By David Bullock
When marketing to potential clients who would be interested in space products and services, is it as easy as making a logo in PowerPoint and showing it off to the entire world? Not at all, says President of The Space Communications Alliance (SCA), Lukasz Wilczynski. Marketing to the US is different from Latin America, for example. “You have to think about the cultural differences and the tools you are using,” Wilczynski said. He hopes to remedy that predicament with the network he is starting with SCA.
SCA is the latest organizational concept coming from Wilczynski, a former space historian, turned marketing and PR professional with the Polish PR firm, Planet Partners, he founded in 2006. Planet Partners is now one of several media organizations around the world that are members of SCA.
“All my adult life I was helping or supporting [the] space sector… from my PR angle,” he said.
“I started to look for like minded agencies.“ Then about a year ago, he came up with the idea, “to create a network, that would link entities, like mine, but not only PR agencies, but people who are in the whole ecosystem of marketing communications, such content creation, influencers, visual communicators—almost anyone you would need to run [communications] for your space company, space entity or space agency,” added Wilczynski.
It started with the need that he had to link with someone, but also that there was a niche for the market.
SCA’s clients include space agencies, academia, non-governmental organizations, and events, such as conferences. He sees the SCA becoming, “a one stop shop for global entities,” looking for PR and marketing.
While the SCA is relatively new, the organization internally has people that have been involved in the space communications for the past twenty years.
Besides being there for the clients, Wilczynski plans for members of SCA to be for each other, to improve knowledge and to raise the bar for our industry.
He also sees a tiered system for SCA. With a full membership for firms and agencies and an affiliate membership for individuals with talent in PR and marketing.
That’s just the beginning. Wilczynski said that eventually, “I would like for the [organization] to run itself… I would like to be something like the IAF in marketing for space.”
But in some sense, things are just starting.
“If you are thinking about making a global campaign about some kind of product in space, you would need to call SCA in the first place.” Wilczynski summed, “It’s amazing to be a little part, [and] an important one, in a time when the sector is booming.”