Alpha Marketplace™  |  PR Agency in Singapore

We track reach, sentiment, placement velocity, conversion, predictive scores, delivery times, and publisher performance. We also watch the smaller signals that tell us whether a campaign is breathing or barely alive: how coverage spreads, which stories gain traction, and how the conversation shifts over time.

A lot of agencies send you a clippings report and call it a day. We pull together traditional media metrics and digital footprint data into one view so you can see what your PR is actually doing, not just what got published. Our founder Jeremy Foo has always pushed for PR to be measured like any other business function, with real numbers you can compare month to month.

Our dashboard tracks your brand narrative around the clock. You see which placements are getting attention, which publishers are performing, and where the next opportunity sits. We are honest about what PR measurement can and cannot do. It will not give you a clean sales attribution number because earned media does not work that way. But it gives you the data you need to know whether your investment is paying off in visibility, credibility, and trust.

We work with over 1,000 publishers and creators across Southeast Asia. In Singapore, our placements regularly appear in The Straits Times, Business Times, CNA, Tech in Asia, Vulcan Post, The Smart Local, and Mothership. For lifestyle and premium brands, we also pitch to outlets like Tatler. For startups looking to reach a regional audience, INC Southeast Asia and Tech in Asia help get your story in front of readers beyond Singapore.

Which outlets we pitch depends on your industry and story. A fintech startup and a consumer brand need very different media lists, and we build each one from scratch. Our founder Jeremy Foo and his team have spent years building direct relationships with editors and journalists across technology, finance, healthcare, consumer, and lifestyle beats. That access matters more than any media database.

One honest note: editorial decisions always sit with the publication. No agency can guarantee a specific outlet will run your story. What we do is position your story well, pitch it to the right people, and follow up until it lands. If you want guaranteed placement volume, we have plans for that too.

Most PR agencies charge for effort. Whether you get published or not, you still pay. Alpha Story works differently. Our guaranteed plans come with a minimum number of confirmed media placements. If we fall short, we keep pitching at no extra cost until we hit the number we committed to.

The guarantee is on volume, not on specific publications. We cannot promise you The Straits Times or CNA because those editorial decisions sit with the publishers. But we can promise a minimum number of placements, and we typically land more than the minimum. Our founder Jeremy Foo set it up this way because he thought agencies should have skin in the game instead of collecting retainers and hoping for the best.

If you have particular outlets in mind, we also offer custom packages built around your target publications. Check our pricing page for plan details, or book a demo to talk through what would work for you.

PR is valuable for early-stage startups because it builds the credibility that unlocks investor meetings, customer trust, and partnership opportunities before you have the revenue or brand recognition to earn them on your own. In Singapore's startup ecosystem, where investors evaluate hundreds of pitches a year and enterprise buyers default to established vendors, a single feature in a publication like Tech in Asia or Business Times can change how the market perceives your company overnight. It signals that an independent editor decided your story was worth covering, which carries more weight than any amount of paid advertising.

Our founder Jeremy Foo has worked with thousands of startup founders across Singapore and Southeast Asia over the past decade, and he makes one point consistently: your founder's story is your secret weapon. Early-stage companies rarely have the product data or market share to compete on metrics alone. But every founder has a story about why they started, what problem they saw, and what they are building differently. That narrative is what journalists want to write about. When you lead with the human story behind the business rather than a product spec sheet, you give publications a reason to feature you even if you launched last month. Jeremy has seen this pattern work across fintech, healthtech, consumer, and SaaS verticals alike.

The practical outcomes are specific. A well-placed media feature gives you third-party validation you can use in investor decks, showing traction beyond user numbers. It gives your sales team a credibility asset to share with prospects who have never heard of you. It generates backlinks that improve your search visibility, which compounds over time. And in a market like Singapore where word-of-mouth travels fast in tight industry circles, one article in the right publication can trigger inbound interest from partners and customers you did not know existed. Jeremy is also direct that PR does not lead directly to sales, but it builds the credibility, trust, and brand recognition that makes every other growth channel perform better.

