public relations agency industry communications founded 1987 headquarters global key people lou hoffman founder and ceo 1 stephen burkhart general manager of north america 2 cassandra cheong 3 managing director of asia pacific 1 mike sottak 4 managing director of europe products public relations number of employees 130 2008 website http www.hoffman.com the hoffman agency is a global public relations firm . it employs more than 130 people across nine offices in europe asia pacific and the united states . the company s customers range from google to axis communications to the city of fremont . 5 the company offers specialty services including media training 6 storytelling workshops 7 8 corporate blogging workshops business press web 2.0 social media 9 and broadcast media . 10 11 contents 1 history 2 notable campaigns 3 recent campaigns 4 storytelling in communications 5 further reading 6 external links 7 references history edit the hoffman agency was founded in december 1987 with meridian data a company specializing in cd rom publishing systems . in 1988 the company successfully publicized hp s new concept of a cd rom and later won the business of hp services . 12 hp s name brought credibility to the small operation which helped the agency increase its client base across the technology industry . 13 in 1993 the firm won the silver anvil award for its work launching hp s miniature disk drive kitty hawk . 14 in 1994 the hoffman agency initiated its first global campaign in launching hyundai s now known as hynix mpeg 2 chip in europe and asia pacific . 15 global expansion followed the work for hyundai with the firm opening offices throughout asia including beijing hong kong shanghai seoul singapore and tokyo between 1996 and 2000 . the opening of the company s beijing office in 2000 marked a milestone for the hoffman agency as it became the first silicon valley technology pr firm to enter mainland china . 16 17 18 the hoffman agency expanded to europe in 2001 with the opening of an office in london . 19 the company has received more than 100 industry awards including the crystal award of excellence communicator awards and the platinum award marcom creative awards . 14 in 2007 the agency won the bronze anvil award for a b roll project called delivering explosive results for the latest anti terror technology for sony and a thought leadership campaign called from blogs to businessweek for thinkfree . in july 2012 the company ranked the fifth place in sociagility s top global pr agencies in social media . 20 in october 2012 the company partnered with twitter to present their service in korea . 21 in the same month the hoffman agency added a government client city of fremont . 5 as of january 2013 50 percent of the firm s revenue comes from asia according to new york times and cnn . 22 23 in july 2013 the company s singapore office was recognized with silver awards for excellence in hr social media and excellence in employee engagement by the hr excellence 2013 awards . 24 notable campaigns edit fenwick & west the hoffman agency won a 2008 gold bulldog award 14 for its work with silicon valley based law firm fenwick & west . the hoffman agency extended the firm s reach to the business press ultimately building equity in the brand through high profile pieces in associated press 25 businessweek 26 forbes 27 and the wall street journal . 28 the hoffman agency also landed a speaking opportunity for a fenwick & west attorney at the silicon valley churchill club . 29 hp hpservernews when hp launched a new type of computer blade server in 2002 it was clear that a detailed web site would have to be an integral part of the campaign . the hoffman agency helped hp run an educational web campaign via hpservernews.com . following the campaign the site drew more than 28 000 unique visitors and more than 34 000 total visits during the four week campaign and resulted in more than 33 000 content downloads and 72 000 downloads of multimedia items . 30 plantronics hands free campaign the hoffman agency won the prsa bronze anvil award of commendation in 2009 for its work with plantronics on a campaign called driving thought leadership surrounding hands free laws . the campaign educated more than 27 million drivers in california and washington about legislation that banned drivers from talking on cell phones behind the wheel after research showed that more than 70 % of drivers in these states were unaware of the stipulations of the new laws . 31 zediva online movie start up zediva.com aimed to differentiate itself from competitors such as netflix by streaming popular movies the day they came out on dvd for an extremely low price . 32 the hoffman agency s launch of the company included counseling a redesign of its website and allowing journalists to preview the service ahead of the launch . 33 the media coverage that resulted from the launch caused a flood of consumer traffic to zediva s website causing the site to be overwhelmed and taken offline for maintenance . 34 joyent cloud computing start up joyent wanted to win mindshare in a cloud market dominated by amazon ec2 . the hoffman agency highlighted joyent s strength of innovation and penchant for controversy by directly challenging amazon . the resulting coverage in gigaom 35 pcworld 36 and the register 37 underpinned joyent as a credible contender in the cloud arena . the hoffman agency also supported joyent in asia pacific with one example being the announcement of international expansion in malaysia . 38 recent campaigns edit alcatel lucent bell labs is the research and development subsidiary of alcatel lucent founded by alexander graham bell in 1925 . 