Energi PR was named Canadian public relations agency of record for Square, a mobile commerce company founded by Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chairman of Twitter.
Energi PR, which has offices in Montreal and Toronto, will help support the company’s growth strategy and brand communications in Canada. The agency will handle brand awareness campaigns, as well as promote new products and services.
“This is obviously an incredible win,” said Esther Buchsbaum, Energi PR’s co-founder and managing partner. “They’ve shown tremendous confidence in the agency and the synergy is excellent.”
“We were impressed with Energi PR’s deep understanding of the Canadian payment industry and their experience in the business, consumer and lifestyle markets,” said Khobi Brooklyn, Square’s director of product communications and marketing, in a release. “Similar to Square, Energi PR is agile, collaborative and results driven; overall the right strategic fit for our company.”
Based in San Francisco, Square markets a credit card reader for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, allowing anyone with the mobile devices to accept credit cards. Square Register serves as a full POS system for businesses to accept payments, track sales and manage inventory on their mobile devices.
“We met with a few of [Square’s] merchants in Toronto and San Francisco and it’s changed their lives in terms of how they do business,” said Buchsbaum. “The user-friendliness of the product and all the back-end features that help them run their businesses efficiently and profitability… It’s literally revolutionized their businesses.”
Part of the PR focus will be telling the stories of small business owners who use Square. “We’re working very closely with their merchant network to strengthen existing relationships and help them develop new ones, showcasing the success stories and so on,” said Buchsbaum.
Later this year, Square is opening a new office in Waterloo, Ont. and will launch new products and services for Canadian merchants. “When that [office] opens, we’ll be making a lot of noise about that as well,” said Buchsbaum.
Square, which was founded in 2009, is currently available in the U.S., Canada and Japan. Energi PR is the first PR firm it has hired outside the U.S.