The barrier for most early-stage startups has always been cost. Traditional PR agencies in Singapore charge S$5,000 to S$15,000 per month, which is difficult to justify when you are pre-revenue or running on a seed round. Alpha Story was built specifically for this stage. Our plans start below S$1,000 per month with no lock-in contracts and guaranteed placement options that remove the risk of paying and getting nothing in return. If you are building something real and you have a story worth telling, the question is not whether PR is valuable. It is whether you can afford to stay invisible while your competitors get coverage. Book a call to discuss what a startup-stage campaign would look like for you.

Yes. Startups can save a significant amount by taking a DIY approach to PR. Our founder Jeremy Foo has seen founders save S$5,000 to S$10,000 a month by handling parts of their PR and marketing themselves instead of hiring a traditional agency.

Alpha Story is built around this philosophy. It gives you an affordable model that saves you time while still delivering journalist-ready output. You get the benefit of professional support without starting from scratch or committing to large retainers, which makes PR far more accessible for early-stage companies.

Effective PR strategies for tech startups in Asia come down to five things: founder-led thought leadership, data-backed pitching, regional publication targeting, launch timing around news cycles, and treating PR as a continuous effort rather than a one-off campaign. Our founder Jeremy Foo has worked with thousands of tech founders across Singapore and Southeast Asia and has seen these five strategies consistently separate the startups that get covered from those that stay invisible.

Start with founder-led thought leadership. In Asia's tech press, journalists at publications like Tech in Asia, CNA, and Business Times want to hear from the person building the company, not a corporate spokesperson. Publish your perspective on LinkedIn, contribute guest commentary to industry publications, and take positions on trends in your sector. This builds your profile so that when you pitch a story, journalists already recognize your name. Jeremy advises tech founders to share insights regularly rather than waiting for a product launch to start talking. He calls your founder story your "secret weapon" because it gives journalists a human angle that product announcements alone do not provide.

Pitch with data, not just narrative. Asian tech journalists are practical. They want to know your user numbers, growth rate, market size, or the specific problem your technology solves with evidence behind it. A pitch that says "we are disrupting payments" gets ignored. A pitch that says "we processed S$10 million in transactions in our first six months across Singapore and Malaysia" gets a response. If your numbers are early-stage, lean on the problem data instead: the size of the gap you are filling, the inefficiency you measured, or the customer pain point you validated through research. Pair that data with a clear, one-sentence news angle and you have a pitch worth reading.

Target regionally, not globally. Asia's media landscape is fragmented. What works in Singapore does not automatically work in Malaysia, Indonesia, or Thailand. Start with the publications your target customers actually read. In Singapore, that means outlets like The Straits Times, Business Times, Vulcan Post, The Smart Local, and Mothership for consumer-facing stories, and Tech in Asia and CNA for B2B and enterprise coverage. Once you have credibility in your home market, use that coverage as leverage when expanding to regional outlets. Alpha Story works with a network of over 1,000 publishers and creators across Southeast Asia, which means we can target the right outlets in each market rather than running a generic regional blast.

Time your launches around news cycles and treat PR as ongoing. Avoid launching into weeks when major conferences, elections, or earnings seasons dominate the news. Monitor what journalists are covering and find the window where your story has room to breathe. More importantly, do not treat PR as a single event. Jeremy stresses that consistent visibility keeps you top of mind with journalists, investors, and potential partners. Traditional agencies in Singapore charge S$5,000 to S$15,000 per month for ongoing retainers. Alpha Story offers the same continuity at below S$1,000 per month, with no lock-in and guaranteed placement options. Book a call to build a PR strategy tailored to your startup's stage and market.

Alpha Story is different because it combines campaign-based pricing, guaranteed media placements, a 1,000+ publisher network, and AI-powered tools into a single PR model built for startups and growth-stage companies in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Most traditional agencies in Singapore charge S$5,000 to S$15,000 per month on retainer contracts that lock you in for three to six months. Alpha Story starts at below S$1,000 per month with no long-term lock-in.

