Orca Communications is 20 Years Strong

March 9, 2022 | lora reuther

By: Cynthia Guiang

This year Orca is celebrating 20 years in business. From our foundation there are three things that have remained true to our core: 1) we are passionate about helping inventors and entrepreneurs spread the word about their innovative products and services; 2) we understand in order to serve this market we have to find a way to do this affordably and deliver real value and 3) we remain nimble and flexible to adjust to the needs of our clients and the changing marketplace. We believe our ability to stay committed to these ideals is why we stand strong since our inception in 2002.

The public relations industry has been through many changes over the past two decades …the state of media is very different than it was when we started. And we are still dealing with challenges that this evolution of the media has brought upon us including the huge impact of social media. Rather than fight it, we have embraced it.  We’ve adapted our approach to the changing landscape by infusing social media, influencer engagement and affiliate marketing support into our service offerings.

With all of these new ways of reaching target audiences, an investment in public relations is still unmatched in delivering long-term value and building your brand. The third-party, unpaid endorsement of your product or sharing of your brand story via earned media remains the best way to establish trust and grow your brand.

Think about your own behavior as a consumer. A Facebook ad or influencer you follow might pique your interest in a product, but what do you do next? Before you buy, you Google it to see if it’s legit. Has anyone reviewed the product and substantiated its claims? Has anyone complained about it or had a bad experience with the company? Those reviews and those articles on your company help build trust in the brand and reinforce the marketing message you may also be sending out via ads and influencer partnerships. PR coverage is the proofpoint…it allows you to be able to say “Don’t take my word for it…”

And here’s the best part…you pay for a PR campaign and those features that are secured live on in perpetuity. You don’t pay to keep them out there, they are now part of the published history. A year from now a key review may still be reinforcing someone’s buy decision or even land in front of someone who is researching the perfect (insert your product here). While your ad campaign ran and hopefully sold some product, it’s done. It stopped working for you and you’ll have to reinvest to get it to work again. You could say, PR is royalty-free! What I will say is, regardless of the changes in the communications industry, PR is here to stay.

I wish I could predict what the next 20 years will bring. What I know is that Orca has survived and even thrived because we don’t do things the traditional way. We innovate and we’re scrappy. We’ve survived the rapid changing media environment…and even a pandemic. I feel pretty confident we can handle anything that comes our way.

In honor of our anniversary, we want to share some ideas and tips for marketing your business. We plan to share 20 informational blogs over the course of 2022, our 20-year anniversary year. This was #1…stay tuned for more…