about McGallen & Bolden
McGallen & Bolden Group is an agile PR agency specializing in digital marketing, marketing communication, public relations (PR), mobile, video communication, media and crisis communication training, as well as leadership and sales training.
“Our singular goal is to help you COMMUNICATE your brand effectively to all your stakeholders, through our tactical approaches and service offerings.”
Founded in 1991 in Singapore (first as a design consultancy), McGallen & Bolden Group is today one of the most established independent full service PR and marketing and agencies focused on Asia. 3 decades on, we have withstood the tests of many economic challenges and communication evolution, simply because our core team are hands-on, agile, lean, kaizen-focused, and have built a large pool of intellectual capital.
Our consultants are active worldwide with the power of technology-centric collaboration, and our Singapore office works closely with various established partners and associates around the world, including China PRC, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, etc., often appointed by our esteemed clients as their Lead Agency.
Our Evolution (chronological)
1991 – Graphic design and digital publishing (DTP), as ab initio
1991 – Aviation customer service training program customization
1994 – Public Relations (PR) and marketing communication
1996 – Internet consulting (web design, web/email hosting)
1996 – Book publishing (customer service leadership)
1997 – Training (customer service, TQM, ISO9000)
1998 – Java development
1999 – Internet & computer services (Cobalt, Tenon, etc)
1999 – First online newsroom
2000 – Video post-production (AVID NLE for TVC/Cinema)
2001 – Training (sales and leadership)
2002 – Training (media training and crisis communication)
2002 – Consulting on Knowledge Management and CMS
2003 – Perl development
2003 – NetJanus™ Email Security Appliance (BSD) development
2003 – Book publishing (book on business and tech leadership)
2004 – Training (media training for non-profits)
2004 – Online newsroom v2.0 (microwire.info)
2008 – Editorial and research consulting
2008 – Business & Market Strategy Consulting
2010 – App development (social media, Web and mobile)
2011 – CMS, Web 2.0 and e-Commerce
2012 – Rekindled video, filmmaking & VNR services
2014 – Branding (audit, strategy, naming, visual identity)
2015 – Co-developed “Leadership Secrets at 30,000 Feet”
2015 – Inbound Marketing
2016 – Refined sales training program – IntrinSelling™ Primer
2016 – Developed BRM™ and Leadership Training for Aviation
2016 – Rekindled Interactive Training Development (Video, App, Web)
2017 – Market Entry Consulting
2017 – Red Teaming
2018 – Business Strategy Consulting (consolidated)
2019 – Refined Aviation-themed Leadership & Communication Programs
2019 – Aurea Terras™ APAC PR Collective
2020 – Refined Training for COVID-19 (media training and crisis communication)
2022 – Refined Training for Conflicts (media training and crisis communication)
Our Evolution (by expertise areas)
v1.0 – Design
1991 – Graphic design and digital publishing (DTP), as ab initio
v2.0 – Public Relations (PR) & Communication
1994 – Public Relations (PR) and marketing communication
1999 – First online newsroom
2000 – Video post-production (AVID NLE for TVC/Cinema)
2003 – Book publishing (book on business and tech leadership)
2004 – Online newsroom v2.0 (microwire.info)
2008 – Editorial and research consulting
2012 – Rekindled video, filmmaking & VNR services
2014 – Branding (audit, strategy, naming, visual identity)
2019 – Aurea Terras™ APAC PR Collective
v3.0 – Technology
1996 – Internet consulting (web design, web/email hosting)
1998 – Java development
1999 – Internet & computer services (Cobalt, Tenon, etc)
2003 – Perl development
2003 – NetJanus™ Email Security Appliance (BSD) development
2010 – App development (social media, web and mobile)
2011 – CMS, Web 2.0 and e-Commerce
2015 – Inbound Marketing
v4.0 – Human Capital
1991 – Aviation customer service training program customization
1997 – Training (customer service, TQM, ISO9000)
2001 – Training (sales and leadership)
2002 – Consulting on Knowledge Management and CMS
2002 – Training (media training and crisis communication)
2004 – Training (media training for non-profits)
2008 – Business & Market Strategy Consulting
2015 – Co-developed “Leadership Secrets at 30,000 Feet”
2016 – Refined sales training program – IntrinSelling™ Primer
2016 – Developed BRM™ and Leadership Training for Aviation
2016 – Rekindled Interactive Training Development (Video, App, Web)
2017 – Market Entry Consulting
2017 – Red Teaming
2018 – Business Strategy Consulting (consolidated)
2019 – Refined Aviation-themed Leadership & Communication Programs
2020 – Refined Training for COVID-19 (media training and crisis communication)
2022 – Refined Training for Conflicts (media training and crisis communication)
Visual Identity
Our trademarked logo has been in existence since we started. The logo stands for why we exist, what we do, and how we achieve results for clients. The logo simply works, and we still stand by what we do.
The stylized CUBE stands for Technology (Internet/web, social media, digital video) as an enabler. The stylized SPHERE stands for Publicity (the full spectrum of public relations, marketing communication, and events). The stylized CONE stands for Training and Development (akin to the “Maslow’s hierarchy”). The RED ARROW in orbit stands for the Integration of all our components together seamlessly.
The identity was previously trademarked in USA and now in the EU (TM# 018103611, dated 20191127).
We are experimenting with a new refreshed identity, and this is the current rendition as of 2020. It represents a stylized M and B lower-case characters, but like a coiled spring representing latent kinetic energy, which represents how we enable the latent potential in entities, whether that be businesses or individuals, to do great things. It also relates to coiled cables, related to internetworking technologies that power the Internet, social media and broadcasting today.
