PR Agencies

On this day of giving, a former service member and current PR professional, Anthony LaFauce, recalls receiving care packages during the holidays while being deployed. Though he remembers the packages fondly, he urges PR pros to think about those we represent year round, not just during this time of year.

Depending on where you live you might have the winter blues. Believe it or not, this is a real condition. As you will read in this case study, Arizona used the winter blues as part of a social campaign to encourage tourism. Turns out Arizona is the country’s sunniest state.

Top Places to Work and Agency Elite Awards keynoter Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO of Pure Performance Communications, and PRNEWS content manager, Nicole Schuman, sat down for a discussion regarding Breakenridge’s research on emotional intelligence. They also covered how the infusion of empathy can improve communications efforts not only in the office, but throughout an overall brand strategy.

Important lessons can emerge from tragedy. For Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO at Pure Performance Communications, the loss of a young family member inspired her to look at the communication gaps between millennials and other generations. Breakenridge will keynote PRNEWS’ Top Places to Work and Agency Elite Awards in November.

Veteran PR pro Arthur Solomon assembles a checklist comprising the traits he thinks would make the perfect PR pro. The idea for this exercise is based on an assignment a brand executive gave him years ago, when he was with Burson-Marsteller. Despite the myriad changes in PR since that time, the traits he chose then don’t seem very different from those he says he’d pick today. They include a mix of media relations skills, integrity, and creative thinking.

The new Chief Strategy Officer at FleishmanHillard, Marjorie Benzkofer, talks to us about how she keeps 4,000 employees working in concert and why brands continue to struggle aligning their values and actions.

Strong relationships are founded, in part, on good communication. If that’s so, then why aren’t more relationships between brands and their PR agencies described in glowing terms? After all, professional communicators should be adept at communicating with each other, right? In the case of brand-PR agency relationships, there’s a bit more to it than communications. Here are five tips that will enhance this sometimes volatile partnership.

Every fall in NYC, PR News celebrates the agencies with exceptional campaigns at our Agency Elite Awards, which benchmark excellence in PR agencies’ key practice areas, from advocacy, crisis communications and social media to internal communications, media relations and reputation management. As we head into judging phase for this year’s awards on November 20th, let’s look back at some of last year’s highlights.

With March Madness permeating the zeitgeist in a few weeks, we asked some of the 2018 PR News Rising PR Stars to answer our roundtable questions this month. We asked, “What gets you mad about PR and communications?” And, “What can be done about it?” Their edited responses follow.

There always will be a competitor who can woo your best talent with money. Yet businesses that use only monetary incentives to keep top talent can win that battle for a time, but, eventually, they will lose the war. 5WPR founder Ronn Torossian argues employees who share your company’s vision and values are far less likely to depart. Fortunately, communications is key.