Hanna Lee’s eponymous PR agency has engaged top hotels, bars, restaurants, spirits and wine with their services for over 18 years, and this year saw some particularly unique work. The agency kicked off its “Brand Building Innovation Series” to change the way they tell clients’ stories and help build their brands globally, as evidenced by the launch of the HLC Book Media Division. The agency’s first book, "The Japanese Art of the Cocktail," which was co-authored by the agency’s Editor-in-Chief and Partner Michael Anstendig and Katana Kitten’s Masahiro Urushido, earned a James Beard Media Award nomination and is the Spirited Award winner of the "Best New Cocktail or Bartending Book" at 2022 Tales of the Cocktail. It was also named a Barnes & Noble "Best Book of 2021" in the Cookbook Category and an Amazon Editors' Pick. Now, their clients consult with them on how to pursue their publishing dreams, with several publications in the pipeline already. Looking for intel without bringing on an agency quite yet? Press play on Hanna Lee Communications’ “Hospitality Forward” podcast, a weekly show where Lee and Anstendig interview top journalists, with the mission of helping hospitality professionals to learn how to be featured in top writers’ and publications’ stories.
Leadership team:
Hanna Lee, President
Michael Anstendig, Editor-in-Chief and Partner
Notable long-term clients:
The Dead Rabbit, Fever-Tree USA,Chef John Fraser’s JF Restaurants, Ian Schrager’s PUBLIC and The Times Square EDITION, The World’s 50 Best Bars, Overthrow Hospitality Group
New client wins:
The Wall Street Hotel (F&B), Hotel Cleo, North America’s 50 Best Bars, Bar Chrystie, The Skylark Rooftop Cocktail Lounge, Avant Garden Bistro LA, Woody Creek Distillers, Empirical Spirits, Harridan Vodka, The Roosevelt Room, Esters, Kru Thai Restaurant, Rasasvada Non-Alcoholic Amaros
How is the agency advancing DEI in the industry?
“Through the agency’s ‘Inspiring Women Series,’ we interview female leaders in hospitality and beyond who share their life mottos. We have interviewed 350 powerful women of every background and ethnicity and promoted them and their photos on our website and digital channels. These fearless leaders personally inspired our president and founder Hanna Lee, who is herself a person of color, by how they are changing the world. In addition, the agency fosters a geographically diverse setting by actively sponsoring foreign employees' visas. This year, we invited talent from Australia and Italy.”
Founder Sarah Berman has built The Berman Group into a stellar team of PR pros focused on bolstering the real estate industry, from brand development and digital marketing to web development and social media strategy. Following the pandemic, the firm pivoted right back to in-person events, hosting 3,500 real estate professionals at the Real Deal Magazine's Spring 2022 Showcase event. The agency also launched new CEO-only forums for the Commercial Observer in Miami, Los Angeles and Washington DC. In that vein, the team launched the national Stand with Cities campaign at the start of 2022 to try to embrace big cities and get people back to support them with the help of national Fortune 100 corporations and media partners such as Bloomberg and others. To serve digital client demand, The Berman Group now offers app development, along with hybrid meetings and conferences, to meet the needs of the current hybrid workforce. On the DEI front, The Berman Group serves WX, a Women in Real Estate organization, which launched new DEI programs for several real estate industry organizations and is currently serving MWBE Unite, a new platform designed to ensure supplier diversity in real estate.
Leadership team:
Sarah Berman, Founder & President
Notable long-term clients:
Brookfield Properties, RXR, Fisher Brothers, The Durst Organization, Paramount Group, Willow, Howard Hughes Corporation, Avenue of the Americas Association
New client wins:
Science Square Life Sciences development in Atlanta, 335 Madison Avenue/Milstein Properties, Kastle Systems, Robert DeNiro's Wildflower Development Organization
How are you innovating and moving the industry forward?
“We are working with the real estate community to embrace the changes inherent with hybrid work, new amenities in commercial office buildings and the launch of new hospitality-focused spaces within the workplace. We have helped to highlight the growing life sciences sector nationally as well.”
