In spring 2002 things were a mess at law firm Winstead Sechrest & Minick. The outside PR agencies were running their own shows and the internal media relations program
stagnated, even though the PR budget had reached Brobdingnagian proportions.
At the time, there was an 11-person marketing team that included functions such as business development and marketing communications. Joey Mooring came in April to fill the
vacant PR seat, charged with getting the firm's overall communication situation under control.
What does it take to set a floundering media program back on a firm footing? Mooring says a methodical approach made all the difference. A media program is more science than
art, he says, an assemblage of carefully crafted building blocks:
AGENCIES - Outside agencies Allyn & Company and Vollmer Public Relations both had been operating without a net for some time. "The first thing we did was to interview both
the agencies to find out where was the duplication," Mooring says. He gave himself two months to gather that information, then divided agency responsibilities by geography.
Later, as he organized PR according to the law firm's practice areas, he asked each firm to extend beyond its geographic area and assume responsibility for promoting specific
areas of legal practice. Mooring now sets overall strategy, and leaves the details to the agencies. In turn, the agencies provide weekly project updates.
MEDIA GOALS - To shift media emphasis away from the legal trades and toward the business leaders who are the law firm's potential clients, "we did exhaustive searches within
those industries for any publication that might be of interest," Mooring says. He then set an editorial calendar that would drive media efforts through 2003. "We knew we would not
get all of them, but this at least gave us a set of targets." The tactic was to promote the firm's attorneys as area experts, producing bylined articles and making lawyers
available to weigh in on matters of interest.
CONSOLIDATION - Mooring moved to centralize the management of IR, PR and media relations. "One of the first business trips I took was to our Austin office. They are very PR
savvy there and they didn't like the agency support they were getting, so they wanted to hire their own agency," Mooring recalls.
To discourage such fracturing of the PR program, "I asked them to give me two months." In that time he met with local media, arranged interviews for attorneys and--most
important--produced monthly reports showing PR wins.
That emphasis on demonstrating success continues today, as a means of proving the validity of PR and encouraging participation of attorneys in the communications programs.
A monthly report goes to the executive committee, and a bulletin board in each office posts recent news coverage and other PR developments.
AND ONE DUD - Not everything has worked. Mooring tried to set up a Speakers Bureau to provide experts to industry tradeshows and events, but most tradeshows ask speakers to pay
a "sponsor" fee between $10,000 and $20,000 for the privilege of ascending to the podium.
During the reorganization, with agency spending still running high, "I just did not think that was a good use of the firm's communications dollars," Mooring says.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT - Attorneys were ready to talk to the press, but about what? "We did our research on the top five trends within each specific industry," Mooring says. This
included Web searches, perusal of newspaper articles and scrutiny of trade publications.
The effort devoured countless hours in the PR shop, "but it allowed us to put together a plan that would enable us to make our own news, even if we never heard one word of new
news from the attorneys."
The PR team then presented those ideas to the practice-group chairs, to drum up support among the lawyers. To ensure that attorneys were ready and willing, "my challenge was to
get to know the players," Mooring says. He met with all the practice chairs in order to assess what they needed and what they had to offer.
Then he got with the attorneys whose names had come to the top of the pile, to determine who was willing (and able) to chat with media reps.
RESULTS - Mooring slashed the agency budget by 57% without alienating the agencies. Before the overhaul, "there was, if not confusion, certainly a question as to who had what
responsibilities," says Christian Pruitt, account director at Allyn & Company.
"Joey was able to identify the key practice areas that we needed to focus on, which in turn allowed us to do what we do best. He provided a clean-cut vision of what needed to
be done."
Attorneys now meet with PR on an ongoing basis to share ideas. Media hits topped 900 in 2003, an increase of more than 50%.
Stories ran in American Banker, Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, The Deal, Dow Jones News Service and Bloomberg Business News, among others.
Mooring has taken a jumbled situation and put the pieces in order. He methods are not novel, and he insists there's no silver bullet.
Rather, the success speaks to the value of discipline and patience as the best tools to revitalize PR.
Contacts: Joey Mooring, 214.745.5308, [email protected], Christian Pruitt, 214.871.7723, [email protected]
Building Blocks of a PR Turn-around
How to get a floundering media effort back on its feet?
- Set the theme. At law firm Winstead Sechrest & Minick, Joey Mooring positioned the firm's attorneys as subject-matter experts
- Clean house. Mooring consolidated all PR efforts, pulling back PR responsibilities from individual offices and setting new guidelines for outside agencies
- Make the first move. An extensive year-long calendar of media target opportunities gave direction and focus
- Report back. With weekly, monthly and semi-annual reports, the PR shop makes sure the partners of the law firm know that they are getting their money's worth