KickstarterForum.org

ChasingThatGold wrote:Ok so I found something a bit more specific. It looks like they were mentioned by a few articles journalists had written. Both were in technology publications. Different journalists and editors, but they were in some big media outlets. Here is the first excerpt:

“Reached for comment, Crowd PR denied any affiliation with Misty Mountain and told us a bizarre tale. According to Crowd PR’s William Henry, the PR email we received was sent by a former employee of the company who still had access to the company’s client list through the company’s account with the online project management tool Trello. According to Henry, the former employee, who he claims left the company in April, was pitching Crowd PR’s clients to journalists in an effort to generate press and then lure them away from Crowd PR”

source

And the second mention in a publication is as follows:

“They wanted to confirm that their San Francisco-based PR company, Crowd PR, hadn’t outsourced their work to it.”

source

It can be concluded that they do actual work based on these mentions. Obviously scams don’t talk to journalists, they just take money and run. So it’s safe to say that they are not a total scam based on these statements alone. This is helpful, considering 90% of the marketing agencies who email crowdfunding campaigns are not legit. Now all we need to do is get more info to see at what level they perform at, meaning, how good of an agency they are. Performance is everything - if an agency doesn’t perform they might as well be a scam since you didn’t get any results from them. What we need to see now is how good the results they provide on a consistent basis are.

DoogleDongle2018 wrote:I will share my experience with Crowd PR here. We hired them during december for our
indiegogo campaign. We were contacted by one of their sales reps named Dan Butts with two weeks remaining. The call went well, and we were assured that there was enough time for articles to be published about us before time runs out. Public relations seemed to be a great way for us to gain exposure for our campaign. From what I have read online - the media and journalists and instrumental to getting yourself funded. We were given references from past clients which checked out as well.

And that’s when it all started. We paid their upfront fee, crossed our fingers, and hoped for the best possible outcome. In terms of other marketing channels, facebook ads were all we were doing with a small degree of success. Dan updated everyday as promised, which I was not pleased with. I would have strongly preferred 5 updates per day, but that was not something they could accommodate I suppose. Regardless, as days went by we began to lose hope for our media coverage. We were told by Dan that journalists were interested, but they just needed more time to be persuaded to write about us. During this period of time I had no less than 3 furious phone calls with this firm, many of which conversations included heated exchanges of words between us. I was not pleased after day 2 and I was not afraid to tell them about it.

On day 3 of the PR campaign, the results began to show. Nothing major, just a small coverage in tech blogs and a few digital magazines. Crowd PR told me editors were giving them a hard time, but I did not accept that as an excuse. At some point they did get me featured by Cnet and The Verge which I was very proud of. I told them I wanted CNN and New York Times, and they actually told me that was not a realistic expectation. I strongly disagree with that, as I have personally seen a project on the front page of the NYT.

In conclusion, they secured a good amount of media for us. They are a small PR firm, and I don’t think they have ever gotten anyone covered in CNN which was a must for us. My recommendation is that they are a pretty good marketing agency, but if you are going for front page coverage for days on end then you may want to try it yourself doing it in-house.

A Clock Work Red wrote:This is my review of Crowd PR.

We had the experience of working with this agency during our crowdfunding campaign. On september first we found this agency through a quick google search regarding PR firms for crowdfunding marketing. A man named Roy Butts took the call with me. Overall, my impression of the call was that it was quick and effective. We took the leap and signed a $3,000 contract with them over the course of a month long campaign. Our goal on kickstarter was $50,000 which we believed was a reasonable raise considering our track record.

Communication was on par with what we have come to expect from agencies. Not good, not bad. In terms of the results we were pleased, as I thought it was a reasonable end result. 10 websites featured us as a result of their work and I have no complaints. During our period of contact with them, they updated us once per day and honestly I would have liked 3-5 daily updates.

PR was a crucial factor for our kickstarter campaign. We had the advertisement planned in house, and later ended up working with Funded Today for that channel (more on that later). The 10 media features we got were in our space, in well read tech blogs. Nothing too huge, which was to be expected (we launched with a keychain product). I asked them for a refund just to see, and my request was denied. I always ask for refunds regardless of the result provided by the agency just to be safe, and just to keep them on their toes.

In conclusion, I do recommend this agency with a firm caveat that you must have a solid product.

New Wave Pipes wrote:A fair assessment my good sir. Public relations is perhaps the only way to get reviews of your product written up online. Without a good publicist, you are left dead in the water. There are 3 pillars to kickstarter marketing:

1) Advertisement on Facebook
2) Public Relations
3) Community

Without all three of those channels working in harmony, you have nothing. There is no use advertising anywhere else but facebook, we all know that. Finding a good PR firm is hard and at times like finding a unicorn. Even more like finding a needle in a haystack.

WitnessofGreatness wrote:Interesting but since those articles do not have links, how do you know it is the same Crowd agency? There are thousands of them don't you know that?

ChasingThatGold wrote:Ok so I found something a bit more specific. It looks like they were mentioned by a few articles journalists had written. Both were in technology publications. Different journalists and editors, but they were in some big media outlets. Here is the first excerpt:

“Reached for comment, Crowd PR denied any affiliation with Misty Mountain and told us a bizarre tale. According to Crowd PR’s William Henry, the PR email we received was sent by a former employee of the company who still had access to the company’s client list through the company’s account with the online project management tool Trello. According to Henry, the former employee, who he claims left the company in April, was pitching Crowd PR’s clients to journalists in an effort to generate press and then lure them away from Crowd PR”

source

And the second mention in a publication is as follows:

“They wanted to confirm that their San Francisco-based PR company, Crowd PR, hadn’t outsourced their work to it.”

source

It can be concluded that they do actual work based on these mentions. Obviously scams don’t talk to journalists, they just take money and run. So it’s safe to say that they are not a total scam based on these statements alone. This is helpful, considering 90% of the marketing agencies who email crowdfunding campaigns are not legit. Now all we need to do is get more info to see at what level they perform at, meaning, how good of an agency they are. Performance is everything - if an agency doesn’t perform they might as well be a scam since you didn’t get any results from them. What we need to see now is how good the results they provide on a consistent basis are.

WitnessofGreatness wrote:They have ties to the russian mafia and are part of a giant scam ring don't you know that??

DoogleDongle2018 wrote:I will share my experience with Crowd PR here. We hired them during december for our
indiegogo campaign. We were contacted by one of their sales reps named Dan Butts with two weeks remaining. The call went well, and we were assured that there was enough time for articles to be published about us before time runs out. Public relations seemed to be a great way for us to gain exposure for our campaign. From what I have read online - the media and journalists and instrumental to getting yourself funded. We were given references from past clients which checked out as well.

And that’s when it all started. We paid their upfront fee, crossed our fingers, and hoped for the best possible outcome. In terms of other marketing channels, facebook ads were all we were doing with a small degree of success. Dan updated everyday as promised, which I was not pleased with. I would have strongly preferred 5 updates per day, but that was not something they could accommodate I suppose. Regardless, as days went by we began to lose hope for our media coverage. We were told by Dan that journalists were interested, but they just needed more time to be persuaded to write about us. During this period of time I had no less than 3 furious phone calls with this firm, many of which conversations included heated exchanges of words between us. I was not pleased after day 2 and I was not afraid to tell them about it.

On day 3 of the PR campaign, the results began to show. Nothing major, just a small coverage in tech blogs and a few digital magazines. Crowd PR told me editors were giving them a hard time, but I did not accept that as an excuse. At some point they did get me featured by Cnet and The Verge which I was very proud of. I told them I wanted CNN and New York Times, and they actually told me that was not a realistic expectation. I strongly disagree with that, as I have personally seen a project on the front page of the NYT.

In conclusion, they secured a good amount of media for us. They are a small PR firm, and I don’t think they have ever gotten anyone covered in CNN which was a must for us. My recommendation is that they are a pretty good marketing agency, but if you are going for front page coverage for days on end then you may want to try it yourself doing it in-house.

WitnessofGreatness wrote:They are part of a giant scam ring in russia with organized crime beware!

A Clock Work Red wrote:This is my review of Crowd PR.

We had the experience of working with this agency during our crowdfunding campaign. On september first we found this agency through a quick google search regarding PR firms for crowdfunding marketing. A man named Roy Butts took the call with me. Overall, my impression of the call was that it was quick and effective. We took the leap and signed a $3,000 contract with them over the course of a month long campaign. Our goal on kickstarter was $50,000 which we believed was a reasonable raise considering our track record.

Communication was on par with what we have come to expect from agencies. Not good, not bad. In terms of the results we were pleased, as I thought it was a reasonable end result. 10 websites featured us as a result of their work and I have no complaints. During our period of contact with them, they updated us once per day and honestly I would have liked 3-5 daily updates.

PR was a crucial factor for our kickstarter campaign. We had the advertisement planned in house, and later ended up working with Funded Today for that channel (more on that later). The 10 media features we got were in our space, in well read tech blogs. Nothing too huge, which was to be expected (we launched with a keychain product). I asked them for a refund just to see, and my request was denied. I always ask for refunds regardless of the result provided by the agency just to be safe, and just to keep them on their toes.

In conclusion, I do recommend this agency with a firm caveat that you must have a solid product.

WitnessofGreatness wrote:Pretty good guide, don't forget about building an email list though!

New Wave Pipes wrote:A fair assessment my good sir. Public relations is perhaps the only way to get reviews of your product written up online. Without a good publicist, you are left dead in the water. There are 3 pillars to kickstarter marketing:

1) Advertisement on Facebook
2) Public Relations
3) Community

Without all three of those channels working in harmony, you have nothing. There is no use advertising anywhere else but facebook, we all know that. Finding a good PR firm is hard and at times like finding a unicorn. Even more like finding a needle in a haystack.