PORTLAND, OR: Mobile technology communications agency Mobility Public Relations opened a specialty practice for startup app companies called PR4apps.
The practice will focus on PR for app developers and companies, and offer such services as launch strategy, message development, viral marketing, and social media at a lower cost.
“We've worked on apps PR for a while right now. This is putting a formal package around it,” said Melissa Burns, principal and co-founder of the agency. The agency was founded in 2006, and worked with some early application developers when Facebook launched its app platform.
Burns said many of the firm's clients, which include digital content monitoring company Tektronix and electronic payments shop Vesta, have looked into extending their products out to a mobile app.
But smaller, startup-level app developers feel they need a big budget for senior-level PR services, and as a result end-up using interns for their PR, said Burns.
“The perception in the mobile space is they need a huge budget. We wanted to dispel that,” said Burns. “They think they can't get a senior-level PR team just because they are a startup.”
As the mobile phone evolves and smartphones proliferate, launch of the practice is also an effort to tap into explosive demand for applications for mobile devices.
“To limit ourselves to big developers is silly. This space is booming,” Burns said.
The PR4apps practice will be co-lead by Burns and the agency's other two founders, John Sidline and John Giddings.
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