The PR Net 100, 2022: The James Collective

With offices in Sonoma and Brooklyn, integrated marketing communications agency The James Collective supports clients across food, beverage, travel and wellness. In the past year, the agency added new key services – affiliate program management and social media strategy and execution – to maintain their position on the leading edge of media relations, as well as to ensure that clients are able to maximize their DTC sales (which many invested heavily in during and post-pandemic). Leadership does their part for the industry via ‘TJC Labs,’ a project-based PR incubator for small, growing businesses owned by entrepreneurs who are often left out of traditional fundraising – women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ business owners. In addition, they partner with Seize Every Opportunity (SEO), an organization aimed at closing the academic and career opportunity gaps for motivated young people from underserved and/or underrepresented communities. They work with SEO on placing interns who are often first generation Americans, or the first of their family to go to college, to grow the next generation of diverse PR leaders.

Leadership team:

Alison Seibert, Founder + Principal

Kim Elwell, Partner

Notable long-term clients:

Maille Mustard, Flowers Winery, Jacobsen Salt Co., Guittard Chocolate Company, Faust Wines, Gundlach Bundschu (California’s oldest family owned winery)

New client wins:

1 Hotel San Francisco, Spring & Mulberry, Huichica Music Festival, Sweet Deliverance (soon to launch)

How are you innovating and moving the industry forward?

“As a small business, we get to juggle client work with experimentation in new tactics and services – some of which has been reflected in the evolution of the services we’re now able to offer clients. We try to hire people who are not of a traditional PR agency or role background, but that bring a variety of experience in other roles or industries. This helps us not only expand the talent pool of PR and marketing professionals when they come on board with us, but also brings a fresh perspective to the work we do. Some of our team members have come to us after being chefs and farmers, music industry project managers, new business and client managers in finance, and journalists. Additionally, every team member gets an education credit every year to further their knowledge in PR and marketing, as well as in the industries in which we work, to continue to move the industry forward. We also have taken workshops and have changed our hiring and new business outreach to increase DEI efforts, especially by investing in the next generation of PR professionals with our internship program.”




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