Spotlight on Small Girls PR
Meet Mallory Blair and Bianca Caampued, two young Brooklynites and founders of the successful PR agency, Small Girls PR.
Small Girls PR, as both a brand and an agency, represents a fun, friendly and unique image. With high-profile clients including Google and Tumblr, and accolades from many but not limited to the likes of CBS and Glamour Magazine, Small Girls PR has made a big impression in the world of Public Relations.
Mallory, 24, and Bianca, 28, make such good team, that it is a surprise that they met completely by chance, and had not been friends for decades before-hand. Bianca was an acquaintance of the DJ at Mallory’s 21st birthday party so she decided to attend, and it certainly seems that luck was on her side in her decision to party-crash! “By the end of the night we were the last two people dancing,” Bianca adds, “the rest is history.”
Mallory, a graduate from New York University and Bianca, a graduate from LIM college, have an impressive roster of working experience between them. Bianca, had worked as an advertising assistant to the fashion directors of Lucky Magazine, then went on to work in the music industry, with venues and brands – a stage of her life that she calls the “party phase” which she found extremely important in terms of networking and meeting all the right people who eventually played a role in the success of Small Girls. After that, Bianca became a PR/Media director at Cure Thrift Shop in Manhattan’s East Village, managing the store’s social media accounts and content, whilst blogging and focusing on fashion in her spare time. Mallory has a rather different working background – she did market research for tech corporations Nokia and Apple, in addition to Video Journalism for Paper TV and MTVu.
After hitting it off straight away at Mallory’s party, their career partnership swiftly blossomed. Bianca invited Mallory to work on a small video project which was very well received, and Mallory was quick to show her excitement: “Mallory emailed me at 2 am one night,” says Bianca, “basically saying that we should be doing PR together. The next day we registered the domain and started our business…With [Bianca’s] fashion background, it seemed a natural fit to cater our service to technology and fashion clientele.”
With a strong background in fashion, it is Bianca who handles the fashion accounts and takes on the more creative projects. Mallory is entitled with the tasks of not only handling press and the more tech-focused clients, but also oversees the business logistics of Small Girls and is responsible for a range of duties, including budgeting, legal, client management, hiring and more.
Coming from a family where both parents own their own businesses, Mallory admits that the apple does not fall far from the tree. Ironically, witnessing second-hand how much time running your own business took up, Mallory did not want to follow in her parents’ footsteps. But having run Small Girls PR for 2 and a half years, they both love what they do and they work hard; “Being self-employed is a catch 22: you can work whenever you want, but you have to work all the time. It is not for people who put a big value on separating their personal and professional lives.” Having had first-hand experience in starting their own business, Blair and Mallory have many career words of wisdom for aspiring PR professionals and entrepreneurs, adding that it is important to: “Find a partner who compliments your skill set. Don’t be afraid to go for what you want – sometimes you have to put yourself in a very awkward position in order to learn and grow” An important element for success in PR according to Mallory, a.k.a. “Powerpuff meets Power Girl,” is to “always talk to strangers, not just at an event or meetup… between event production and brand partnerships, you never know who you might be able to pull in for a project.”
This charismatic pair has stamped their quirky and loveable personalities and styles upon Small Girls PR, making it more than just an agency, but a brand too, something that has come to be the agency’s unique selling point: “Our company comes with a built-in audience and online following that ends up benefiting our clients as well.” With numerous high-profile clients, Mallory adds that their selection process is pretty strict, and the girls only take on clients who fit-in with their particular niche, the “Small Girls story.”
The future looks extremely bright for the Small Girls story, as the girls plan to hire more team members for “new perspectives and added strength” for both the agency and the brand. In addition to increasing their client capacity, the girls aim to focus upon merchandising and licensing opportunities for Small Girls, in order to boost the brand. These small girls are here to stay, and it seems as they’re planning to pack an even mightier punch this year.
Would you like to follow Mallory and Blair’s progress? Make sure you visit their website at smallgirlspr.com and follow them on Twitter at @smallgirlspr
Photo courtesy of: Ted Baker
