The Beekeeper Group, a public affairs agency based in the District, is growing. The company recently added both a lead developer and an account director to its staff and the company is looking to hire an account coordinator. Filling that position will bring Beekeeper's staff to 20.
Shana Glickfield, one of the five founding partners of The Beekeeper Group, says that the company's growth is due to expansion in the health sector, an industry in which Beekeeper works, and clients' growing need for an agency that can work in digital media. "There's a demand for organizations in D.C. [that] do more in in digital space," she explains.
The Beekeeper group was founded in 2010 as a "transpartisan niche public affairs [organization that pushes] policies or messages rather than brands or products," Glickfield says. "It's a very Washington thing." Most of Beekeeper's clients are trade associations or nonprofit agencies. Beekeeper provides web design, mobile messaging, CRM and video and animation, among other services.
"We convince associations that they have to have a great digital presence," Glickfield says. "No Hill staffer is going to read [their] 100-page report. So we turn it into a 60-second spot, with humor."
Beekeeper also uses video and animation to turn complicated public policy issues into ones that average constituents can comprehend. "Policy issues in D.C. can be hard to understand," she says. In April, Beekeeper won an industry award for a 75-second
spot they created for the American Society of Pension Professionals. "Even saying the name is hard," Glickfield laughs, "let alone explaining what they do. [Video], rather than a white paper, is a really effective way to communicate the issue."
The company also won an award in March for its
Lobby Day app, which puts crucial information about an issue at the fingertips of advocates on the ground on Capitol Hill. "We created the app to replace the binder" that organizations would distribute to their members, Glickfield explains. "We put it in digital format."
She says, "Beekeeper is advocacy for the digital age."