When Brussels-based Adamson Associates was acquired by BSMG Worldwide a year ago, founder Paul Adamson brought to the table a certain acumen.
It wasn't among the trend-driven proficiencies, such as Internet or IR savvy, so coveted in the U.S. Instead, what Adamson offered his new employer was a repertoire of languages that includes English, French, German and Italian.
That is a skill set one would be hard-pressed to find in today's U.S. PR market. Yet an ocean away, a proficiency in multiple languages is the professional lifeblood of a communications strategist whose neighborhood is comprised of 15 European Union member nations from France to Greece.
This story, the second in a two-part series, examines some of the nuances of working in global PR, when a prospective client is as likely to be a government as a computer giant. At its Brussels office, Ogilvy PR bills nearly $2 million annually for public policy/government PR that stands in stark contrast to the glamorous media soirees new Ogilvy acquiree Alexander Communications is renowned for.
Part of Ogilvy's work in Eastern Europe includes counseling Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov on how to communicate economic reform to the masses, according to Brussels director Nicholas Lunt. Another task includes hammering out messages for events such as the "European Day of Disabled People," slated for Dec. 3.
The Policies of Publics
Public relations firms seeking to test the global business waters will find that public policy issues are driving the international market. But generalizing the myriad issues facing nations abroad would be like trying to simplify the issues facing Microsoft [MSFT] and the Department of Justice in their stand-off.
In Johannesburg, South Africa, for example, Lucien Vallun is working to position South African car rental company Tempest among American-owned leaders such as Avis, Budget and Hertz. Meanwhile, in Shanghai, Jeffrey Tarmy is helping Ketchum forecast the residuals of the Asian economic crunch.
"It seems like we do more work behind the scenes" than American companies do, says Adamson. "This isn't a market of hotshots. It's what you know, not who you know." It's not unusual for Adamson to bring in $90 an hour for work with a high-profile client, about one-third of what some high-level PR consultants make in the U.S.
Thousands of PR professionals like Adamson are working overseas, although the industry still is too new in many areas for its effects to have been measured.
The International Association of Business Communicators reports its membership abroad (spanning Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa) has spiked from 800 in 1993 to about 1,040 today and the global theater of players is expected to continue to grow.
Notwithstanding IABC membership, international PR shops range from mom-and-pop operations to majors, such as Fleishman-Hillard Inc., which doggedly pursue billings. Last week, in fact, FH announced a new an affiliate relationship with Hauska & Partner. The Vienna-based PR boutique will work with FH in Austria and in central and eastern Europe.
Eastern Winds
Eastern Europe presents one of the greatest challenges for those in PR because the effect of communications, uncontrolled by the communist party, is in its infancy.
PR, as it's practiced in emerging markets, mirrors communications in the U.S. more than a decade ago, Lunt says. That's especially true in regions such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (including Russia), where constituent audiences vary from farmers to professionals in cities where the black market has claimed as great a stake as has free enterprise.
"The point that people miss is that outsiders generally think of large cities along the lines of Moscow and St. Petersburg, but there are 140 million who live in other areas. Some who haven't been paid in 18 months are surviving on a barter system," says Lunt. "In these cases, you can forget studying the penetration of the Internet. These are people whose phones don't even work."
Similarly, the work facing those PR professionals earning rubles is usually far more pragmatic than a glitzy B-roll project for a Fortune 500. Ogilvy now is producing a broadcast piece in conjunction with a Bulgarian TV network to educate consumers about economic reform. Ogilvy will pay about $6,000 for the program, a price that guarantees the project will actually make it to the airways.
Paying for press has triggered some controversy in emerging markets, so PR executives must find creative ways to work within the existing systems without violating their own ethical principals.
Lunt adheres to ethics and won't pay for straight news coverage, but with only two television networks in Bulgaria, getting airplay requires Ogilvy to work in conjunction with the stations to produce "documentaries." They do pay the station to handle the production of these pieces.
In China, PR professionals also struggle to apply Western ethics while respecting cultural and political differences, Tarmy agrees. That tension, however, manifests itself in a wide spectrum of ways.
For instance, part of explaining U.S. issues to Chinese nationals has come up in the context of conversations about the Clinton/Lewinsky affair.
"They are absolutely beside themselves in trying to understand how the details of this scandal could have become so public," Tarmy says. "They tell me, 'We never hear about our president's concubines.' A lot of what we do is education."
(Paul Adamson, 322/230-0775; Ketchum/Shanghai, 86/21/6215-8681; IABC, 415/544-4700; Ogilvy, Nicholas Hunt, 322/545-6600; Lucien Vallun, 2711/706-8800)