Speaker kit

Adam Ritchie

Principal, Adam Ritchie Brand Direction

“Adam Ritchie is a true innovator, pioneering unique approaches.” (PRWeek)
“Adam Ritchie's non-traditional take on PR sets the firm apart.” (PRovoke)
“Adam shifts from building some of the industry’s most experimental campaigns to managing serious reputational crises from minute to minute.” (PR News)

  • Long bio:
    Adam advocates for public relations to evolve from its past as an organization’s mouthpiece to its future as an organization’s creative engine. Nationally regarded in the U.S., he’s been named the field’s most innovative professional (PRovoke), launched campaigns honored as the most creative (PRWeek) and runs a practice recognized as the top boutique agency in the country (PR News). He has won every award in the industry multiple times, spoken at more than 50 universities and written a book on the Invention-first approach to PR (Routledge). He is an Eagle Scout.

  • Short bio:
    Adam uses PR as an unstoppable source of invention and transformation, advocating for public relations to evolve from its past as an organization’s mouthpiece to its future as an organization’s creative engine.

  • Photo:

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Honors

Swept every campaign, individual and agency marketing communications competition in the U.S. with more than 70 career wins, including:

  • Forbes and Newsweek America’s Best PR Agencies

  • Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil honors including Excellence in Consumer Packaged Goods

  • PRWeek Awards including Best in Creative Excellence

  • PRovoke SABRE Award for Thought Leadership in PR and PRovoke Innovation SABRE Awards for Agency Disruption, Innovation Excellence and Brand Content & Creativity

  • Content Marketing Institute Awards, including Most Innovative Content Distribution Strategy

  • American Business Gold Awards for Communications Executive and PR Innovation of the Year

  • PRovoke Most Innovative Marketing Communications Professional honoree

  • PRovoke Agencies of the Year honoree

  • PRovoke Innovator 25 honoree

  • The Drum Marketer of the Year honoree

  • PR News PR Professional of the Year and Boutique Agency of the Year honoree

  • PR Daily Marketing Professional of the Year honoree

  • Bulldog Reporter PR Professional of the Year and Small Agency of the Year honoree

  • PRWeek 40 Under 40 honoree

  • Additional honors: http://aritchbrand.com/experience

Quotes from the industry

  • “Adam Ritchie’s non-traditional take on PR sets the firm apart.”
    -PRovoke Agencies of the Year jury

  • “Adam is expanding what PR can do and breaking barriers…showing range and purposeful creativity across industries…bringing value to clients…giving back and sharing his talents…elevating the PR discipline to new heights.”
    -American Business Awards jury

  • “Innovative...truly original...flawlessly executed…ambitious, brave and non-traditional...this represents the future of our business.”
    -PRWeek Awards jury

  • “A breakthrough...compelling and fresh...ingenious planning...dogged pursuit of the objectives.”
    -PRSA Silver Anvil jury

  • Additional industry quotes: http://aritchbrand.com/about

Quotes from peers

  • “Tenacious, fearless, disciplined, wise, accommodating, passionate and game-changing.”
    -Compiled from multiple clients

  • “A rare combination of strategic and creative ability that makes him a professional force of nature with a seemingly endless ability to make the impossible a reality.”
    -Colleague at the world’s largest PR agency

  • “One of the finest and most creative public relations minds in the country.”
    -Director of Public Diplomacy at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School

  • Additional peer quotes: http://aritchbrand.com/clients

Accomplishments

  • Invented a new content distribution vehicle, deployed in an industry-spanning campaign which turned the digital into the drinkable, offered a complete sensory experience, used technology to solve a problem technology created and changed consumer behavior. MarketWatch called it “a new strategy” and ADWEEK said it “took co-branding to the next level.” “T.R.I.P.” was the world’s first studio album released on cans of craft beer brewed to pair with the music. It sold out of every unit twice and drove a 167% increase in live attendance.

  • Transformed a diverse group of real-life moms from across the country into the world’s first team of pregnant comic book superheroes for baby gear brand Summer Infant. “The M.O.M. Squad” celebrated all moms as heroes, triggered a spree of supermom-tagging which doubled the brand’s social interactions and contributed to a double-digit percentage growth in sales. One editor wrote, “It challenges the way our society thinks about mothers.”

  • Converted influencers into a series of inspired menu items through a signature integrated program for Life Alive, a collection of organic cafes led by Panera and Au Bon Pain founder Ron Shaich. “Mix It Up” brought a diverse cohort of social insiders together with Live Alive’s culinary director to create healthy dishes inspired by their personal stories, and named them after their social handles. It tripled the brand’s social interactions and raised thousands of dollars for wellness nonprofits.

