Firm Voice Categories
Advocacy
Getting Social, Doing Good, Driving Impact: A Message from Council Chairman Andy Polansky
Facebook’s coming IPO has shone a spotlight on the financial upside of social media, but it’s important to keep in mind how much potential social platforms hold for serving the public good. Social media is helping advance the mission of non-profit organizations across a broad range of issues. In fact, nonprofits account for some of more…
Business Development
Maintaining Momentum: Five Tips for Managing the Challenges of Growth
As we reported last week, headcounts are up at our member firms, revenues are higher, new business pipeline are stronger, and firms are innovating new practice offerings. All that growth is exciting, but it can also pose challenges. As one business author has noted, medium-sized businesses that catch fire enter a kind of “no man’s more…
C-suite
Communications and Corporate Strategy: Good News from the FD/Forbes Study
In the latest study exploring strategic initiatives — new market entry, M&A, product launches, recaps, downsizing, etc. — FD and Forbes Insights asked 180 CEOs, corporate strategists, and senior communications officers how much the recession has changed the rules of the game in the corporate world. We found that risk aversion and caution still dominate more…
Communications
When It’s Not So Lonely At the Top: Selling the Weak Front-Runner
Political communications often carries intriguing lessons for the corporate sphere, and this season’s Republican presidential contest is no exception. In recent months, we’ve watched as a front-runner, Mitt Romney, has faced challenge after challenge from upstart contenders. Although Romney remains on top heading into South Carolina, he has so far failed to gain more than more…
Community
What We’re Wondering about Social Media—Eight Burning Questions
With all the writing that has swirled around social media in recent years, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and also to assume that all the good, stimulating, provocative questions have already been asked. Yet judging from last week’s Critical Issues Forum, the discussion around social media is far from stale. Panelists, facilitators, and audience-members alike more…
Corporate
Communicating Failure in the Age of Social Media
Failure has cachet. Harvard Business Review devoted its April 2011 issue to the subject, with many authors agreeing on its importance to the running of successful, innovative enterprises. Since Steve Jobs’ death, observers have catalogued his missteps—he never graduated from college; he was fired from the company that he himself had started—and ranked them as more…
Counsel
Massaging the Message—What the State of the Union Can Teach Us about Business Communications
It’s the day after the State of the Union, and the airways are crammed with political prognostications as well as the usual Monday morning quarterbacking. To offer a fresh alternative, we thought we’d stay focused on the present and ask leading communication experts to reflect on the basic communications challenge President Obama faced in giving more…
Creativity
Retreating to the past: Interpreting (and Lamenting) the Current Retromania
The other day, while waiting for my plane to board, I was treated to a throaty remake of the Beatles classic “Penny Lane” running over the airport PA system. Didn’t catch the artist, but didn’t need to: The re-make, of very recent vintage, was decent, but it didn’t ring half as true to my forty-something more…
Data
It’s Hot in Here—Results from the Council’s Latest Industry Survey
The Council just completed its Q4 survey of public relations firms, and the results are hot enough to warm even the chilliest January board meeting. First thing’s first: A full 70% of firms report that final 2011 revenues will be higher than in 2010. Only 13% anticipate lower revenues. In the context of a still-uncertain more…
Digital
Consumers and the Digital Life: Staying On Top of “Facebook Fatigue”
Some eighteen months ago, the Firm Voice ran a piece highlighting resistance to social media and cautioning firms not to ignore conventional forms of communications outreach. It’s worth revisiting the point, not for the sake of prophesying doom and gloom, but with an eye to examining how we can make public relations activities even stronger. more…
Diversity
Introducing the Inaugural Diversity Distinction in PR Awards
The Council is thrilled to announce the inaugural Diversity Distinction in PR Awards, honoring excellence in promoting ethnic diversity within the public relations sector. Sponsored in conjunction with PRWeek, and building on the agenda led by our Chairman Andy Polansky, the Diversity Distinction in PR Awards is intended to support and inspire professionals of diverse more…
Engagement
A Test of Time – A Reason to Celebrate
Longevity is often something worth celebrating. And so it is with great pride and gratitude, along with an equal measure of humility, that I am delighted to say that Text 100 and Ketchum have achieved 10 great years working alongside IBM as its global public relations partners. Way back in 2001, IBM’s agency review process more…
Ethics
Reverberations: The FTC Means Business (and What PR Firms Should Do)
In recent weeks, the FTC has demonstrated that it is not fooling around when it comes to blogging ethics. We strongly encourage public relations agencies to consult with legal counsel and to adopt strong and clear policies regarding blogs and other forms of consumer-generated media. In late August, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a more…
Firms
“A Vision for Transformational Change” — The Firm Voice Showcases Taylor
What are the truly inspiring stories in our industry today? Which agencies, individuals, teams, or offerings are boldly pushing the envelope, creating new value, innovating, seeing around the corner, making the world a better place, and inspiring others to do the same? Who are our big risk-takers, our thinkers, our trendsetters, and our heroes? This more…
Innovation
Of White Knights and Trite Rhetoric: Resurrecting What Innovation Means
Innovation is under attack – no, not the actual practice of innovating. Government leaders, titans of industry and all manner of stakeholders in the public and private sector have been doubling down on the urgent need for innovation to deliver solutions that deliver lasting and meaningful impact. But the term innovation has steadily been under more…
Intellectual Capital
Moving to the Center of the Marketing Mix—Strategic Shifts Brightening the Outlook for Public Relations
Today’s market is a dynamic one for marketing services. It’s a “jump ball” environment, and public relations firms, ad agencies, branding and digital shops, among others, are all seeing opportunities to compete but also to collaborate in new ways. Clients and prospects clearly seem less concerned about which discipline to work with; it’s all about more…
Issues
Hey, Would You Work for A Buck?