Guaranteed placements are the clearest differentiator. Traditional agencies charge for effort and make no commitment on results. Alpha Story's guaranteed plans commit to a minimum number of confirmed media placements, and if we fall short, we keep working at no extra cost until we deliver. Our founder Jeremy Foo built this model after watching too many startups pay full retainers and receive nothing but a clippings report with zero results. He believed agencies should share the risk, not just collect fees.

The second difference is technology. Alpha Echo, our monitoring and intelligence platform, scans news, social channels, and forums in real time to surface opportunities and flag risks before they escalate. Alpha Marketplace handles execution, matching your story with the right publishers and creators from our network. These tools give you visibility into your campaign that spreadsheets and email threads cannot match. Most agencies in the Singapore market rely on manual processes and relationship-based pitching alone. We do both, human relationships backed by AI that finds angles and timing advantages you would otherwise miss.

Then there is reach. Our network spans 1,000+ publishers and creators across Southeast Asia, with regular placements in outlets including The Straits Times, Business Times, CNA, Tech in Asia, Vulcan Post, The Smart Local, Mothership, Tatler, and INC Southeast Asia. We have served thousands of clients across the region, from pre-seed startups to established enterprises. That volume of experience means we have seen what works and what falls flat across dozens of industries.

One honest caveat: we are not the right fit for every company. If you need a large agency-of-record handling government relations, investor roadshows, and multi-country brand campaigns simultaneously, a bigger firm may serve you better. Where Alpha Story excels is in getting founders and growing companies published in credible outlets, quickly and affordably, without the overhead and opacity of traditional retainers. Compare our plans or book a demo to see whether the model fits your situation.

Choose a PR agency by evaluating five things: industry experience, pricing transparency, media access, reporting quality, and whether they have actually delivered results for companies at your stage. The Singapore PR market ranges from boutique specialists to large regional firms, and the right choice depends on your budget, your timeline, and how hands-on you want to be.

Check their track record in your industry. An agency that has placed fintech stories will know different journalists than one that specializes in F&B or lifestyle. Ask for case studies or examples from your sector. Ask who they have pitched to recently and which outlets they have relationships with. Agencies that have worked across many industries, like Alpha Story which has served thousands of clients across sectors, bring breadth. Agencies with deep vertical focus bring precision. Decide which matters more for your goals.

Understand the pricing model before you sign anything. Traditional Singapore agencies charge S$5,000 to S$15,000 per month on retainers, often with three to six month minimums. That works for companies with steady PR needs and big budgets. If you are a startup or an SME running a specific campaign, look for agencies that offer campaign-based pricing or project rates. Our founder Jeremy Foo advises founders to avoid retainer lock-in unless they are certain they need ongoing monthly coverage. Ask what happens if the agency does not deliver. Some agencies, including Alpha Story, offer guaranteed placement plans where they continue working at no extra cost if they fall short of committed placements.

Ask to see their actual output. Request sample pitches and reporting formats before committing. A strong pitch should read like something a journalist would respond to, not a marketing brochure. The reporting should tell you what got published, where, and what impact it had, not just a list of links. This step alone will eliminate most agencies that cannot deliver on what they promise.

Trust your instinct on communication speed. The best indicator of how an agency will perform is how they communicate during the sales process. If they take a week to respond to your inquiry, they will take a week to respond when a journalist has a deadline. PR is a time-sensitive business. The agency you choose should move at your pace or faster. Book a call with Alpha Story to see how we work, and judge the speed and quality of the conversation for yourself.

PR can help you earn trust, build recognition and show customers and investors why your story matters. When you are featured in respected publications, people see your company as more credible because the message comes from an independent source.

Our founder Jeremy Foo explains that PR is one of the fastest ways for early-stage companies to look established and communicate their value with clarity.

But PR does have limits. It cannot guarantee sales, fix a weak product or replace a consistent content strategy.

When you use PR with the right expectations, it becomes a powerful tool that supports your growth across marketing, fundraising and partnerships.

A PR agency helps you tell your story clearly and make sure it reaches the right journalists. They help you get your story into trusted publications, shape public perception, and protect your reputation. This usually means writing press releases, pitching journalists, securing interviews, and supporting during crises.

