Our foray into the Asia Pacific market revolved around a simple idea –

The traditional multinational agencies offered regional infrastructure but their expertise in the IT industry varied from office to office. On the other hand, there were local IT PR agencies in each market, but they lacked regional resources.

Our plan was to offer clients the best of both worlds: regional infrastructure, but with a total focus on the IT sector.

Ten years later, it seems fair to say that this approach works.

Our Asia Pacific clients range from consumer electronics makers to infrastructure companies to telecom players and biotech leaders. These technology companies have turned to HA AP because of our ability to provide one "face" to the client in driving high-quality PR programs in multiple countries.

Of course, it’s taken faith and hard work to build our AP operation into what it is today.

Establishing our own offices throughout the region took time. We were determined to build an organization with PR professionals plugged into their local markets. Yet, we wanted to develop a company culture that reflected both our Silicon Valley heritage and the local ways.

Achieving this objective started with hiring the right people – smart individuals passionate about applying public relations and marketing communications skills to contribute to our clients’ business objectives. We also took the attitude of viewing Asia Pacific as a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve made decisions accordingly with an eye on the long term.

For example, we hired Zhong Li from China and Sue Kim from Korea to launch offices in their respective countries. Before moving forward, each spent 18+ months working in our Silicon Valley office learning our style of PR, how we conduct business and the company’s culture. This way, we could blend East with West in laying down our unique foundation in Asia. And by the way, ten years on, Zhong is now in our Munich office and Sue is based in our San Jose headquarters.

The payoff is clear.

Today, the real power of our AP operation and what makes us different from any other agency is the fact that we truly take a team approach to implementing PR programs across the region. Our account professionals know each other, like each other, and support each other. Each of our professionals know that they are part of The Hoffman Agency Asia Pacific, first and foremost.

While the above might sound somewhat intangible, it's really the foundation of what enables us to deliver consistent and results-oriented PR & Marketing Communications across the region. The client gains high-quality PR in its targeted Asian markets without the burden of managing seven different contacts, training seven different teams, dealing with seven different ways of reporting, etc.

It’s been a rewarding ten years.

And the best is yet to come.