3Points Earns Silver: An Eventful Year in Review
Like many boutique firms, nearly all of our focus and energy is directed toward helping our clients reach their business objectives, but in 2016 we started showing our firm the same care and attention to detail that we have shown to many others over the years. We realized that we are better advocates for our clients when we engage in those same PR tactics we advise them to adopt — therefore, we are proud to share that we have received a silver medal in the PR World Awards as a single boutique office, based on our 2016 body of work submission.
We’d like to share some highlights from the past year that aided us in earning this honor.
- Our longstanding relationship with OptionsHouse helped them achieve a $725 million purchase last summer by E*TRADE. This was the largest recorded fintech exit of 2016 in Chicago.
- Our client Trading Technologies completed its most successful blog series in the company’s 22-year history, called “Wizards of Today’s Markets.” This series featured Q&As with TT’s CEO, Rick Lane, and trading legends Don Wilson, Blair Hull, and Ray Cahnman, as well as the author of the Market Wizards books, Jack Schwager. This exposure through the blog series led to increased media interest in TT and a feature piece with Mr. Lane in the Financial Times.
- We are helping guide the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) through a tricky international acquisition by a group that includes multiple Chinese companies. CHX has never been more globally relevant, and 3Points has diligently worked with leading publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg to ensure that the deal is reported on accurately.
- We used earned media as our main vehicle to establish David Widerhorn, CEO of Neurensic, as an industry expert on AI. With our assistance, Neurensic, a regtech AI startup, landed high-quality media placements, including a spot for Mr. Widerhorn on the “Inc. 30 Under 30” list in 2016, raising the profile of both the company and Mr. Widerhorn.
- We are one of three founding members of a local charity event, T4Youth. The table tennis competition seeks to foster connections within the Chicago technology community, while supporting the Chicago Tech Academy, a local STEM high school. For the third-annual T4Youth competition this past November, 3Points played a key role in helping the event raise an all-time high of more than $101K.
- In its seven years of business, 3Points has seen annual growth in its client base, headcount, and revenue. Despite our relatively small team, we have managed to activate earned, owned, and social media channels in such a manner that our clients have been acquired for sizable amounts. We also remain strongly committed to bringing awareness to the education gap Chicago faces through initiatives such as T4Youth, and plan on continuing to do so.
This recognition highlights our growth and our increasing credibility and reputation in our focus areas. As a note of encouragement to other boutiques, the exercise of identifying your big wins of the year, your case studies, your successes, and why they matter, is instructive in and of itself. This award has been warmly received by our existing client base, who understands the importance of a PR firm focusing on its own health and growth — it’s more than just something you should do, it’s something your clients want you to do.
Congratulations to the other award winners, and best wishes to all in the coming year. Expect 3Points to return to the PR World Awards next year, where we’ll be aiming to take home a gold medal for our 2017 accomplishments.
