Name changed for clearer branding; reflects new purpose, service offerings
Bedminster, NJ - Gnosis Arts Multimedia Communications LLC, a digital, virtual PR firm in the Greater NYC area, ushered in the new year 2012 with an official name change. The change, staff said, reflects the firm's maturation and rebranding over the past five years since it's been in business.
"It never ceases to amaze me, how far we've come, how much we've changed over the last 5 years," said Barbara Bryant, chief of operations. "When we first started back in 2007, we were, quite frankly, all over the map: we did a little of this, a little of that. We struggled to find our unique identity. Now, five years later, I think we've found it."
The History of Gnosis Media Group
When Gnosis first began in 2007, it was called a multimedia communications firm because it offered services from piano instruction, to audio editing and production, to SEO. As a result, the firm's owner, Eric Bryant, had a hard time coming up with a name that encapsulated all of these varied services.
"I'm just going to admit it: I didn't know what I was doing when I first began," said Eric Bryant, director, laughing. "To be honest, Gnosis Arts was just a hobby, a 'side hustle', as my Twitter pal, and skilled business coach, Pam Slim, calls it. I didn't know anything about branding, or marketing, or public relations. I was just chasing a passion in my spare time."
That passion grew into a viable, solvent business in 2008-2009. Gnosis Arts Multimedia Communications LLC was born, and it became a state-registered Limited Liability Company, complete with staff, an operating agreement, a business plan - even an officer (Eric's wife, Barbara Bryant).
"After I got serious about my hobby, I turned it into a full-fledged business in 2008, " Eric explained. "But it wasn't easy. We went through quite a few iterations. For a while we tried to make SEO (Search Engine Optimization) our main specialty. But the market was just too fat with big players. Then I went a more esoteric route, and tried to make philosophical consulting our specialty. Hence, the 'communications' part of the name. But this also never really took off, and wound up confusing our branding more than helping it.
"Later, we hit the jackpot - or so I thought - by getting into the Wikipedia writing business. This proved quite lucrative," Eric explained. "We made a lot of money and had our most profitable seasons in 2009-2010 writing and editing Wikipedia articles for clients. We did so well that I was able to hire two new staff persons to take over this wing of the business, full-time."
"Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This..."
But this soon landed the firm in hot water. Wikipedia has had a tenuous, not-so-amicable relationship with public relations and marketing firms over the years, and they've defined paid editing as pretty much a cardinal sin.
"So, we had to shut the Wikipedia editing business down in 2010," Eric lamented.
After mounting conflicts of interest between the firm and Wikipedia officials, Gnosis Arts went through a period that can really only be described as disarray. Eric had to let go of the two Wikipedia staff. One of the staff he terminated became disgruntled and began trying to sabotage the business and stealing clients. Eric then had to enlist the aid of lawyers to defend company assets. He then had to re-conceive the entire business model.
"The whole ordeal was really a mess. We had to almost totally redefine who we were," Eric said. "It was tough. There was infighting all the time. Everybody was kind of lost. Staff were doubting my decision to close down the Wikipedia business. They were even doubting my leadership ability. There were dark periods when I felt like a complete and utter failure, like just throwing in the towel and calling it quits. I had to redefine who we were, I had to completely change around service offerings. It was a pretty monumental task."
Could We Recover?
But the firm was able to recover.
"We started to dig really deep into the market research," said Tiffany Williams-Jallow, marketing/PR manager. "After literally weeks of hardcore market research, we discovered that the Internet/Digital PR niche was a possibility. It had beatable competition. We'd already gotten a jumpstart in it, and that's where we were seeing the most attraction to our services. There were only a few high-quality players, along with a plethora of cheap flacks," Williams-Jallow explained.
"I said to myself, 'This is doable. This might work. We might have found our niche'," Eric said.
So, the firm then began to re-purpose itself. It built a brand new newsroom which included a semi-automated, free press release submission service in late 2010. In early 2011, it added mobile SMS applications to the roster. Later that year, it added social media services to its offerings, including a tweetchat curation wiki and a homegrown social listening tool for Twitter. Additional services included a High Visibility Press Release distribution service, a QR code press release service, and an improving of the firm's SEO Press Release service.
The firm also got into the electronic publishing market, republishing its previously published ebooks to the Amazon Kindle marketplace.
"Kindle publishing has not brought in nearly the revenue that Wikipedia editing did," Barbara explained. "But it has brought in some and it looks like definitely a market segment that we can build on. Plus, Amazon Kindle just makes sense for PR; it opens up a whole new world of public relations possibilities, if you really think about it."
