The end of one year and the beginning of a new year is always an invigorating time for me. I enjoy reflecting on the successes and accomplishments of the past, while focusing on new goals and objectives for the coming year. This year is no different, although as 2014 marks 10 years since the founding of Communiqué PR, I anticipate that during the coming year we will take time to reflect on the years since the beginning of our business and contemplate those to come! Before we do so, however, I’d like to recap some of the highlights of 2013.

Throughout 2013 we worked with Kymeta to build awareness of its groundbreaking technology and the accomplishment of key milestones in the company’s growth, including its partnership with Inmarsat to launch a game-changing business aviation broadband solution; partnership with O3b Networks to develop a flat panel satellite antenna for ultra-fast, affordable broadband; securing additional investment of $50 Million; and successful demonstration of the first-ever transmit and receive capability with a metamaterials-based antenna. During the year we secured more than 130 articles on behalf of Kymeta.

2013 was an exciting year for mobile data and analytics provider Mobidia, as its app, My Data Manager, continued to rapidly grow in number of users. Our work with Mobidia in 2013 focused on driving awareness of data voluntarily provided by My Data Manager’s users. To this end, in 2013, we distributed seven releases focused on data from Mobidia, including most recently a release about mobile shopping on Black Friday. Leveraging both formal releases and proactive pitching, we secured articles featuring Mobidia’s data in numerous publications, including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Internet Retailer and The New York Times. We also pursued a few byline articles to build on this exposure and establish thought leadership, securing placements in App Developer Magazine and WIRED.

We began working with commercial real estate developer Schnitzer West in 2013 and helped the firm with several announcements and press meetings throughout the year, including the closing of two significant real-estate transactions totaling nearly $500 million. Most recently, in December the company announced the purchase of a prime site in downtown Bellevue, where the firm will build a 16-story office building. For more information, check out the coverage that appeared in The Daily Journal of Commerce, Puget Sound Business Journal or The Seattle Times.

In December, we joined PR Network, a global collective of PR agencies based across Europe, Africa, America, Asia Pacific and Australasia. Communiqué PR is PRN’s exclusive U.S. partner. We are thrilled to be a part of this organization and are looking forward to participating in the PR Network board meeting in Stuttgart, Germany in late January 2014.

After working with Smartsheet in November 2012 to announce a new round of funding, we took Smartsheet on the road in early 2013 to introduce the company and its highly-acclaimed work productivity tool to a new set of business- and product-focused journalists. Between press tours on the East and West Coasts, Communiqué booked more than 15 in-person and phone briefings with publications such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, TIME and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The briefings went far in helping Smartsheet build relationships and get on the radar of some very noteworthy publications, many of which published great articles about the company, including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Forbes, NetworkWorld and  CITEworld. Throughout the year, we also drove coverage for a number of Smartsheet initiatives, including the launch of its mobile apps and the introduction of new product updates, and found great success with pursuing contributed content. In the last quarter of 2013, Communiqué landed five contributed articles on Smartsheet’s behalf with another four articles likely to be published in 2014.

In May we began working with Twisted Pair Solutions, an exciting Seattle-based company delivering solutions for smarter push-to-talk. We helped grow attention for its game-changing voice communications software in markets ranging from public safety to utilities to the oil and gas industry. Our team helped Twisted Pair turn customer success stories into media coverage by developing in-depth case studies, and helped grow its share of voice by placing contributed articles from company leadership in publications that reach its potential customers. Since May, we have distributed four press releases, written six case studies and lined up more than 25 pieces of press coverage in key sales markets for Twisted Pair.

In addition to helping our clients achieve their business objectives, our team continued to share its perspective, expertise and thought leadership through regular posts to the Communiqué PR blog. During the year, many of our team’s blog posts were picked up by industry media outlets and we saw a steady increase of traffic to our firm’s website. The most popular posts published during the year were “‘Nacho’ Best Move: Lessons From Taco Bell’s Taco-Licking Disaster,” “How the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch Failed: Takeaway PR Lessons” and “Applying the Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy to PR.”

We also took time to get together for some fun throughout the year with a chocolate tasting at Chocolopolis, several happy hours and afternoon breaks at Molly Moon’s, participating in The World’s Largest Waterfight as part of team Smartsheet, a team pumpkin carving, the Rwanda Girls Initiative fundraiser, the Seafair Foundation’s “Jam with the Jets” fundraiser breakfast, the GeekWire Gala and our own holiday party at Teatro ZinZanni: