FAQ
How attuned is Ben-Abraham Associates (BAA) to compliance issues?
In these days of intense regulatory scrutiny, we take great care to ensure that all public relations and marketing initiatives are reviewed and approved by our clients' Compliance and Legal professionals. We would rather forgo a public relations opportunity than risk regulatory attention for our client.Aren't some of your existing clients our competitors?
BAA's public relations and communications practice is focused almost exclusively on the financial services industry. This makes it unavoidable that some of our clients compete with one another. Consequently, we maintain an open client list, so that every client is aware of who we represent – there are no secrets. We also are fully committed to keeping each client's business confidential.Why would we consider a boutique firm like BAA, as opposed to a larger firm?
At BAA, we dedicate all four of our skilled professionals to each client relationship. Within a boutique environment, this enables us to provide every client with a high degree of attention from everyone on our team. Also, since BAA is a family-owned business, clients can expect a reasonable level of stability.Who will be the lead on my account?
Our president, Hank Green, is the lead on every client relationship, although each one of our other three professionals is responsible for and actively involved in every client program.Why does BAA charge for its services on a monthly retainer basis, rather than hourly?
Hourly fees often can result in surprise bills. BAA’s clients know exactly how much to budget for our services, and month by month can evaluate if they are receiving the value they expect. We never want a client to question why an invoice is higher than anticipated.Does BAA have good media contacts?
We have focused on financial public relations for more than two decades, and, therefore, by default, have worked with numerous reporters and editors. We also make an ongoing effort to continually expand and reinforce our media contacts, and we ask each of our four professionals to build strong working relationships with the media.
However, we believe that efforts to nurture media relationships should never overshadow the ability to provide reporters with credible ideas, insights and information. Many of our clients’ more successful media endeavors have resulted from well-documented ideas pitched to editors and reporters with whom we had no prior contact.
As important as our media contacts are, and as enjoyable as it is to maintain a long-term relationship with journalists (oftentimes as they rise through the ranks), the value of contacts should not be exaggerated. Experience has convinced us that it is more important to fashion intriguing pitches that stand apart from the noise and clutter.