  • Walked across the country and back using his LifeSpan client’s treadmill desk product, while promoting it. The Boston-to-San Francisco round trip took seven years and covered 6,000 miles. He’s part of the active workplace movement, pushing offices to modernize into better places to be, help people lead healthier, less sedentary lives and live by his own message points. Along the way, he brought Former Cosmopolitan Editor-In-Chief Joanna Coles and her customized LifeSpan treadmill desk to a beach, park, restaurant, tennis court and pool for “New Chapter.”

  • Made online culture consumers do a double-take by Photoshopping kids into jaw-dropping situations for “Caught in the Act”: a daredevil integrated project revealing their secret lives

  • Fought inflation and built community by turning vintage subway tokens into a new form of currency for “Life Ⓣokens”: a campaign where an organic cafe brand accepted them as payment 10 years after they were retired

  • Turned influencer marketing on its head with the born free “Influencer Inversion”: a high-end event where people were only invited if they had less than 5,000 followers

  • Dared The New York Times to allow a young cyber Jedi to break into its website for a Cyber Aces campaign called “Permission to Hack,” resulting in front page coverage

  • Brought album artwork to life by transforming a fictional character into an online dating persona for “Rock Pony”

  • Demonstrated the near-indestructibility of a client’s product by partnering with a ballistics expert blow it to pieces, in “Unbreakable”

  • Earned thousands of perception-shaping media placements

  • Managed hundreds of product launches

  • Mitigated dozens of reputational crises

  • Maintains an accreditation in public relations (APR)

Work history

Handled more than 40 brands including American Ninja Warrior, Magic Hat Brewing Company, Jacuzzi, Perrier and Timberland.

  • 2007 - Present: Adam Ritchie Brand Direction (Independent)

    • Founded at the beginning of the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression and evolved to serve clients on four continents

    • Serves 20 categories, from beer to baby seats, treadmill desks to cybersecurity and niche social networks to the world’s largest swimming pools

    • Helped introduce children to STEM careers, turned hackers into cyber defenders, cut thermal pollution, greened urban areas, built followings for social entrepreneurs, encouraged healthy eating, facilitated bone marrow transplants, educated parents on child passenger safety and supported women reentering the workforce

    • Additional work: http://aritchbrand.com/services

  • 2003 - 2007: Cone Communications (Omnicom)

    • Brand Marketing Group

    • Crisis Management Group

Leadership

  • Leading the charge for PR to drive product development by creating a new approach to public relations and teaching it through a book and speaking tour called “Invention in PR.” PRovoke said the book “fundamentally flipped the industry's charge.” His talks have taken him to more than 50 universities, from Syracuse to Georgetown, DePaul to NYU and Harvard to Hawaii. One attendee said he’s “literally changing the way I think.”

  • Spoke about brand development at South by Southwest

  • Spoke about authorship at Content Marketing World

  • Spoke about product development at the Museum of Public Relations

  • Spoke about creativity at the PRSA International Conference and the PRSSA National Conference

  • Spoke about communications driving other disciplines at the IABC World Conference

  • Delivered keynote addresses at the PRSSA Leadership Assembly and to the graduating PR class at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications

  • Moderated panels on Storytelling and Ethical Results Reporting for PRSA Boston

  • Interviewed as one of the most-downloaded special guests on The PRWeek Podcast, The PRovoke Podcast and more

  • Contributed articles to (PRSA) Strategies & Tactics, PRWeek, PR News, PR Daily, Bulldog Reporter and O’Dwyer’s. The director of the PRSA’s national board called Adam’s writing, “a master class in creative PR…awe inspiring…what Top of Your Game looks like.”

  • Mentored dozens of professionals who have gone on to drive change at some of the best agencies in the country, including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Droga5, J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, Racepoint Global, Weber Shandwick, FleishmanHillard, Cone and Ketchum – and media companies like VICE, AMC and WBUR

Outside of work

  • Adam’s band has written and recorded five studio albums, performed at music festivals and venues across the country, released songs picked up by MTV and been featured in Billboard

  • NPR featured Adam in a special live session at WGBH studios, where he discussed independent music and how nontraditional distribution can be used to bridge the gap between the physical and the digital

  • Adam has run marathons, is an avid skier and a dedicated animal lover whose beagle, Daisy, rarely leaves his side

  • For his work with volunteer organizations, Adam was awarded the S.I. Newhouse Public Relations Award for Public Service. For his work in the community, Adam received an Alpha Phi Omega Distinguished Service Key. He is an Eagle Scout.

Interviews

Writing

Personal platforms

Agency platforms

 

Press contact

For high-res images and interview requests:

Kelci Lowery
(617) 302-7230