PR Agencies

As the pandemic continues, PR agencies are rethinking how they structure their business, looking at their staffing models and contract templates. Three trends have emerged that can keep agencies above water.

“The business of business is business,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006) said. Our PRNEWS survey of some 200 PR executives expands on that thinking somewhat. We found that in this difficult moment, an overwhelming number of PR executives are most concerned with the health and safety of their staff. Finding new revenue doesn’t come close.

In certain parts of Europe, where the novel coronavirus is a few weeks ahead of US hotspots, audiences have begun to reach the information and emotional saturation point. Many are no longer watching the news. PR pros have found it’s important to maintain a positive approach in their internal and external communications.

You’ve created your coronavirus messaging plan and advised executives to communicate authentically, transparently and from the heart. Your job is far from over, though. Perhaps the most important thing a communicator can do at this time is to be available and make plans for the day when the coronavirus ebbs.

In just days, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to shifts in the way communications is practiced across all industries and sectors, including not just traditional brand messaging, but how employers are disbursing important information to staff and governments to constituencies. Senior comms professionals gathered virtually on March 25 to discuss PR in these unprecedented times during a PRNEWS webinar, Communicating about COVID-19 — Navigating a New and Uncertain Crisis. 

We don’t emotionally trust facts; we trust people – or we don’t.  As we process facts emotionally, we trust leaders who move beyond facts to speak in a voice that echoes how we feel, right now. At a time when the public is worried, communicating with the heart can help. Facts alone will not drive people to action, writes Gil Bashe, managing partner, global health, Finn Partners.

With so many communicators seeking to take physical events online, we asked PR pro and video specialist Doug Simon how to get started. We also asked how communicators can make their video and social video productions more engaging.

Data breach. In this ever-connected world, those words conjure fear, and rightly so. Click on an innocent-looking email, webpage URL or attachment, and the next thing you know, someone has access to your email

To end Black History Month, we offer the story of Inez Kaiser, the first black woman to own a PR firm in the US. Kaiser was a polymath. A teacher, an activist, a cook book author and an entrepreneur, Kaiser accomplished all this at a time when African-Americans struggled for basic civil rights.

Inspired by Glassdoor’s Top CEOs of 2019 list, we decided to review the top CEOs at the largest PR agencies across the world. Utilizing the PRovoke 2019 Agency Rankings, as well as Glassdoor’s CEO and employee approval ratings, we found a dynamic list of communications leaders, working with some of the world’s top projects and talent.