Many founders struggle to explain what they do in a way that feels relevant to the media, so agencies help shape that message and show you how it fits into current trends or issues that matter. Our founder Jeremy Foo often talks about how even strong founders fail to pitch themselves effectively because they speak in product language instead of story language.

A good PR agency translates your expertise into a narrative that journalists understand, prepares press materials that reflect your brand accurately and manages the outreach so you stay focused on running your company.

The benefit is simple: you get credible coverage without guessing how the media works or handling everything alone.

At Alpha Story, this process is streamlined: we handle everything from writing to pitching and can even guarantee placements through our network of 1,000+ publishers and creators.

PR agency fees in Singapore typically range from S$5,000 to S$15,000 per month for retainer-based engagements with traditional agencies. These retainers usually cover strategy, media outreach, and ongoing account management, and most firms require a commitment of three to six months. For project-based or campaign work, expect to pay between S$5,000 and S$50,000 depending on the scope, number of markets, and whether the campaign includes events or media tours.

Those numbers make sense for large corporates with dedicated comms budgets, but they shut out most startups and SMEs. That gap is exactly why Alpha Story exists. Our plans start below S$1,000 per month, with no lock-in contracts and guaranteed media placement options. You get the same deliverables that traditional agencies provide, including press release writing, journalist pitching, and placement reporting, at a fraction of the cost. Our founder Jeremy Foo built this model after working with thousands of early-stage companies and watching them overpay for slow results or go without PR entirely.

One important distinction: retainer pricing and campaign pricing work differently. A retainer gives you ongoing coverage across months, while a campaign is a focused burst around a specific launch, announcement, or story. Alpha Story offers both. If you are not sure which model fits, a short demo call will help you figure that out in about fifteen minutes. We will tell you honestly if your budget and goals are better served by a campaign than a retainer, or the other way around.

Keep in mind that the cheapest option is not always the best value. Agencies that charge very little often rely on press release distribution wires rather than direct journalist outreach. The difference matters. A wire blast might get your release listed on aggregator sites, but it rarely results in genuine editorial coverage from publications like The Straits Times, Business Times, or Tech in Asia. When comparing fees, ask what you are actually getting: distribution or placement.

A PR agency is worth it if it helps you build credibility faster than you could on your own. Coverage from a trusted publication carries weight because it comes from an independent voice, not from paid promotion.

Our founder Jeremy Foo often reminds founders that PR is not meant to act like performance marketing. Its role is to shape perception, strengthen trust and open doors that advertising cannot. If the agency you choose can help you share a meaningful story, place you in relevant outlets and give your audience a reason to believe in your brand, then the value compounds over time. The key is choosing the right model. Traditional retainers can be expensive, which is why Alpha Story was built to offer campaign-based PR that gives you real coverage without the long contracts.

In short, it's worth it when the visibility, trust, and reputation gains outweigh the fees. Results show up in investor confidence, customer perception, and long-term brand value. Our model makes this easier to justify: most clients see media interest within weeks, and our guaranteed placement plans reduce the risk of paying without results.

A PR agency earns attention by convincing journalists that your story matters, while an advertising agency buys attention directly. Advertising can help you reach people quickly, but it does not carry the same authority as an article written by a trusted publication.

Jeremy Foo stresses that many founders dismiss PR because it does not tie directly to immediate sales, yet it is often the fastest way to build a trustworthy reputation. When someone reads about your company through independent coverage, they view you through a different lens.

PR helps shape how people perceive your brand, which influences every interaction that follows. Advertising is useful for scale, but PR is invaluable for trust.

A PR agency helps you earn credibility, while a marketing agency helps you buy attention. Marketing agencies focus on performance channels, paid campaigns and conversion metrics, which are important for growth but do not necessarily make people trust your brand. PR works differently. It places your story within a broader conversation and earns validation from independent media.

Our founder Jeremy Foo explains that PR gives early-stage companies a form of legitimacy that advertising alone cannot achieve. When a journalist chooses to write about your company, your audience sees you as more established and reliable. PR and marketing can work together, but if your priority is credibility, PR usually has a stronger impact.

Choosing a PR agency over an in-house hire makes sense when you need experience, speed and media-ready storytelling without the cost or time required to build those capabilities internally.