Gnosis has also really stepped up its game in the free press release market.
"We built a free press release service that rivals the best of them out there. It has become credible enough that Google News has included it in its search results, which is no small feat," Williams-Jallow explained. "We then built add-on services to the free press release, such as Tweet the Release, Add YouTube Video, Post to Linkedin News, and Make Sticky options. These have also been well-received by our customers."
New Partnerships
A big component of the reorganization of Gnosis Arts was establishing key partnerships with other organizations and businesses.
"We've partnered with Cambrian College in Ontario, Canada, which is the second university along with Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania that we've partnered with to grow our internship program," Barbara said. "We've brought our internship program to them, and the director of PR studies there, Dr. Nancy Griffin, has really been great to work with. She's been a wonderful catalyst for our growth."
In fall 2011 the firm partnered with PRNewswire - the nation's leading newswire service - to offer its customers a guaranteed media placement package that surpassed the competition.
"The new media placement package, quite frankly, puts our press release distribution services on the top of the heap," Williams-Jallow said. "We are better than the long list of mediocre 'press release factories' out there that just publish your press release with no effect. We get results. We're new and improved, real contenders in the press release distribution marketplace now."
Igniting Customer Loyalty
"We've also started recognizing businesses who have become sort of brand evangelists on Twitter and Facebook," Barbara said. "We created a sort of informal 'Brand Ambassadors' recognition where we publish a photo and information about their business on our company website. We began seeing these business owners as not just acquaintances, but as strategic partners."
Along with the brand ambassadors program, Gnosis created a Loyalty Rewards program to reward its most loyal customers. The loyalty program has produced significant results. According to Gnosis staff, 90 percent of its current client base is now composed of repeat customers, some of whom have been doing business with the firm for over two years.
"Depression lifted! I'd say we must be doing something right!" Eric said. "You just keep plugging away at it and you never give up, and eventually you can get there."
"A Rose by any Other Name ..."
All these changes have proved to be positive steps in the right direction for the firm. But this metamorphosis required a new name, new branding initiatives, and renewed vision, to go along with it.
"For a while now, I've wanted to call us 'Gnosis Media Group'," Eric said. Unfortunately, there was already a firm in Florida with the same name (sigh). Make matters worse, they were also a PR firm! So, I had given up on the idea that we'd ever be able to use this name. But something told me to research it a little further. When I did, I found that that Florida company had failed to renew its business name, and the name had been inactive for quite some time."
Eric also found that, since LLCs are creatures of the state, it is possible for two LLCs - in two different states - to have the same name legally. So, he registered the name with the State of New Jersey, and they accepted his request. Gnosis Media Group was now born.
"Now it's official," Barbara said. "We are legally 'Gnosis Media Group'. This is so awesome because now our name is shorter and more succinct. It's easier to remember, which is also good for branding. It still captures what we do and who we are. It works so much better than the former name."
Even though the firm still owns "Gnosis Arts Multimedia Communications LLC", it now can do business as "Gnosis Media Group".
"It's like changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly overnight, " Williams-Jallow said. "I like this new name better, personally. We are so different now than when I first started working for the firm. We have revised our vision statements, and we've even added a code of ethics section on our website.
We've also added an informational section that explains why we are better than the myriad press release factories out there. All these changes have served to give us a clearer identity in the mind of the public."
About Gnosis Media Group
What defines who we are is gnosis, an archaic Greek word that means "knowledge" - but not just any knowledge, knowledge that comes from experience.
Experience. There's just no substitute for it. Experience comes from two other important words: ex-, "out of", and -periens, or "trial". That is, our experience means: we've tried it. Everything we know about PR comes from experience. When we speak, we speak from experience, not theory. When we relate to the press, we do so by experience, not theory. When we execute your PR campaigns, we operate by experience, not theory.
Gnosis means that we have knowledge gained through repeated trial, testing and experimentation. We've tried it, so you don't have to. We've tested it, found out what works, and what doesn't, so you don't have to. We proved our PR ability through practice, and we've "gotten pretty handy at it!"
You don't just need a PR firm. You need gnosis. You need Gnosis Media Group.
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Media Contact:
Tiffany Williams-Jallow
949.229.1092
customerservice@gnosisarts.com
Source: http://www.pressreleasesonline.net/2012/01/gnosis-arts-multimedia-communications.html
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