If you’re Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citibank, the answer is yes. Last year, Pandit vowed he’d take no salary until the bank became profitable. So he didn’t. But Citibank is now back in the black, which is why this past week, Citibank’s board announced that they’d reinstate a salary for Pandit. Of course, Pandit more…
Measurement
Talking with Clients about Measurement
Communications professionals, whether on the client or agency side, often struggle with how to quantify the results of public relations programs. Clients sometimes don’t commit the funds for measuring programs, and when they do, they are not always satisfied with how results are communicated at the end of a program. At times, clients and agencies more…
Media
Brands on the Red Carpet—Re-evaluating the Marketing Role of Celebrities
With the red carpets for this year’s Academy Awards unrolling as we speak, we were wondering: Is the A-list still as valuable as it once was to a brand in our age of social media? Are brands missing out if they’re not visible at an event like the Academy Awards? And how do we measure more…
Procurement
Building Relationships That Stick: The Other Client to Engage
A lot has been written in our industry about how vital it is to build strong and trusted client relationships. But who is the PR client today? Most public relations professionals have long regarded the in-house public relations and corporate communications teams as key players. Yet the marketing team and the Chief Marketing Officer play more…
Publics
Creative Tips for Talking about the Unmentionable
When’s the last time you spoke to your next-door neighbor about your itching problem—down there? Or your thinning hair? Or your use of feminine hygiene products? Or incontinence? Today, it often seems like nothing is taboo. People visit websites to confess their deepest darkest secrets, television shows seem to break new bounds every year in more…
RFP's
Oh, the Joys of RFPs
Isn’t there a better way? I’m talking about RFP’s. Clearly they serve a necessary function: How else are clients going to choose among the many potential partners who can provide the service they seek? But that doesn’t mean all RFPs are created equal. One public relations executive we spoke with complained of “nightmare” RFPs, noting more…
Social Media
All Eyes on the Future—How Firms Are Helping Companies Drive Innovation
If it has become fashionable to assert that our nation’s future rests with innovation, business leaders are likewise looking to innovation as their companies’ chief source of competitive advantage going forward. Price Waterhouse Cooper’s annual CEO survey found that respondents are “placing a higher premium on innovation today,” showing special interest in the creation of more…
Stakeholders
Sorry to Say: Public Relations Isn’t Changing
I know the world is changing at a dizzying pace, but not everything is changing. If you really think about it, public relations at its core is all about influencing the influencers. So when people say that our industry is changing, I generally think “not really.” The thinking, the process, the methodology, and much of more…
Strategy
Firm Showcase—Inside the GolinHarris “Prevolution”
We use our “Firm Showcase” feature to celebrate the most exciting, pathbreaking models, techniques, and approaches in our industry. This week, our attention turns to a large agency that made headlines for doing something that many companies have talked about but few have done: Aggressively altering their model to meet the demands of today’s clients. more…
Talent
Sourcing Creativity—The Firm Voice Showcases Ketchum’s Mindfire
Creativity pays, which is why we all want that next great idea, that flash of brilliance that will delight clients and keep them coming back for more. What if I told you that a firm out there has devised a pathbreaking new tool, at relatively low cost, for harnessing some of the best young minds? more…
Technology
Healthcare Communications: Inspiring Interactions
Innovation in medicine alone is not sufficient to meet the growing health needs of the world’s population. As healthcare communicators, our priority is to improve understanding and shape positive behaviours to achieve the best outcomes. Traditionally, communications have focused on individual groups; engaging patients and healthcare professionals to transfer information. However, the increasing power of more…
Uncategorized
The Super Bowl: Larger Than Life – And Worth It
The Super Bowl is a national sporting holiday, the marquee event of the NFL season, and marketing’s greatest day of the year. But does the Super Bowl really deliver for brands? We strongly believe it does, especially as far as public relations is concerned. If you consider the broader American sports landscape, the NFL remains more…