Spencer Moore
Principal
For more than three decades, Spencer Moore has directed award-winning public relations and marketing communications programs for noted companies, leading brands, institutions, and start-ups.
A consummate public relations generalist, he’s become knowledgeable about, and garnered publicity for, clients spanning a slew of practice areas and industry segments, including: real estate, architecture/interior design, building products, education, healthcare, consumer goods and services, retail, restaurants/food/beer/spirits, pet products, outdoor gear, hospitality/destinations, e-commerce/consumer technology, professional services, manufacturing, automotive, sports/recreation/events, nonprofits, and employee/corporate/community/government relations.
In 2010, he started working as a strategic communications consultant, and then in 2013, he gave it a name: Pugnacious PR. The California-based public relations consultancy focuses on work intertwining his experience and his interests, which include real estate, architecture/design, food & beverage, education, pet products, outdoor gear, healthcare, and nonprofits. Spencer is also developing his own specialty food and pet products.
Spencer’s skills are as varied as his client roster: expert writer, savvy media relations pro, accomplished brand strategist, and more. He is especially adept at promoting brands and successfully launching products and services, having orchestrated everything from the introduction of the first online store from Williams-Sonoma to the roll-out of the first beer from Jack Daniel’s to the debut of the early Internet era’s most successful online lost & found service.
Spencer has worked in-house and on his own, but mostly, he’s an agency guy, with stints at several of the world’s largest public relations firms, getting his start with FleishmanHillard and Hill & Knowlton. Spencer then tackled one of those jobs where you get to do practically everything as Information Specialist for the Show-Me State Games, helping it become the nation’s top annual statewide, Olympic-style sports festival.
At Edelman in Dallas, Spencer earned his initial stripes in issues and crisis communications, serving on the firing line for the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He’s been a spokesperson, conducted extensive media training, messaging and communications counsel to corporate-level executives ever since.
Spencer moved on to Dye, Van Mol & Lawrence in Nashville and cut his teeth on a slew of consumer brands, namely Jack Daniel’s (whiskey + beer), Johnston & Murphy (footwear) and Shoney’s (restaurants). Next, at GS&F he built from scratch what grew to be the Mid-South’s largest ad agency related public relations division, promoting everything from DuPont’s SealSkinz Waterproof Socks to FiveStar commercial-style gas ranges to the Nashville Zoo. There, he added advertising, copy writing, media buying, promotions, production, and other disciplines to his skill set, that, combined with his PR background, gives him a unique understanding of the best ways to incorporate integrated marketing communications strategies.
In 1999, Spencer moved to San Francisco to direct an office of Kratz & Jensen (later known as Magnet Communications), representing Jamba Juice, Noah’s New York Bagels, and Williams-Sonoma, among others. Riding the first dot.com era’s boom and bust, he moved on to direct corporate communications efforts for various online start-ups, including PlanetOut, once the world’s largest media/entertainment company serving the LGBT audience. In-house at times, consulting at others, along the way he also touted fine Belgian ales from Duvel and Brewery Ommegang. For the past decade, he’s become a foremost public relations expert on residential and commercial real estate, representing the Bay Area’s most active developers and their high-profile projects – mostly in association with Chase Communications (now Chase PR), where he was vice president leading the San Francisco office.
Today, in addition to Pugnacious PR client work, Spencer consults for several other agencies coast-to-coast, specializing in real estate, AEC industries, and healthcare.
Spencer earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Still a big Mizzou Tiger fan, he’s active in college alumni activities. A San Francisco resident since 1999, Spencer moved to Los Angeles in 2021. He began Pugnacious PR with an irrepressible pug named Ube (“ooo-beh”), named after purple yam ice cream, and Spencer’s constant muse. In 2015, Ube got a brother, Buko (“boo-ko”), named after baby coconut ice cream, and The Pug Bros. provided double the inspiration. After Ube’s passing in late 2019, his half-brother and spitting image Herbie joined the family.
Ube the Pug
Mascot & Muse
Dec. 1, 2010 – Nov. 16, 2019
Ube was a wiggly fawn pug and the canine ward of Spencer Moore, principal at Pugnacious PR (the love of the pug even inspired that), and his partner Arman Austria. Ube (pronounced “ooo-beh”) is a Tagalog word for purple yam, which contains pigments that gives its bright lavender color, and is used in a variety of desserts in the Philippines. Ube-flavored ice cream from San Francisco’s famous Mitchell’s Ice Cream was the inspiration for Ube’s moniker. Ube was a friendly fixture in his neighborhood and known for his expressive cinnamon-bun-curly tail, his ample neck floof and his big smile. His personal highlight was meeting famed interior designer and pug owner Mary McDonald at the San Francisco Design Center who quipped: “you are a lot better looking — and smell better – than my pugs.”
Ube crossed the rainbow bridge in Nov. 2019, just shy of his 9th birthday, due to complications following spine surgery. He will be in our thoughts and memories forever — and always be an inspiration.💜
