Tomek Młodzki of PhotoAiD: This Is How We Brought Our Business In The Media
Tags: Pr, Startup Marketing, Founder, Public Relations, Founder Stories

Tomek Młodzki of PhotoAiD: This Is How We Brought Our Business In The Media

PhotoAiD is a biometric photography startup raised from a photo booths service. Along with his brothers, Tomek Młodzki founded Poland’s first company dealing with the production and service of photo booths. The business was fruitful, so once they had built a solid photo booth network, they felt that they wanted to create something more meaningful and make the lives of their customers easier. In fact, they have invested in AI technology and new devices to become the leader in passport photo processing. Today the company serves over 100 countries and processes thousands of photos per month with a team of 80 highly skilled employees.

For PRontheGO, Tomek shares insights into how the team handles PR and growth activities for PhotoAid.

Have you had any PR experience before founding your business?

Not at all. I have studied law, a completely different field from media and public relations. Neither of my brothers — my business partners — had any experience in that field. However, I have learned more than just legislation from studying law. In some ways, I feel judicial work or lawyer professions are pretty similar to PR: your job is to portray a favorable image of your client.

Do you do DIY PR or do you work with a PR freelancer /agency? Please share your experiences.

I haven’t worked with a PR agency yet. We have a person who handles PR, but it’s only one of her duties. In addition, we’ve created an Outreach team responsible for PR, among other things. Right now, that solution suits our needs, so we are not planning to hire a separate PR specialist.

We see it as an advantage to train our employees in PR because they know our organization inside out. Things run more smoothly since they are familiar with other employees, our company culture, strategy, and vision.

What does the PR strategy for your business look like?

We are a Polish company, but we aim to become a global service provider. Therefore, we use both local and global media equally. Using HARO responses and digital PR articles, our outreach team increases brand awareness online at the international level.

Hand-in-hand, we promote our business locally. The best examples are campaigns that offer free student ID photos before starting a new school year or free personal ID photos before implementing new document requirements. While launching a campaign, we reach out to local media outlets and web portals to promote it.

How do you implement PR tactics in your every day work schedule?

PR entails various tasks, such as interviews, answering requests, planning meetings, writing requests, building databases of contacts and outlets, and team management. My schedule depends on which assignments take center stage during our current PR campaign. Some days I reach out to journalists; other days, I answer their questions. Sometimes I have to wait for answers, so I just stay updated on the market by reading the news.

What is your experience with Thought Leadership activities? Please share examples.

HARO is our way to build a credible online presence. Through this service, our insights appear in trusted media outlets. And how does it improve our image? For example, readers perceive our Head of Marketing as an expert source when quoted in a reputable publication. Her expertise and reputation have grown, and she has become recognized as a thought leader.

Which platforms and tools do you use for PR?

It depends on the tasks. For finding relevant outlets and contacts and research keywords and website rankings, we use Prowly and Ahrefs. Meanwhile, our outreach team uses HARO and Terkel to answer questions from their field of expertise. In addition, some tools simplify everyday tasks, such as Airtable for organizing assignments and Grammarly for correcting texts.

What was a PR success story of your business, and how did you get there?