Hiring someone full-time means you must train them, pay a monthly salary and hope they already understand how to pitch to journalists. Most early-stage companies do not have that luxury. Our founder Jeremy Foo has worked with thousands of startups and has seen how difficult it is for a single in-house hire to match the experience and industry awareness that an agency team already has.

Agencies work across sectors, speak with journalists daily and know how to shape a story quickly because they see what gets published and what does not. This gives you immediate access to expertise that would take months for a new hire to develop.

An agency also scales with you. When you have a launch, a crisis or a sudden news opportunity, you can tap into a full team instead of relying on one person.

For early-stage companies that need credible coverage fast, it is usually far more efficient to work with an agency model designed for founders rather than building an internal function before you are ready.

A PR agency works by learning your story, crafting it into something journalists care about, pitching it to the right media outlets, and reporting back on what got published. The process is more structured than most founders expect. At Alpha Story, we break it into five clear steps so you always know where your campaign stands.

Step 1: Questionnaire. You fill out a short intake form covering your business, goals, target audience, and any upcoming milestones. This typically takes 10 to 15 minutes. The point is to surface what makes your story relevant right now, not just what your company does. Our founder Jeremy Foo designed this step after noticing that most agencies spend weeks in "discovery" meetings that could be replaced by the right 20 questions.

Step 2: Campaign planning. Our team reviews your questionnaire, researches your industry landscape, and builds a campaign plan that identifies which publications to target, what angle to lead with, and what timeline to expect. You will see a clear plan before any writing begins. Most campaigns are scoped for 4 to 8 weeks depending on your goals.

Step 3: Writing. We draft your press releases, media pitches, and supporting materials. Everything is written to editorial standards, meaning it reads like something a journalist would actually use, not a marketing brochure. You review and approve before anything goes out.

Step 4: Media outreach. This is where relationships matter. We pitch your story directly to journalists and editors across our network of 1,000+ publishers and creators in Southeast Asia. This includes outlets like The Straits Times, Business Times, CNA, Tech in Asia, Vulcan Post, The Smart Local, and Mothership. We follow up, negotiate timing, and handle all back-and-forth so you do not have to chase anyone.

Step 5: Publication and reporting. Once your story is published, we send you a full report covering where it appeared, who it reached, and how the coverage performed. If you are on a guaranteed placement plan, we continue pitching at no extra cost until we hit the committed number of placements. The whole process from questionnaire to first publication typically takes 2 to 6 weeks, depending on your industry and the outlets involved. Book a demo to walk through how this would look for your specific situation.

Yes, and the sooner you act, the more options you have. Alpha Story handles crisis communications across industries, whether that is negative press coverage or a social media pile-on.

The difference with us is Alpha Echo, our monitoring tool. Echo scans news outlets, social channels, and forums around the clock. It picks up risk signals and spots emerging narratives early, often before a story gains traction. That means your team is not scrambling to respond to something that blew up overnight. You see the warning signs while there is still time to get ahead of it.

When a crisis is already live, we move quickly. Our team puts together holding statements, media responses, and stakeholder communications while the situation is still developing. Our founder Jeremy Foo's approach to crisis situations is to lead with honesty rather than spin. After the pressure passes, we help you rebuild so the crisis does not become the only thing people associate with your brand.

If you are dealing with something now or want to be prepared before something happens, book a consultation and we can review your exposure together.

No, you do not need a marketing team, PR team, or any prior PR experience to work with Alpha Story. Most of our clients are solo founders, small startup teams, or SMEs with no dedicated communications staff. Alpha Story handles the end-to-end process: story development, press release writing, journalist pitching, media outreach, and placement reporting. Your role is to provide input about your business and approve the final materials before they go to publishers. That is it.

Here is what the time commitment actually looks like. During onboarding, you fill out a short questionnaire about your company, goals, and story angle. That takes roughly 30 to 45 minutes. After that, our team handles campaign planning and produces your press materials. You review the drafts and provide feedback, which typically takes 15 to 20 minutes per review cycle. Once the materials are approved, we manage the media outreach entirely. You do not need to know which journalists to contact, how to write a pitch email, or how to follow up. Most clients spend under two hours total per campaign on their side, spread across a few short touchpoints.

