generation of entrepreneurs, we’re bringing “Office Hours” right here, to Substack. In this monthly newsletter, we’ll highlight our PR best practices by showcasing our recent work in the press, and telling you what we did to make it happen.
Thanks so much for being here. We’re grateful for the opportunity to tell even more stories. If you’d like to learn more, or have any questions we can help answer in our next installment, feel free to reach out at officehours@jbc-pr.com.
‘Til next month!
Jenny & Melissa
Windmill x TechCrunch
Windmill wants to drag window AC units, kicking and screaming in 2022
By Haje Jan Kamps (@Haje)
As Windmill was nearing its most important spring/summer season yet, the smart AC startup wanted to bring attention to its recent fundraise in an outlet that would properly highlight its key differentiators and draw attention from meaningful investors and industry retailers. TechCrunch provided us with the opportunity to do just that, resulting in coverage that hit all of the important key messages and thoughtfully showed how the brand was innovating through design in an antiquated industry.
Female Founders Fund x Fortune
Female-founded unicorns quadrupled last year—but made up just 15% of billion-dollar companies
By Emma Hinchliffe (@_emmahinchliffe)
In this exclusive, Fortune featured a new report by Female Founders Fund that demonstrated that the number of female-founded unicorns quadrupled in 2021—with 83 new women-led and -founded unicorns worldwide, more than four times the 18 such companies in 2020. Fortune told a great story that reflects Founding Partner Anu Duggal’s thesis: Investing in women will generate great returns, and the need to invest in female-founded businesses will only continue in the future.
Primary x Fast Company
We made a 4-day workweek standard in 2020. Here’s why we’re sticking with it.
By Galyn Bernard and Christina Carbonell (@primarydotcom)
Primary co-founders Galyn Bernard and Christina Carbonell implemented a four-day work week in May 2020, just as the pandemic was settling in. They knew their team was burning out and feeling the stress, and the extra day off provided the team with time to get things done at home, spend more time with their families and relax. We secured this op-ed in which Galyn and Christina outline how the four-day work week helped everyone work more productively, resulting in significant growth for the brand.
The Folklore x Inc.
Starting with 30 designers and 15 retail partners, this 26-year-old founder wants to build the LVMH of Africa
By Rebecca Deczynski (@rebecca_decz)
At 26 years old, Amira Rasool was able to secure $1.7 million in pre-seed funding for The Folklore, making history as one of the youngest Black women to raise more than $1 million in venture funding for a fashion and lifestyle company. Our team worked with Inc. to highlight this milestone, which succeeded in showcasing Amira’s mission to create more equitable and sustainable opportunities for African and diasporic designers to connect with retailers and consumers on a global scale.
Stoggles x The New York Times
You’re still being tracked on the internet, just in a different way
By Brian X. Chen (@bxchen) and Daisuke Wakabayashi (@daiwaka)
Tracking and privacy changes at Google and Apple have impacted digital advertising for all sorts of small businesses, including Stoggles. After Apple adjusted its privacy settings last year, eyewear company Stoggles trimmed its spending on Facebook and Instagram ads to 60% of its budget. The company instead bought more Google search ads, Amazon ads to reach shoppers and ads on TikTok to appeal to younger consumers. We love how this piece highlights how smart and nimble small businesses must be with their spend on advertising, and how the cost per customer has drastically shifted.
If you’re a brand exploring the idea of working with a PR agency, our guide to the 6 questions to ask when you’re looking for a new PR agency is a great place to start.
And if you’re trying to break into the industry yourself, check out our team’s best advice for getting started in PR.