104 West has been named a finalist by PRWeek for Outstanding Boutique Agency in 2019. As an agency, we have focused on a communications strategy that we believe fits today’s PR world and offers our clients the best way to begin and maintain conversations with their markets. We believe that is the essence of a boutique agency. It’s about doing something specific and doing it really well. It’s not about just being a smaller version of a big, full-service agency. We presume that the judges agreed.

Our CEO was named one of the top 50 PR people in the US by Business Insider. Considering the sheer volume of PR people they come across, this award was very well appreciated. But the best part is we had no idea it was coming. We didn’t apply or lobby; we literally found out about it on Facebook. It’s nice when people recognize your work, as opposed to you recognizing it for them.

We have won a few of these over the years, mostly for taking relatively undersold or complex stories and finding ways to simplify them and make them more impactful. We have communicated stories about security and video and even premature birth rates, clearly not our typical client. We especially like the trophy they sent us…it’s like an Oscar with wings!

Hubspot takes great pride in having the pulse of the marketing world, so we were pretty proud when they considered us one of the top agencies for start-ups. We told them that working for larger companies is like driving a motor boat. Figure out the gas, the course and the speed and you should get there just fine. But with start-ups, it’s more like sailing, a storm or a shift in winds can mean a whole new direction, so you be better able to adapt. They liked that.

We do a lot of national work, so we’re always happy when our neighbors acknowledge our work. We have won a few of these Gold and Silver Picks (you know like the mining tools) over the years and unlike many awards, there’s actually a ceremony so you get to hear your name called and everything. It is also much more than just tech, so it always fun to have our work stand up against other local favorites like ski resorts and new train projects.

We don’t care what the organization is; when someone says you’re among the best in the world…the world…um, you get excited. And when it’s a bunch of CEOs and other senior executives, well we were a little stunned and even humbled. Like all the awards we win, it’s really about the work and the clients who let us do the work. But, we can tell you, when someone says you’re among the best in the world at anything, it doesn’t suck.

One of our early content concepts, The State of Spyware Report, made it all the way to the national finals for the Sabre Awards. And you know what that means: tuxedos! Alas we didn’t win, but we were honored just to have been nominated. The CEO of Webroot came along for the ceremony (it would have actually been his award) and he swears he was going to mimic Sally Field if we won. We somehow doubted him.