Action PR Group

International Women’s Day is marked today (March 8^th) and celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women globally.

Seeing how PR is one of the very few industries dominated by women rather than men (a 60:40 analogy in 2004 alone compared to 20:80 20 years ago and with about 90% of the Public Relations Student Society of America’s members (PRSSA) being female) it is a day we should be celebrating and be proud of the achievements of fellow women in the industry.

This is quite a shift considering that when PR started as a discipline early in the 20^th century, it was strictly dominated by male practitioners, with forefathers such as Edward Bernays and Ivy Lee. We will see how this number has risen in the past 5-6 years once the results of a EUPRERA study (European Public Relations Education and Research Association) on women in PR in Europe: From Where to Where become available after its conclusion in Spring 2010.

Yes, we do still have a long road ahead of us before we see more women in managerial positions and full equality in the Public Relations industry as well as other industries; but we should still celebrate how far women have come in the business world in general. It makes me particularly proud to work for a company where more than half of the managerial positions are held by women. In particular 52.5% of Action Global Communication’s country offices (both wholly owned and affiliates) are run by female colleagues, even in countries with a strong patriarchical character, while 57% of the managerial positions in Action’s headquarters are held by women, numbers irrefutably much higher than the industry average.

This is why I am dedicating this blog post to all women in PR, but more specifically to the women in the Action Global network family in recognition of their excellent work and to remind them of the wonderful creatures they are, as well as the strength and hard work it required to get where they are now. Here’s to you!

The economic recession is making PR people work much harder to get the same results as two or three years ago.

Harder for us, PR experts, means not that we always have to work added overtime (although this, of course, happens too), but that we have to be even more creative than before.

Well, perhaps now you will stop me by saying that this is nothing new – PR people always had to be creative in what they do! Yes, you’re absolutely right, but …. Nowadays we have to be more creative not just in using traditional PR tools. We also have to think “outside the box” and be creative in finding new PR tools, methods and activities, which can help us – in this dynamic and constantly changing world – to satisfy our clients, fulfill their expectations and reach their communication goals.

Here in Lithuania, for example, print media has suffered in the economic crisis: newspapers and magazines went bankrupt, those who are still here survived only by decreasing their circulation, reducing the number of pages, and cutting down staff by almost 50 % if not more. The after-effects are not heartening. For example, we have only one business daily in Lithuania at the moment. Moreover, reporters hardly attend media events, and newspapers got rid of foreign news columns. Print media is interested only in news of national importance. Furthermore, media badly hungers for advertising money, so it is very hard to get coverage about products or services without advertising budgets.

Media relations – one of the traditional PR tools – has become a real challenge for PR people in Lithuania. If we want to get a publication to mention a client, we need to be twice as – or four times as – creative as before, because on average only one topic out of 4-5 attracts the attention of a journalist. Which is why I am talking about the need for other, more direct, maybe not traditional PR tools to attract attention to our clients and to communicate their messages.

Social media and digital PR are becoming more and more popular in our country and give us great potential for new possibilities to reach the target audiences of our clients and to communicate their messages directly to their target groups. Of course, in using a new PR tool such as social media we need to be creative too.

While exploring the question of creativity in today’s public relations I found one very interesting post. I think it might be interesting for you too, so please, take a look. This post made me think about what I believe creativity is in social media. In my experience, creativity in social media is the ability to stay interesting, useful and engaging, so that your fans follow you in social media networks, and become your messengers – spreading your messages to those who still do not know you, or at least those who still aren’t part of your social networks. And I truly agree with the idea that creativity in social media is about getting others to tell our stories for us.

Ultimately, it is all about creativity!

Some food for thought for communicators is to know and learn about new trends that will shape the years to come, especially consumer trends. A great read on the topic is trendwatching.com (@trendwatching on Twitter), οne of the world’s leading trend firms, which specializes in scouting for, identifying and explaining trends.

Whatever they are, trends influence consumers’ behaviors and as communication people it’s essential to have an edge and keep an open mind. While a trend alone cannot be the basis for brands strategies, they play their part in devising communication activities that are current and appealing.

Now and Forever

Two mega-trends of 2009 – Nowism and Foreverism –are seen as powerful for coming years and both relate to the ever evolving online world.  Nowism reflects the (now established) need for instant gratification, knowing what everyone does at all times and sharing experiences instantly with the world.  While this has lots to do with everything digital, a sub-trend that emerged is enjoying things ‘live’, off-line, with ‘warm bodies’.