Our founder Jeremy Foo designed the process this way deliberately. After working with thousands of startup founders, he recognized that the biggest barrier to PR was not budget alone but the assumption that you needed a comms team to make it work. Traditional agencies often expect clients to have an internal PR or marketing person to coordinate with, which creates a gap for companies that do not have that role filled. Alpha Story's campaign-based model removes that dependency. You get a dedicated team handling strategy, writing, and outreach, and your only job is to show up for brief check-ins and say yes or no to the work.

That said, if you do have a marketing or comms team, the process works just as well. Your team can collaborate more closely on messaging, review materials in more detail, or coordinate PR timing with your other marketing activities. The platform scales to your setup. Whether you are a solo founder running everything yourself or a growing company with a small marketing function, Alpha Story adjusts to how much involvement you want. If you are not sure how it would fit your situation, book a demo and we will map it out with you in fifteen minutes.

Digital PR is the practice of earning coverage in online publications, news websites, blogs, and social platforms to build your brand's credibility, drive referral traffic, and strengthen your search visibility. Unlike traditional PR, which focuses on print newspapers, broadcast television, and physical events, digital PR targets the channels where your audience actually spends time online. The coverage lives permanently on the internet, which means a single well-placed article can generate traffic and backlinks for years.

The business benefits are concrete. Every article that links back to your website improves your domain authority, which is the signal search engines use to decide how trustworthy your site is. Higher domain authority means your own pages rank better in Google. Beyond SEO, digital PR generates referral traffic from readers who click through to your site, social proof when prospects see your brand mentioned in publications they already trust, and brand signals that AI answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity use when deciding which companies to recommend. In Singapore and across Southeast Asia, a single feature in Tech in Asia or CNA can put your brand in front of decision-makers who would cost thousands of dollars to reach through paid ads.

The difference between digital PR and traditional PR is not just the medium. Traditional agencies often measure success by media impressions, a number that tells you how many people could have seen your coverage. Digital PR measures what people actually did: clicks, time on page, backlinks earned, keyword rankings improved. Our founder Jeremy Foo sees this shift firsthand. Founders increasingly ask for coverage that does double duty, building reputation and driving measurable web traffic at the same time. That is exactly what digital PR delivers when it is done well.

At Alpha Story, digital PR is built into every campaign. We pitch to online outlets across our 1,000+ publisher and creator network, track the backlinks and referral traffic each placement generates, and report on the SEO and visibility impact alongside traditional coverage metrics. If your goal is not just to be featured but to turn that feature into lasting business value, digital PR is the approach that compounds. See our plans or book a demo to discuss what digital PR could look like for your business.

The press release process at Alpha Story starts with your input and ends with confirmed media placements, typically within two to six weeks. Here is how each stage works. First, you share the core material: what you are announcing, why it matters, who it affects, and any supporting data or quotes. This can be as simple as a short briefing call or a filled-out questionnaire. You do not need a draft press release ready. Most clients come to us with a rough idea and we shape it from there.

Our writing team then produces a press release written to editorial standards, not marketing copy. That distinction is critical. A journalist-ready release leads with the news angle, includes verifiable facts and quotes, and follows the inverted-pyramid structure that editors expect. We write your release so a reporter at The Straits Times or CNA could run key sections with minimal rewriting. You review the draft and approve it before anything goes out. If the angle needs adjusting, we revise until you are confident it represents your story accurately.

Once approved, the release moves into targeted media outreach. We do not distribute through press release wires that blast to thousands of generic contacts. Instead, we pitch directly to journalists and editors across our network of over 1,000 publishers and creators in Southeast Asia. Each pitch is tailored to the journalist's beat and publication. A fintech announcement goes to the reporters who actually cover fintech at publications like Business Times or Tech in Asia. A consumer product story goes to lifestyle editors at The Smart Local, Mothership, or Vulcan Post. We handle all follow-ups, negotiate timing and exclusives where appropriate, and manage revisions if a journalist requests additional information or a different angle.