Global Reach – Partners in Asia Pacific and the World
We have built a network of allied partner agencies around the world, named the Aurea Terras PR Collective, including the Asia Pacific, from China PRC, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, South East Asia, Australia/NZ, EU, and the Americas. If you are looking for B2B or B2C agencies and need an experienced and friendly Lead Agency, talk to us. If you are an agency reaching out to an Asian, European, or American market, and find synergy with us on a non-compete basis, we are happy to get to know you too.
Security Appliance & Consulting (Legacy)
McGallen & Bolden has consultants and technical development partners who were researching various ways of fighting email spam and malware, on platforms such as FreeBSD, Linux and Mac OS X since 2004. Our efforts started from a frustration with the growing problem of email spam and attachment malware in incoming email (especially in spoofed emails). We developed various test platform workstations and servers in portable lightweight hardware profiles, and tested this at our location on a leased circuit and a large media/publishing company in those early years. The project has a registered trademark for its solutions – NetJanus®. However, the advent of open source and cloud solutions meant that the window of trade opportunity became smaller, and we moved on to other areas. This project has been depreciated. The older trademark is below.
Incorporation
In various stages of our development, we had incorporated in countries such as Ireland, Cyprus, the Americas, and the U.K. Today, we retain incorporation in our home practice in Singapore to serve clients across Asia Pacific with our trusted partners, as well as a new EU entity McGallen & Bolden OÜ in Tallinn, Estonia.
Investors
Our firm is friendly and cooperative to equity partnerships with a synergistic larger group or investors should a genuine opportunity arise. Contact us if you are keen on a small, highly skilled and experienced agency like ours to expand into the greater Asia and beyond.
Terms of Engagement
It is very easy to work with our firm. We are nimble, fast, productive, and effective. We love committed, enlightened and mature clients.
- Retainer or Projects. Even a “one-off” project is really a short retainer because PR and digital marketing programs need maturation, unlike very expensive advertising blitz (intensive multi-platform campaigns). This is also why we recommend retained programs over “one off” programs, especially if you are an enterprise technology brand, a startup, or in a niche business/industry.
- Quotation and Pitch. For most clients, we will send you a simple quotation after perhaps a meeting or a phone call. Simply sign off on the quotation as the contractual basis of a Purchase Order (PO). Thereafter, an invoice, or monthly invoices, will be automatically generated by our system and sent to you by email. There is no credit term for retained or project services (see below “Fees”).
- Fees. We are a small and nimble firm with in-house technologies to keep costs affordable for you. We tailor programs based on what you need and what you can commit. So you will find our fees reasonable and professional while you get the counsel of some of the most experienced and field-proven consultants. So let’s not “bargain”.
- Third-party fees. For event clients, all third-party costs will be billed directly to the client (e.g. hotels and MICE facilities, food and beverage, utilities and furnishings rentals, etc) PRIOR to the event. If you prefer to streamline your costs through one single party, we can combine all these costs and our fees into a single invoice, which is payable PRIOR to starting work. For project clients involving our international partners, payment may be required PRIOR to work.
- Payment schedule and credit terms. For retained clients, all fees and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses are due on the FIRST day of the SAME month, i.e. if the invoice is for the month of January, then the payment is due on January 1 or before. Unlike hardware vendors, our services once rendered, cannot be retrieved in the event of non-payment. Therefore, professional service fees have no credit terms.
- Out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. What are some OOP expenses that will be billed to you? These are examples (and not restricted to only these):
- local and foreign courier charges (e.g. sending review units to the media);
- event location and food and beverage charges;
- copyright/licensing costs (such as acquiring TV/radio/print interview segments from the media for your internal review);
- communication collateral production costs (rarer these days due to the social media and Web);
- coverage reports in print (let’s save trees – we do email you PDFs or online versions);
- acquisition of physical print media for your archival;
- iterative/extraneous changes to projects beyond the contractual terms.
- Media Contacts Database. We share the Media Name (i.e. name of publication, TV, radio, or online media) with our clients. Our clients respect that our database is ours (i.e. names, contact details, preferences of journalists). Just as when you subscribe to a news distribution service (e.g. Cision/PRNewswire), they will not cede their database to you – you are merely paying for their service to distribute your news.
- No “pay for performance”. Some prospects have asked us before, if we will be paid by “published articles” rather than by retained fees. No. We do not do “profit-sharing” schemes either. We are on a strictly “professional fees” basis. We believe in sustained programs. Some mainstream media scorn at “pay for performance” (do a search on Google, or refer to this Techcrunch piece), and we concur that the so-called “pay for performance” crosses the ethical boundaries of PR and journalism. You pay for our strategic counsel, our consulting approaches, project management, and so on.
Things we DON’T do
As a strategic agency serving CXOs and top management, our primary interest and role are to provide counsel and ideas to clients who like to jump-start their marketing and communication campaigns and programs. There are some frontline project tasks best assigned to your own people, or to third-party partners:
- Cold calling for you (i.e. acting as your salespeople);
- Admin services (e.g. photocopying in bulk);
- Consumer purchases, butler and courier services (e.g. buying gifts and items for client’s personal use);
- Trade purchases (e.g. buying factory or IT equipment for you, which has legal and taxation ramifications);
- Festivity or gift purchases.
We also do not partake or take on projects or advocacy that would contravene our beliefs, venture into particular politics or stances, the peace of the community at large, or products that won’t gain regional traction due to media preferences.
Little “dogs” trivia
Found this nostalgic photograph, which showed just a small part of our total collection of hundreds of these dog figurines, courtesy of Smalldogs.com which gave us a little token every time we bought some Mac computer or peripheral back then. Great bunch of folks.