39 the hoffman agency created a campaign around the big bang bash 40 an event honoring the 50th anniversary of the research 41 providing the first tangible evidence of cosmic microwave background cmb radiation proving the big bang . 42 the event was hosted by bell labs whose researchers played an important role in confirming the scientific theory . 43 the campaign resulted in over 220 million online impressions and was covered in publications such as the huffington post 44 npr 45 and scientific american . 46 as a result the hoffman agency won the 2014 holmes report in2 sabre award in the most innovative print and digital media category for this campaign . 47 city of fremont since 2012 the hoffman agency has helped the city of fremont ca advance its economic development efforts and brand image . 48 the hoffman agency won a 2014 in2 sabre award 49 for its work with the city after launching the think silicon valley website 50 as the anchor to its overall communications campaign . 51 the website has helped the city build relationships with local businesses and media and established itself as a hub for advanced manufacturing clean tech and life sciences . 51 in addition the hoffman agency has helped extend the city s reach beyond local press through media coverage in the associated press 52 the washington post 53 bloomberg 54 and cnet . 55 as a result the hoffman agency was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2015 sabre awards north america for its continued work with fremont . 56 endicia since 2013 the hoffman agency has worked to increase brand awareness for endicia a shipping software provider in the silicon valley by securing endicia features in top tier publications such as reuters 57 forbes 58 the san jose mercury news 59 and pcworld . 60 hoffman also instituted a thought leadership program for endicia s executives establishing them as regular contributors to entrepreneur 61 and the ecommerce publication multichannel merchant . 62 in addition the hoffman agency re launched endicia s blog 63 in 2014 providing a new design and fresh content maximized for seo . these efforts were recognized with a 2015 in2 sabre award for seo content distribution 64 and the endicia program pr and blog was named a 2015 sabre finalist by the holmes report . 65 nautilus global fitness products company nautilus inc. aimed to drive sales and bolster the company s brand as a home fitness innovator for the debut of the bowflex max trainer cardio machine . 66 the hoffman agency created a launch campaign which resulted in media coverage from publications including techcrunch 67 la times 68 men s fitness 69 and usa today . 70 as a result the agency submitted the product for recognition and gained two international design awards . 71 72 to add to the bowflex brand momentum hoffman created and launched the bowflex insider blog which was named the best fitness blog by usahomegym 73 and won an award from the holmes report as an innovative home media property . 74 storytelling in communications edit the firm uses storytelling techniques in many types of communications 75 and conducts storytelling workshops for internal communicators executives and employees . 7 8 an agency blog focused on storytelling in business communications was recognized by pr daily 76 and was listed as one of the top 30 most influential blogs by cyberalert . 77 further reading edit ishmael s corner startup lessons learned from warren buffett venturebeat the promise of cloud computing inc. chui sui central communication revolution the pitch hk external links edit the hoffman agency s official site the hoffman agency s facebook page the hoffman agency s slideshare page daily brew the hoffman agency s twitter profile the hoffman agency s linkedin page the hoffman agency s pinterest page references edit a b bloomberg businessweek . the hoffman agency . arun sudhaman holmes report . hoffman hires steve burkhart as north america gm . may 7 2012 . retrieved jan 10 2013 . arun sudhaman the holmes report . hoffman names new asia pacific md after natalie lowe resigns . september 24 2014 . retrieved february 24 2015 . arun sudhaman the holmes report . hoffman eyes european growth after mike sottak hire . december 2 2014 . retrieved february 24 2015 . a b wes bowers mercury news . fremont hires pr firm to lift image for 195 000 . oct 4 2012 . retrieved jan 15 2013 . steve tobak cbs news . press interviews 7 tips for great results . june 10 2011 . retrieved december 19 2011 . a b steve tobak cbs news . how to be a great storyteller and win over any audience . january 12 2011 retrieved december 19 2011 . a b peter lewis words & ideas . the infographic is the new black . september 22 2011 . retrieved december 19 2011 . liau yun qing zdnet . asian biz twitter use still nascent . may 14 2010 . retrieved december 19 2011 . brackman 2008 188 191 steve tobak cbs news . how to shine like a star in a tv interview . june 17 2011 . retrieved december 19 2011 . six ways to open an office overseas . april 1 2007 . andrews 1988 43 a b c hoffman awards page the hoffman agency milestones . aimee grove analysis profile hoffman breaking the boundaries for pr . don t let his near empty appointment book fool you lou hoffman is busy breaking pr boundaries . october 16 2000 . by inc. staff this is how it s done 30 smart business moves . april 1 2009 . innocents abroad . june 1 2006 . advancing pr it takes two to dance . june 16 2009 . niall cook sociagility . which of the big pr agencies are most social . jul 26 2012 . retrieved jan 10 2013 . arun sudhaman holmes report . twitter calls in pr firm to boost korea appeal . oct 5 2012 . retrieved jan 15 2013 . john grossmann