[Who We Are]
We Are PR & Marketing Reinvented.
Complex technology and constrained marketing budgets are the reasons that PRIME|PR sprang into existence. With heavy overhead costs, inefficient billability structures and outdated management practices, traditional firms are often forced to ignore budgets less than $15,000 a month. PRIME | PR was created to do one thing – to serve this market better than anyone else. We simply believe that every company deserves to have their story told. And heard by the right people. Unlike nearly every other PR firm, PRIME | PR does not "bait and switch" you once we are hired. The team you met at your first meeting is the team that will work on your account. Our junior staff is in place for research and support – not for pitching, strategy or anything to do with managing your account. Each team member has at least 18 years of PR and marketing experience.
Nicolia L. Wiles
Founder & Principal
Nicolia Wiles is founder and principal of PRIME|PR and has more than 20 years PR and marketing experience in the telecom, enterprise hardware and software,network management, cybersecurity, CleanTech and semiconductor markets.
Prior to founding PRIME|PR , Nicolia was a senior vice-president at Blanc and Otus and the US Lead of the Ketchum Global Tech Practice. Before moving to PR, he was also a telecom analyst and the founder and chair of Austin’s NxGen Communication Forum.
Sandra Kimball
Principal
In 1999, Sandra committed 45 minutes to a project where she was asked to develop a brand/logo for an e-commerce presentation. But only 45 minutes. Eight months and a lot of travel later, she and the team closed the deal at $100 million. It was all downhill from there. In the 19 years since, Sandra developed a real estate company, grew a startup from local to global operations, and funded cleantech for commercial buildings.
Operating from a curious and forensic perspective, she is able to uncover the story within that resonates with the market. Her unique industry experience, coupled with great coffee, make her an engaging collaborator who can take your brand from conception to acquisition.
Niles Patel
Vice President, Social Media & Event Management
Niles is an accomplished entrepreneur with over 19 years of experience in developing hotels and restaurants from franchising, investment, and construction to operation. Currently, he operates multiple hotels and restaurants through management companies in Austin, Houston and San Antonio, TX.
Due to his love of the nightlife and downtown scene, he has successfully developed and operates multiple bars and nightclubs from conception to operation in Austin, TX and Mumbai, India. Niles is also co-owner of The Venue with Nicolia Wiles.
Mercy Feris
Chief Operations Officer
Mercedes brings over 15 years of operations and event production to the team. She began her career in Miami,FL as the Director of Operations at a Spanish language sports network. She moved to Austin (before it was cool) in 2005 to escape the fast-paced lifestyle of Miami. Upon arriving in Austin she quickly fell in love with what Austin stood for and began working nonprofit. Her nonprofit experience extends from Integral Health, The Austin Area Urban League, Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, American Diabetes Association and Bike Austin. In her prior roles she was charged with operations, budget management, launching new programs and special events from creation to execution while overseeing staff.
Mercedes brings strong fundraising skills to assist in sponsors recruitment and activation. Additionally, Mercedes is a proud mother of two children, Xavier (23) currently serving in the U.S. Air Force and Sulema (10) who will probably be creating her own designs before entering High School. When not working, Mercedes can be found on her bike around town/area trails or cooking a meal for her family.
Daran Herrman
Partner, Content Creation
With 10+ years of experience in managing online businesses, including managing strategy development, global eCommerce solutions, online marketing & multi-channel retail partnerships for business & consumer market sectors. Daran founded Colored Lion in 2009 with the simple idea of giving customers a similar experience online that they receive offline or in-store.
This evolved into ‘Creative Online Marketing’ where Daran is responsible for content development, web design, photography, video, online stores, email and social media assistance.
Shruthi Parker
Social Media Marketing Guru
Shruthi is a social media guru that brings years of experience to the team. When it comes to digital marketing, Shruthi is the one who can do it best. She succesfully runs her own blog, thehonestShruth, and has worked alongside many brands to help them grow their digital presence and reach unique contact points.
