Hi all,
I agree that a PR firm that has measurable results (S.M.A.R.T) will be important in the near future.
However, the most important steps in the next few months are delivering features and value-added functionality to MSC so that word-of-mouth spreads within the Bitcoin community. I would first leverage the Project's success to market itself and then spend some money on PR.
There will never be more MasterCoins, unless the MasterCoin protocol gets hard-forked. Potentially anybody could do such a hard fork, and if it happened, people would have to decide if they wanted to stay or to join the new fork.
So far the price of BTC has risen faster than we can spend it, so we actually have a lot more money now than when we started, even though we've spent quite a bit. Of course, that could always change if BTC crashes, as it has been known to do. Because of that possibility, I'm a tightwad on a lot of things. Just ask the board - we're currently discussing whether we should hire a very prestigious PR firm who is offering us a discount and offering to take payment in BTC/MSC because they are hugely into what we are doing. However, it's still a LOT of money, and I'm looking at cheaper alternatives before we commit.