Firebrand Turns Ten

Firebrand is a decade old! Now that is a milestone! 

I just wanted to use this moment to thank the Firebrand team – many of whom have been with me for those ten years. They have made this journey possible and enjoyable (most days!). Today we are doing some of our best work together. We have grown and developed and conquered new challenges as an agency and as individuals. It’s been a privilege to share these experiences with such a talented and dedicated group of people

We have also built a community of clients whom we truly value. These are people we work with daily, see on weekly calls, month in and year out. Many have worked with us at several different companies as they develop their careers. We have celebrated their promotions, and helped them find new roles after restructures. We win many of our clients through referrals, drawing on a reputation we’ve built one person at a time, one outcome after another. After ten years, we are lucky to have hundreds of marketing and comms leaders putting our name forward. 

This has been a year of transition as we’ve repositioned to go all-in on AI companies. This is in part recognition that our client roster was already AI-native, spanning the AI stack from infrastructure and robotics to the application layer. Since then, every company we have engaged with has been AI-forward. Being based in San Francisco and already well connected with the media, influencers, and AI events helps us ramp faster and deliver better results. AI is certainly not a niche, but it is our specialism.

We were also early adopters of AI, largely through our Firebrand Labs team, which published lessons on deploying AI from early 2023. Since then, we have rolled out a fleet of AI apps and agents to power the agency. Never has the role of a marketer been so technical, but equally never have the possibilities of what we can build ourselves been so great. That said, I draw the line at Terminal (sorry Claude).

We’ve also had to adapt our service mix due to AI. This is a natural part of any agency’s evolution. Clients outsource work they are unwilling or unable to do. Well, AI is both willing and capable – and free. Some tasks just don’t need A+ work; a solid B will do. I might draw the line about where B-quality work is acceptable in a different place than others (like the homepage!). Or perhaps I am wrong, and AI-written homepages perform just fine. So we’re doing less content marketing for now, but the trend is already swinging back to human-first there. Perhaps we’re at Peak Slop?

Transitions are hard though, and we did have some Firebrands leave the agency. I want to thank them too. We’ve had former coworkers become clients. Some even rejoined us this year, which has been fun. I like to think that speaks to the culture we have built: relationships endure, and people want to work together again when the opportunity arises.

We’ve routinely covered AI’s shifting norms on our podcast, FiredUp!, which is nearing its 150th episode. Every day we’re pitched by potential guests – sparking some fascinating discussions and new relationships. At first, it was daunting to press record; for a phase, it was work to keep it going; but now it’s just fun. Thanks for listening!

What’s next? Well, we’re feeling good about our focus on AI companies. And we’ve deliberately started working with larger late-stage and public companies. PR has seen a resurgence, driven in part by its alignment with AI search, which nicely intersects with our core competence in SEO and GEO. The market has come towards us there. I have to say, I really enjoy talking to AI companies who find us on Claude and want PR to boost AI search visibility. They have all the proof they need that we can deliver. Those are good conversations.

Lastly, thanks to you – for your support and for indulging me with this anniversary milestone. Running an agency is difficult, particularly at this time of great upheaval. It’s uncertain, frustrating and confusing at times, and just plain fun at others. But I am aware that we have been immensely lucky to come this far and to have so much to look forward to.