Shruthi is excited to join the Method Three team and utilize her digital talent. When she is not creating viral content, Shruthi likes to try new restaurants, travel, and spend time with her husband and their dogs.
?
what makes us different?
$150/hr
The least exciting thing to talk about, but often the most important aspect to moving forward with a partner engagement. PRIME|PR was created to re-invent PR and marketing - to do this, we changed every aspect of the agency business model. We operate on a single rate of $150/hour - equal to that of an account coordinator (one year experience) at a traditional agency. Our new business model isn’t scalable like a traditional agency, but we do this because we have a passion to transform amazing businesses and be a part of their success.
Today’s hyper-connected world means that maximum communication impact can only be achieved through strategic and consistent messaging that allows you to reach your target customer through the noise. We create a unified and seamless experience for your customer to interact with your brand, melding all aspects of traditional and new media – advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and social media. Not only does this approach maximize communication, it allows you to optimize your spend across all channels to ensure a fantastic ROI.
At the heart of our business are the relationships we’ve built with editors, reporters, and industry leaders in the last twenty-plus years. We are not marketing majors, we are former business owners who built companies from the ground up and got addicted to the process. Our deep industry expertise spans tech, consumer goods, real estate, and entertainment. We not only speak your language, we have the business acumen to fully understand impact. We have the ability to put the right people in the right place at the right time, whether it’s media connections or local influencers that need to know about your brand.
Today, more than any time in history, people engage with businesses via social media. Understanding the difference between social engagement and social influence is key when targeting your audience and getting them to act. We are experts at digital strategy and implement digital with other marketing activities to get a higher return on investment – we create a 1+1=3 scenario.
Both PRIME|PR and our strategic partner, Method Three, have more than 10 years in event production and brand activations. We are also the only marketing group that owns venues for high-quality activations made easy.
"PRIME|PR was a game changer for my business. Within 12 months they were greatly responsible for increasing our annual revenue from one million to 300 million."
Wallace Chen
Marketing & Sales for DJI
"I was not a fan of public relations, viewing it as an unnecessary expense -- until I met PRIME|PR. They showed us the power of solid, strategic PR."
Chris Anderson
CEO 3D Robotics
“PRIME|PR goes well beyond traditional public relations. They acted as an extension of our marketing team at a CMO level – reviewing all our marketing vendor contracts, quickly finding redundancies, and saving us more than $30,000 a month.
JT McCormick
President Headspring
“Through PRIME|PR we were able to really develop our messaging and kickstart our media campaigns to boost brand awareness. In less than a year, they secured nearly 800 articles, giving us 76% of the share of voice over our competitors.”
Roy Truitt
CEO HubCiti
“It’s amazing to work with a group that immediately understands technology so well. I didn’t have to waste months trying to educate yet another firm on what makes us different, PRIME|PR got it during the first meeting.”
Chuck Smith
SVP Product Strategy & CRO Cyphre
“Few PR professionals have been able to so easily understand MEMS device technology as easily as PRIME|PR. They have engineering experience and that’s a big differentiator in the overly saturated PR industry.”
Scott Wattenberg
CFO Microstaq
Join The Team
Our culture reflects a highly motivated, accountable, and creative team that produces exceptional work, results, and client experience. We deliver data-driven, integrated communications programs that pull from the best combination of PR, content, social, digital, design and branding strategies.
We are ALWAYS interested in hearing from top PR, marketing, brand, and digital talent*. You will be hard pressed to find a more welcoming, challenging, empowering agency environment. We do great work for tech, clean energy, and CPG clients who consider us an extension of their teams. We invest in our employees and our clients, building relationships that last (our first hire and first client are still with us 10+ years later). We don’t expect that of everyone and are also proud of our INKers who have gone on to lead communications for some of the most exciting technology brands in the US. We’re tough, no doubt, but we’re more than a good place to work – we are the best place to build your communications career. We want to hear from you! Please send resumes, introductions, writing and design samples by applying to the appropriate link below.
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