After publication, you receive a report covering where your story appeared, reach metrics, and any follow-up opportunities that emerged. If you are on a guaranteed placement plan, we continue pitching until we meet the committed number of placements at no extra cost. The entire process from your initial briefing to first publication typically takes two to six weeks, depending on the complexity of the story and the editorial cycles of the outlets we target. Book a demo to walk through how this would work for your specific announcement.

If you have tried PR before and it did not work, the problem was almost certainly the approach, not the concept. Our founder Jeremy Foo has worked with thousands of companies across Singapore and Southeast Asia, and the same patterns show up in nearly every failed campaign he reviews. The most common reason is weak story angle. Many agencies send out press releases that describe what a company does without explaining why a journalist should care right now. Journalists at publications like The Straits Times, Tech in Asia, or CNA receive hundreds of pitches a week. If yours reads like a company brochure, it gets deleted.

The second most common failure is targeting the wrong outlets. Agencies that rely on press release distribution wires blast your story to thousands of contacts and call it outreach. That is not pitching. Genuine media placement requires knowing which journalists cover your beat, what they have written recently, and what angle will resonate with their editorial priorities. At Alpha Story, we pitch directly to journalists across our network of over 1,000 publishers and creators, and we match your story to outlets where it has a realistic chance of running. That might be a national outlet like Business Times for a funding announcement, or a niche site like Vulcan Post for a consumer product launch. The specificity matters.

The third failure pattern is no follow-through after the pitch. Many agencies send one round of emails and move on. Journalists are busy. A well-timed follow-up, a revised angle based on what is trending that week, or an exclusive offer to a key reporter can be the difference between silence and a feature. Our guaranteed placement plans exist specifically to remove the risk that frustrated you last time. If we commit to a number of placements and fall short, we keep working at no extra cost until we deliver.

One honest note: PR does not work for every company at every stage. If your product is not ready, your market fit is unclear, or you do not have a story worth telling yet, no agency will manufacture coverage that sticks. But if you have a real business with a genuine story and your last agency simply did not execute well, that is a solvable problem. Book a short call and we will review what went wrong in your previous campaign and tell you honestly whether a different approach would change the outcome.

Most Alpha Story clients see their first media interest within 2 to 3 weeks of campaign launch, with published features following within 4 to 6 weeks. But "results" in PR means different things at different stages, so here is a clearer breakdown. In the first week, your campaign materials are written and approved. During weeks 2 and 3, those materials go out to targeted journalists through our network of over 1,000 publishers and creators across Southeast Asia. Media interest, meaning journalist responses, interview requests, or publication confirmations, typically starts arriving in that window. Published articles follow once the editorial process at each outlet runs its course.

The timeline varies based on your target outlets. Trade publications and startup-focused platforms like Vulcan Post, The Smart Local, or Tech in Asia often publish within days of confirming interest. National outlets like The Straits Times or Business Times have longer editorial cycles and may take several weeks because their editors review pitches more selectively. Our founder Jeremy Foo is direct with clients about this distinction: if your primary goal is speed, we can prioritize outlets with faster turnaround. If your primary goal is prestige, expect a longer timeline for those specific placements. Most campaigns involve a mix of both.

One thing worth understanding is what happens after the first placement. The compounding effect is where PR delivers its real value. Your first feature makes the second pitch easier, because journalists can see that other publications already covered your story. Your media coverage shows up in Google results when potential customers, investors, or partners search for your company. It gets cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity when users ask questions related to your industry. Over 3 to 6 months, a well-executed PR campaign builds a layer of credible, independent content about your company that advertising simply cannot replicate.

If you want guaranteed outcomes rather than estimated timelines, Alpha Story offers guaranteed placement plans that commit to a minimum number of published features. If we fall short, we continue working at no additional cost until we deliver. This is different from traditional agencies, which charge S$5,000 to S$15,000 per month with no placement commitments. Alpha Story plans start below S$1,000 per month, so you are not gambling a large budget on uncertain timelines. To get a timeline estimate specific to your industry and goals, book a short call and we will give you a realistic picture.

