Telum is looking to highlight the diverse and vibrant agencies in the Southeast Asian PR agency landscape in upcoming editions of our PR Alert. We want to encourage networking, business opportunities, and to celebrate the great initiatives being worked on around the region. If you'd like your agency to feature, get in touch.

What services does Bud Communications offer?
We’re an integrated PR and content agency, serving kinetic technology brands that break the mould in their respective industries. Primarily, our offering centres around three pillars: media relations, content and strategy. 

Our business specialises in partnering with challenger tech brands across high-growth industries such as fintech, gaming, adtech, cybersecurity, SaSS and healthtech. Our services hinge around kinetic outcomes, creative thinking and clarity, to help brands distil complex topics into simple ideas. 

What size is Bud Communications?
We’re currently a team of fifteen across Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, serving clients across Southeast Asia and Australia. We grew by over 80% last year and are actively looking for storytellers, communicators and content creators to join us as we grow. 

Our clients are chiefly global or regional tech brands going through a dynamic phase of expansion. This growth could be driven by entering a new market, rolling out a new product or building up to fundraise or IPO.

Technology is our happy place, but our team’s passion and areas of expertise cover the entire gambit, from healthtech and gaming, to enterprise SaSS and eCommerce. Technology today touches almost every area of our lives and so we take pride in being a diverse group of PR experts, journalists and content creators, with a wide array of interests, backgrounds and skillsets. 

Where does Bud Communications have an office?
We have an office in Singapore’s CBD, right in between Telok Ayer, Raffles Place and Boat Quay, so we’re spoilt for choice of lunch and drinks options nearby. 

As a result, “where are we going for lunch?” is a daily conundrum in the office. 

Who is the founder and why did they start the agency?
Bud Communications was launched in early 2020 by our Founder, Oliver Budgen. 

Bud’s beginnings came about as a result of seeing high-growth, kinetic technology companies in need of a partner who understands the landscape and could help them unlock the next stage of growth. 

We wanted to create an agency that mirrored the appetite for innovation seen in startups, and combine this with strong culture, creative thinking, first-rate communications strategies and account servicing. 

What is next for Bud Communications? What is the five-year goal?
We’re focused on becoming the number one agency of choice for challenger technology brands. On the immediate horizon, this means broadening out our content offering, expanding our regional capabilities across Southeast Asia and Australia, and growing together as a team.

In a sentence, describe your ideal relationship with a journalist.
One that’s in it for the long term and hungry like us to further evolve the technology news ecosystem in Southeast Asia. 

Tell us about a campaign you are currently working on or are particularly proud of.
We recently won PRCA’s Best B2B Campaign and were highly commended for PRCA's Best Technology Campaign. The campaign was built around our client AdColony’s objective to educate the B2B gaming industry in Singapore and Australia.

Together, we created an e-learning platform and video content series designed to elevate the standards and best practices amongst video game marketers and agencies. The campaign is still live and has achieved amazing traction for a relatively modest investment, which we’re delighted with. We were across every element of the development, from scripting and video production to web design and PR. It was a hugely fun yet challenging project to work on, in all the right ways.

Any key PR trends your agency is keeping an eye on?
An increasing focus on how PR can help drive lead generation and SEO for clients. As for technology news, we’re naturally very attuned to announcements around online data, privacy regulations, and how smart marketers can best weather the evolving Internet landscape in the months and years ahead.

What skillsets do you look for in new hires?
We look for communicators with a flair for distilling complexity into simple ideas. 

In terms of values, collaboration is a big one. Can the individual integrate within a variety of teams to achieve a successful outcome? Are they able to modulate their working style to suit different situations or challenges?

Accountability is another. Taking ownership of a goal, and taking initiative and action to achieve the outcome. 

Humility is often an understated characteristic, but it’s one we respect. For us, it means putting actions before words, letting results speak for themselves and celebrating team achievements as a whole.

Lastly, the power to listen effectively is arguably one of the most underrated skills in our profession. When done well, everything written above becomes a lot easier!