Arleigh Vasconcellos: Award-winning Boutique Marketing & PR Agency With a National Roster of Clients

We’re an award-winning boutique marketing & PR agency with a national roster of clients. We believe in traditional business principles of picking up a phone and building lasting relationships, and we live and breathe technology. This combination has built our excellent reputation for delivering creative, measurable and dynamic marketing & PR solutions for our clients.

Tell us about yourself?

Since childhood I’ve loved stories and storytelling, so I think from a young age I knew it was a career path I wanted to follow. I started university in journalism, but quickly realized I also had a keen interest in business so I switched to communications.

It was during my degree that I discovered PR. My professional career began in my second year of university with a PR internship and soon after graduating I moved to Whistler. BC and dove into PR full-time.

My time in Whistler was fast-paced and I learned a lot and had exposure to media from around the world. After four years in Whistler it was time to expand with a move to London. Moving to London really accelerated my career. It is where I went from a doer to a manager and burgeoning leader.

The experience and programs I was able to manage and oversee in London truly shaped my skill set and strategic thinking process. From working with companies like Virgin Holidays, Tourism Whistler and World Travel Market to starting my PR and marketing firm, The Agency, I have learned much and gained over 20 years of experience in strategic communications and PR along the way.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

If I could go back in time a year or two, I would tell myself that the only constant in life is change. The nature of business is fluid and ever changing which can lead to great things as long as you embrace it and adapt to the opportunities that come your way.

What problem does your business solve?

StartUps, Entrepreneurs, and Innovators are often doing amazing work but they do not know how to effectively communicate what they do. Our team works closely with clients to elevate their brand stories and key messages so they are reaching the right audiences. As a full service marketing and PR agency, we support clients with everything from media relations, to social media strategy and content creation, to media training and pitching.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

The inspiration behind The Agency came from me seeing a gap in the market in Calgary. When I started The Agency, I chose to focus on tech and innovation because Calgary’s innovation industry was just starting to grow and there was no one with the special skills to translate jargon from tech companies into meaningful information for their clients. We are solving the problem of tech companies doing themselves a disservice by not effectively communicating their mission and vision. And over the years we’ve grown and now service companies and scaleups across Canada, in the US, the UK and Australasia.

What is your magic sauce?

We believe that a solid foundation makes for a better working relationship, for every new client and project we do a deep dive into who they are, who their audience is and what their previous efforts have been. After this, we craft a big picture strategy (with the tiny details included), which covers the entire scope of the project. Our focus on strategy is our key differentiating factor. By creating an in depth strategy we are better able to deliver on the exact items our clients need.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

We have grown significantly over the past two years – from a team of 6 to a team of 13 now. Our vision is to continue this growth trajectory while still delivering the highest quality work to all our clients. The next five years will be a time of change, as we progress our vision remains the same: to support innovators in telling their story to the right people, in the right places, at the right time.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

Scaling up and growing over the past few years has provided great opportunities but also significant challenges in maintaining the same quality of work for all clients. I have often had to take a step back and pause before accepting new business in order to evaluate if my team has capacity to execute on the project to our standards. It is tempting for any entrepreneur to accept any and all new business, but I have learned the importance of selecting the right clients at the right time.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

People get involved in our vision by connecting with us and hearing from our team, our breadth of experience speaks for itself in every conversation we have with potential customers. Any innovators who feel like they are not reaching their full potential with their audiences should come to us, we want to help you craft your story. Visit our website for more information or email info@theagencyinc.ca.