The public relations firm WordHampton has long had its finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the East End business community. That comes with the job. And now, with a new office overlooking Park Place in East Hampton Village, it is part of that pulse in a way that was not quite as tangible from its former headquarters in Springs.
“Since I’ve taken over the business, I was kind of looking for a fresh start, and getting a little more visibility in the village as well,” said Nicole Castillo, the company’s owner and president. Ms. Castillo, who has worked with the firm since 1997, learned the ropes from its late founder, Steve Haweeli, and eventually became his business partner and WordHampton’s executive vice president. She took over at the top after Mr. Haweeli’s death in 2022, and now oversees a staff of four that includes Ashley Lynch, a senior account executive who has been with the company for almost 10 years; Megan Robinson, an account executive; Leah Hatch, an account coordinator, and the office manager, Jennifer Haagen.
The move from WordHampton’s longtime headquarters on Three Mile Harbor Road seemed like the right next step for Ms. Castillo and the company, and being in the heart of the village “raises the level of professionalism,” she said.
WordHampton made a name for itself representing East End restaurants. It created Hamptons Restaurant Week and later Long Island Restaurant Week. Its client list over more than three decades has expanded to include the hospitality, real estate, lifestyle, and nonprofit fields across Long Island and in the New York metropolitan area. If you’ve read about a prix fixe at Almond or Nick and Toni’s or Fresno, or a new menu at the Golden Pear or Lulu Kitchen, chances are the information first arrived on a journalist’s desk by way of an email from WordHampton. The company’s clients include dozens of restaurants, the nonprofit Children’s Museum of the East End, the East Hampton Historical Society, the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, I-Tri, Katy’s Courage, Project Most, and the Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce, of which Ms. Castillo is vice president.
Lately, she’s also found people seeking her out in ways she wouldn’t have expected when she first joined the company, engaging with her before launching on the East End — “almost in more of, like, a counsel mode” — because she knows the community, the market, and the media landscape so well. “We have that inside track of understanding how it works, and we have built those relationships for so many years. It’s a relationship business.”
“We’re such a unique market out here,” she said. For one thing, magazines and newspapers are still big, and there are a lot of them, especially in the summer. “It’s great for us as a firm, because we have so many opportunities for exposure for our clients. . . . People want to pick stuff up and they want to read about what’s going on, and they like to bring their reading to the beach.”
WordHampton manages its clients’ radio and social media presence, too, and works to get them attention not only from traditional media but from social media influencers. “Our main goal is to get exposure and brand awareness for our clients” whatever the format.
“I love the process of seeing a story come to fruition, pitching the idea, and then coordinating the interviews and photos,” Ms. Castillo said. “I like just strategizing, too.”