American Airlines shows this best through this campaign:

Foreverism builds on Nowism showing how, from now on, we will always rely on the fact that people can be found, they always interact and information lasts forever in the digital world.  Many brands understood this will be business as usual rather than a trend and joined the 2.0 conversation.

Key trends for 2010

Urbany is a trend we’ll be hearing more and more of during this year. From developing regions like Asia which will become increasingly urban, to designers who theme products after mega-cities, it’s all about being a global citizen.

A new definition of luxury is also coming as the concept evolves from the material to the less tangible, defined by Fluxury (flux luxury). We establish what luxury means for us and perhaps it will be beyond ‘more expensive’ and quantified in time, access, perspective, [.........] – you fill in the blanks.

Anything limited fuels the need for feeling special and unique for many people and the Limited Locations trend is spot on. One of the easiest to apply in consumer communication that we have seen evolving in the past years (not so much in Eastern Europe though). Something is sold in just one location for just a limited amount of time. Shops even appear in the middle of parks for a weekend!

If timeless and trends can be in one sentence, they must refer to things ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘giving back’. These two trends, Eco-Easy and Embedded Generosity have a wider audience to address each year and such elements can be easily incorporated in communication programs.

Among the top 10 trends, Maturalism (mature materialism) taps into how far brands and people will go in moving with the global culture. Sorbets tasting like wine and boutique ice-creams are just some of the more diverse marketing stunts. A more risky take, but as the creators say, not one to ignore for brands who consider the future, less-uptight generations of customers.

Click to read the entire briefing on the “10 Crucial Consumer Trends of 2010″

Finally, not all trends relate to everyone and every trend can generate an anti-trend in the run for individuality and being different. When something is of mass-interest it becomes ‘now’ to have exclusivity, snack food turns to slow-food and hyper-tasking gives in to ’simply ordered’.

It ultimately means that shaping or even creating trends is up to people and brands that have an influence as long as, a) – they understand what is now, b) – can give it a spin and c) – more people realize it.

Toyota’s back on course, but damage control an uphill battle was one of the story headlines in ragan.com, with footage of the interview of Toyota’s head of U.S. operations, Jim Lentz on NBC’s The Today Show. International news today shows that Toyota is definitely not back on course with the news of some of its cars having faulty accelerator pedals and still has massive reputation management work to do if it survives this crisis.

I polled our team and asked whether they felt that the interviewee did a good job in convincing us that Toyota has been honest and trustworthy… what do you think? Does the CEO do a good or average job?

I have to say that our team was not convinced but gave the interviewee an average rating for trying really hard!

Add your opinion in this Twitter Poll or in the comments section below.

“A good PR person sentences investigation to death”, stated the director of the local Centre for Independent Journalism (CJI), when results of the “Media Transparency and Media Practice in Romania” survey were debated during PR Week in Romania.

The survey was conducted online by the Oklahoma University and US Institute for Public Relations, together with some media related Romanian NGOs. While the response rate was low overall, 127 PR practitioners and 66 journalists answered 67 questions about the Romanian media and PR environment.

One of the survey findings is that journalism has become more professional than PR in Romania. The official opinion of the CJI, is that a high professional standard of PR in Romania is not desired by journalists as they believe that good PR blocks access to information for journalists, especially in the public sector.

As a former journalist myself, I understand both sides of the story and I find myself advocating to former colleagues what PR is really about.

By simply looking in the dictionary we can find that a PR person is “a person employed to establish and promote a favorable relationship with the public”. So if “bad news is good news” works for journalists, it obviously does not work for a PR person as per the definition. Journalists tend to think that good PR equals easy direct access to the General Manager. And to their surprise, the PR person gives them “commercial stories” instead, while the “real” story lies undiscovered.  The objectives of PR and journalism are not the same and exclusive stories do not come alive from press releases, they need to be explored by an investigative journalistic mind and not expected as a default ‘from the other side’.

Another aspect that journalists ignore about PR is that Public Relations is much more than media relations. PR consultancy also includes corporate and brand communication, internal communication, CSR and so on. Let’s not forget that PR does not only deal with the bright side of things. And that PR’s role in a crisis situation, for instance, is crucial – for both the company and the media.

Perhaps many aspects of PR would be clearer for journalists – who tend to regard PR persons as manipulators of people’s minds rather than conveyors of the truth – if an ethical code of PR specialists was issued in Romania. Just as journalists in Romania have recently done.

It is true that PR people often don’t put themselves in the journalists’ shoes, which further widens the gap, and that there is room for improvement in our camp as well.

The professionalization of PR has to go hand in hand with that of journalism, both camps have to adjust and create a dialogue between them, otherwise misunderstandings between the two will only continue.

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