Our media coverage guarantees are as stated within each pricing package, and they are the minimum number - we do not charge for securing more. Custom packages are also available if you'd like to discuss appearances in specific media publications, do contact us to find out more.

No. Small startups get media coverage all the time, and your size can actually be an advantage. Journalists do not cover companies because they are big. They cover companies because the story is interesting. A two-person startup solving a real problem in a fresh way is often more compelling to a reporter at Tech in Asia or Vulcan Post than a large corporation issuing another routine product update. Our founder Jeremy Foo has worked with thousands of early-stage companies and consistently sees that the startups with the strongest media results are not the biggest or best-funded. They are the ones with a clear story about why what they are building matters.

What makes a small company newsworthy? Several things that you probably already have. A founder story with real stakes, meaning why you left your job, what problem you witnessed firsthand, or what you are betting your career on. A contrarian take on your industry, where you see something the incumbents are getting wrong. Specific traction, even at a small scale, such as your first 50 paying customers, a pilot with a notable partner, or early revenue milestones that show the market is responding. Journalists look for signals that a story will resonate with their readers. Your company does not need to be large for that. It needs to be specific, honest, and timely.

Alpha Story works with companies at every stage, from pre-revenue founders preparing for a launch to growth-stage startups expanding into new markets. Our five-step process (questionnaire, campaign planning, writing, media outreach, and publication with reporting) is designed to extract a publishable angle from your company regardless of where you are in your journey. The team knows how to frame an early-stage story so it reads as forward-looking rather than small. That framing skill is the difference between a pitch that gets ignored and one that gets a journalist's attention. We have placed coverage for clients in outlets including The Straits Times, Business Times, CNA, Mothership, Tatler, and INC Southeast Asia.

One honest caveat: not every startup story is ready for media on day one. If you have no product, no users, and no clear narrative yet, a PR campaign may be premature. In that case, we will tell you. Alpha Story's plans start below S$1,000 per month with no lock-in contracts, so the financial risk is low, but we would rather you spend that money when the timing gives you the best return. If you are not sure whether you are ready, book a demo call and we will give you an honest assessment. Many founders who thought they were "too small" discovered they had a stronger story than they realized.

PR does not replace advertising, and you should be skeptical of anyone who claims it does. The two work differently: advertising buys attention through paid placements, while PR earns attention through independent editorial coverage. What PR does better than ads is build trust and third-party credibility. When The Straits Times, Tech in Asia, or CNA covers your company, readers perceive that as a journalist's endorsement, not a paid message. That credibility compounds. A media feature continues generating awareness, backlinks, and search visibility for months or years, long after a paid ad campaign would have stopped delivering impressions.

The results you should expect from PR depend on your goals. If you need immediate sales conversions with trackable click-through rates, advertising is the more direct channel. PR results show up differently: increased brand searches (people Googling your company name after reading about you), higher close rates on inbound leads who already trust you because they saw your media coverage, and stronger investor and partner confidence during fundraising or BD conversations. Our founder Jeremy Foo often tells clients that the founders who get the most from PR are the ones who understand it is a trust-building engine, not a lead generation machine. The leads come, but they come because trust was built first.

In practical terms, most Alpha Story clients see media interest within weeks of launching a campaign, with published features following shortly after. The coverage lands in outlets across Southeast Asia, from national publications like Business Times and CNA to technology-focused platforms like Vulcan Post and INC Southeast Asia. We work with a network of over 1,000 publishers and creators, so the pitch reach is real. Our guaranteed placement plans commit to a minimum number of published features, which removes the biggest risk founders worry about: paying for PR and getting nothing.

The smart approach is treating PR and advertising as complementary. Run ads for direct response and conversion. Use PR to build the credibility layer underneath, so that when someone sees your ad and decides to research your company, they find independent coverage that validates your claims. Traditional agencies charge S$5,000 to S$15,000 per month for this kind of work. Alpha Story plans start below S$1,000 per month with no lock-in contracts, which means you can run PR alongside your ad spend without doubling your budget. If you want a clearer picture of what results look like for your specific industry, book a short call and we will walk through realistic expectations.