MAPR lends local clout to SMG’s nationwide PR agency network

BOULDER — MAPR Agency Inc., a Boulder-based public relations and marketing firm, has joined forces with the Stryker-Munley Group’s national network of PR agencies. 

MAPR president and owner Doyle Albee will remain in the ownership chair and will head up SMG’s Colorado operations in Boulder, Fort Collins and Denver. The agency is now branded “MAPR a Stryker-Munley Group Company.”

“We’re a national agency in every sense except the offices are owned at the local level,” SMG founder Mike Jamieson told BizWest. 

Local ownership allows SMG to be responsive to different needs, expertise and pricing expectations in the different markets in which its agencies operate, he said. 

At the same time, being part of a national network of affiliated agencies allows local operations to harness the overall firm’s muscle to achieve economies of scale and the extra manpower necessary to serve larger accounts.

One reason why SMG sought out a partnership with MAPR is to provide the Charleston, South Carolina-based company with a strong foothold in the middle of the country.

“Some clients really care about geography and feel warm and fuzzy when you’re nearby,” Jamieson said.

SMG now has affiliate agencies in Boulder; Charleston; San Antonio; Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Boston; Chicago; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Partnering with agencies around the country allows SMG affiliates to tap into local areas of expertise, Albee said. For example, an agency in Boulder may have expertise in serving technology startups, while a San Antonio office may have a wealth of experience marketing to a Spanish-speaking audience.

The partnership with SMG “is not just about putting my name on their website or a logo that we stick on our website,” Albee said. “Instead, it’s a true consortium of small locally owned firms with specific local expertise.”

Albee said MAPR’s history and branding will remain an important part of the company’s identity.

“We’re not throwing away our branding,” he said, but MAPR and SMG could “further integrate our branding” at some point down the line.

The integration with SMG is not expected to have any adverse impacts on MAPR’s existing workforce. In fact, Albee said the firm is adding employees in Colorado. 

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