Reflecting on 2015: A bold year for Offleash

I’ve been thinking back over the past year. Reflecting on our collective growth and accomplishments as an agency, and leveraging the great work we’ve done to inspire and challenge our team to push further ahead in the year ahead.

Thanks to our people, Offleash remains a unique organization. Our employees are multi-talented and diverse, and we bring a wide array of unique life experiences, perspectives and passions to the work that we do. This is part of what makes the Offleash family so different.

The year 2015 saw several exciting changes for us, including a refresh of our core values. We are a continually evolving, dynamic agency inspired by our disruptive clients and our Silicon Valley neighbors alike. Our values are simple, but powerful: Integrity first. Be bold. All in.

With these values as our compass, 2015 was truly a year of shake-ups and reinvention. From our group of accomplishments, here are the top five I am most proud of:

We grew from a small, boutique agency to a mid-sized firm
The year saw us grow out of our long-held identity as a small, boutique PR agency into a mid-sized firm. Given our expansion into a 25-employee company, the timing felt right. What hasn’t changed is the boutique experience, intimacy and feel that we continue to provide clients.

We advanced our content marketing practice
Spearheaded by Steve Eisenstadt – a veteran PR pro who spent 15 years as a journalist before working for IBM as a writer, our content marketing practice grew leaps and bounds this year. The practice solidifies the content marketing services we provide that marry smart content lifecycle strategies with spot on editorial direction. We’re experiencing amazing success for our clients with the creation of fresh content from bylined articles, e-books and whitepapers to visual content such as infographics, cartoons and videos. We’ve become an integral part of marketing incorporating content marketing with PR.

We added a dedicated research practice
Offleash’s research practice is managed by Thea Roberti, who holds over 15 years of research experience. Our practice provides traditional PR and marketing research services, including media analysis and competitive, customized measurement. Clients are armed with research they can share with their C-suite and boards to demonstrate ROI, as well as shape overall media and branding strategy. We are excited about this new offering, which enables us to leverage quantitative findings to identify and meet the key business goals that matter most to our clients.

We won three impressive industry awards (two Fortune wins and SF Biz Times)
In 2015, we were named one of “50 Best Workplaces for Camaraderie” and ranked #17 of the “Top 100 Best Workplaces for Women” by Fortune Magazine. We are beyond proud to be included on a list of companies across the country including Yelp, The Boston Consulting Group and Radio Flyer. Additionally, we were named as a “Best Place to Work 2015” in the ‘smallest companies’ category by the San Francisco Business Times. These and our other accolades are a tribute to the investment we have made in our employees and our company.

We met our 1/1/1 giving goals
And finally, Offleash met our goal to embody the 1/1/1 philanthropic model developed by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. Currently adopted by over 100 organizations including Google, the 1/1/1 model leverages one percent of profits and one percent employee hours to charitable causes. We gave back to a range of organizations in 2015, including Second Harvest Food Bank to help those in need within our local community, and Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), an organization is assisting refugees affected by the crisis in Syria and beyond.

Tying it all together
I am proud of what we have achieved in the past year. The world of PR is never stagnant – it continues to evolve and change in ways that we can’t often expect. I look forward to the challenges 2016 will certainly bring, and am invigorated by the potential the future always brings.