Thirty years ago, Carolyn Izzo started CIIC PR in her mother’s spare bedroom with a passion for storytelling and a vision for a different kind of PR agency.

Today, CIIC PR has offices in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, specialising in travel, hospitality, food and beverage, and luxury lifestyle. From launching Krispy Kreme in New York to leading international communications campaigns, the team has built its reputation on industry expertise, creative thinking and personal attention.

As CIIC PR celebrates 30 years and reconnects with Tribe Global, we caught up with the team to talk about their journey, the changing role of AI in public relations, and why choosing the right partnerships matters more than ever.

How would you describe your agency’s positioning and the way you create value for clients?

For 30 years, we have specialized in the industries we know exceptionally well - travel and tourism, hospitality, food and beverage and luxury lifestyle - rather than trying to be everything to everyone. CIIC PR is boutique by design, but with a global perspective and reach to match the larger firms. We have grown over the years, with offices in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, but never lost sight of our founding premise: principal-led and relationship-driven, with a level of attention to our clients that is our hallmark.

What is one major shift happening in your market right now that agencies can’t afford to ignore?

There is no question that AI is one of the biggest shifts affecting communications, but we think the conversation needs to go beyond simply asking whether agencies are “using AI.”

There are three areas to focus our attention:

First is internal efficiency. AI can be used for research, organization, analysis and repetitive tasks to give our team more time for the work that actually requires judgment, creativity and personal insight. Used correctly, these internal tools can make an agency more efficient without making the work feel automated.

Second is creative and strategic application. AI is a very useful thought partner when used to assist in exploring ideas from different angles, identify patterns, test prompts or get to a stronger starting point faster. But it should never become the final voice or output for creativity.  Specifically in public relations, the context, instinct, originality and knowing what not to say make the difference. Knowing a journalist, understanding a client and having actually experienced the hotel, destination, restaurant or product you are representing is something that AI can’t replicate. That is where relationships and personal experiences matter.

The third component is using AI as a tool to understand the client’s business needs. In travel, AI is already affecting how consumers discover destinations, hotels and experiences and how brands compete for visibility. Agencies need to understand the tools already in use, and then guide our clients on how earned media, credible third-party storytelling, social content and a brand’s overall digital reputation work together in this new environment.

The agencies with the most success won’t be those that simply produce more content faster. It will be those that use AI to prompt better thinking and better business outcomes,while protecting the human element that makes communications effective in the first place.

Can you share a recent project you’re particularly proud of? What was the challenge, your approach, and the measurable impact?

A recent project we are particularly proud of is our work with our client HBX Group on the MarketHub Americas 2026 event, held in Punta Cana this past June. HBX Group is a leading global B2B travel technology marketplace that offers a network of interconnected travel technology products and services to partners including online marketplaces, tour operators, travel advisors, airlines, loyalty programs, destinations, and travel suppliers. MarketHub is the company’s flagship industry event, bringing together travel decision-makers, technology leaders and partners to exchange ideas, strengthen relationships and explore opportunities across the global B2B travel industry.

Our goals for this important project were to raise HBX Group’s profile as a leading independent B2B travel technology marketplace, strengthen MarketHub’s standing as an industry platform, position HBX executives as thought leaders, deepen strategic partner relationships and extend the event’s influence beyond those attending. The challenge was to turn a gathering of industry insiders into a broader conversation about the future of travel.

CIIC PR set out to extend the conversation well beyond the conference itself. Our strategy focused on building a strong, diverse media presence from across the U.S., Canada and Latin America, while positioning HBX Group and its leadership at the forefront of the trends, technology and ideas shaping the future of travel. Through targeted media outreach, CIIC secured attendance from influential travel and trade journalists across the region and developed an on-site media program that included executive interviews, curated roundtables and access to key spokespeople, giving journalists multiple opportunities to engage directly with HBX Group's leadership and the themes driving MarketHub Americas.

Our work began well before journalists arrived and continued after the conference concluded, creating a sustained communications cycle around the event. Strategic pre-event outreach built anticipation, on-the-ground media engagement transformed the conference into an active source of stories and executive commentary, and post-event storytelling extended its relevance beyond the event dates. The approach helped MarketHub Americas 2026 generate a 45.6% increase in coverage year over year, and achieve the highest media coverage of all three MarketHub editions for the second consecutive year, reinforcing MarketHub Americas as a must-attend industry event and HBX Group as a leading voice in the evolution of global travel. Final Results:  133.1+ Billion Media Impressions, 211 Secured Placements, $623.5K Estimated PR Value.

This project shows how a focused communications strategy can give an established event a wider role: connecting partners in person while bringing HBX Group’s ideas and expertise to the broader travel industry.

What does a great partnership look like to you in 2026?

A great partnership in 2026 starts with trust, transparency and access.

Whether we’re working with a client or another agency, the strongest results come from sharing information, ideas and expertise, and bringing us into the conversation early enough to provide strategic counsel to help shape the approach, rather than simply executing decisions already made. 

With clients, we operate at our best as an extension of their team. That means understanding not only their communications objectives, but their business priorities, challenges and opportunities. It also means being comfortable enough with one another to have honest conversations, challenge an idea when necessary and celebrate the wins together.

The same philosophy applies to our relationships within Tribe Global and the reason we value being part of an independent agency network.  A great partnership allows agencies to bring their strongest expertise to the table, combine global capabilities with real local market knowledge and make the collective work stronger. CIIC rejoined Tribe specifically to deepen international collaboration and give clients access to relevant expertise across markets while preserving the independence and entrepreneurial spirit that define our agency.

The strongest partnerships don’t feel transactional. They feel like everyone is invested in the same outcome.

Tell us something unexpected about your agency — a fun fact, milestone, or defining moment from your journey, such as a lesson that’s changed the way you run your business.

There are many memorable moments behind CIIC PR’s 30-year story:

Fun fact: CIIC started in Carolyn Izzo’s mother’s spare bedroom. There wasn’t a grand business plan or a roadmap for building an international agency,  rather an entrepreneurial leap, a passion for storytelling and a belief that there was room for a different kind of PR firm.

Defining moment: One of our earliest assignments was helping launch Krispy Kreme’s first franchise in the New York market. It became a boots-on-the-ground campaign that yielded national results well beyond our imagination and helped put CIIC on the map, through determination, creativity and out-of-the-box thinking - literally.

Milestone (and lesson): Today, we have grown to have offices in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, with clients and agency partners around the world. The important lesson was not when to expand but “how” to grow. We have never wanted growth simply for the sake of becoming bigger. We want to expand where it adds expertise, opportunity and value for our clients, but never beyond our ability to provide the service, senior-level attention, creativity and human relationships on which CIIC PR was built.

Thirty years later, the scale is very different, but the philosophy is not.  

Find out more at https://www.ciicpr.com/