Plesser Holland Associates Backgrounder

Walk into the Manhattan or Washington, D.C. offices of Plesser Holland Associates, and you’ll see a tight team of PR professionals sharing the work of serving a client.

“On all accounts, we help each other,” says President Andy Plesser. “While one person has direct client responsibility, we’ll all help out with strategy, media outreach and writing. It’s a collective, collaborative approach to account management.”

This approach also applies to Plesser Holland’s media relations efforts – something the firm is well known for. Everyone on the team will dive right in when a client needs placement in the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, or any of the major cable news networks.

“The press knows us and trusts us, so the entire pitching process can take only minutes,” Plesser says. “These relationships enable us to be incredibly efficient and to deliver great results for our clients. That’s our secret sauce.”

With a growing stable of education, financial services, technology, and media clients, Plesser Holland has built a solid reputation for winning coverage in the highest-profile media outlets in the country. Media relations is Plesser’s specialty – “We do it better than anyone else,” says Partner Kent Holland – and the results bear this out.

Since founding the firm in 1992, Andy Plesser and his team have focused on delivering media coverage that has a tangible impact on a company’s business. (As far as Plesser is concerned, if media coverage doesn’t make a difference to a business, there’s no point in getting it).

Everyone at Plesser Holland Associates has a resume thick with media and publicity experience, particularly in book publishing. As Andy Plesser likes to point out, book publicists have the biggest media Rolodexes in the business, and they’re very strong generalists. Kent Holland and Jason Chupick, Vice President of Media Services are veterans of New York’s top publishing houses.

Plesser Holland’s fast and smart team of media experts can also take advantage of the firm’s tight relationships with the broadcast media. Owing to the firm’s list of respected clients, including CNET Networks, The Embassy of Finland, ING DIRECT, MIT’s Technology Review, Dartmouth College and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Plesser Holland Associates fields a steady stream of calls from TV news bookers and other journalists looking to interview experts on everything from the Martha Stewart trials to computer viruses.

“Since we represent media properties, we’re constantly pitching print to television,” explains Kent Holland. “We’re able to supply TV media with great guests in a matter of minutes.”

Plesser Holland Associates by no means limits its client offerings to media relations. The firm also offers analyst relations, speaking, editorial, event planning and competitive analysis programs.

The firm gives its clients other ways to communicate with their target audiences. Its unique “insider” advantage with the media has enabled them to go beyond the service offerings of traditional public relations firms by creating exclusive networking events that bring powerful business leaders together with top journalists.

The events range from intimate roundtable discussions, to gatherings of over 300 attendees. Recently Plesser Holland launched MIT’s new magazine, Technology Review, with a dinner event at an exclusive New York restaurant. The event was covered in by the New York Times and attracted reporters from media such as the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Fortune, International Herald Tribune, National Public Radio, and The NBC Today Show.

“Our clients find the networking events of real value, because they enable them to establish lasting one-on-one relationships with new business prospects and with key media,” says Andy Plesser.

All of these services are provided with an eye toward giving the client the best bang for their marketing dollars. “We charge on a retainer basis,” Plesser explains. “Having a reasonable cost structure helps our clients forecast what they’ll be spending.” And because the Plesser Holland team achieves more results in less time, clients know that their PR budgets are well spent.

For the latest media coverage on Plesser Holland’s clients and news about the firm, please visit Plesser Holland Associates on the web at www.plesserholland.com.

# # #