If the terms upgrade and globalization described the PR vendor business last year, add alliances, acquisitions, integration and Webcasts to this year's list of hot topics. To leverage your agency or corporate brand, get in the mix now as vendors are looking for partners to showcase technology and new services.
"In terms of changes that are occurring in the industry, there's an amount of convergence that's going on [involving marketing, advertising and PR] and part of that brings in the Internet," says Scott MacIver, VP of interactive communications at Weber Public Relations Worldwide. The agency has gained a reputation for working closely with vendors to buttress what it can offer to clients in the communications field.
"As the industry changes, it's important to work from a partnership perspective to leverage what we can offer our clients. It reminds me of what SunMicrosystems [SUNW] was saying three or fours years ago. We're allowing for innovation that occurs elsewhere," adds MacIver.
Melding business visions and technology enhancements are key to growth, as exemplified by companies like PR Newswire, which was founded nearly five decades ago when TV was the media god, to newly acquired Internet monitoring company eWatch.
PR Newswire, for instance, plans to seek partners for its 150 nationwide media programs this year, an increase of about 13 percent over 1998. About one-third will be archived as audio cybercasts throughout the year.
Even Forbes is planning to cast a wide cyber-net to broadcast its conferences on the Web this year. Beyond PR, companies are seduced by the prospect of partnerships because businesses earn access to new clients and services without having to build them.
A Partnership - Not a Marriage
Publicly held Medialink [MDLK] announced recently that it has executed a letter of intent to buy a top PR research firm, speculated to be CARMA.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter 1999. After transaction costs of two to three cents per share, the company plans to earn between 75 and 81 cents per share for fiscal 1999.
Other hints of a new wave of partnerships emerged as the year drew to a close.
Last month, in the first multimedia Internet press conference held by Weber Public Relations Worldwide and broadcast and Internet publicity company Electronic Media Communications, the marriage of telephony and Internet broadcasting attracted an audience of 2,500, including media stars at Wired and The San Francisco Chronicle.
The event was unique because viewers could simultaneously listen to panel discussions, view video, click through reams of press materials and call in with questions.
"This is something that has been much talked about," says Max Smetannikov, senior editor of ISP Business News, a sister publication of PR NEWS, "but this is the first time I've seen this done. Initially, this carried wide implications in financial communications, but it's great to see that it has trickled down to involve PR as well."
The event was held for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and focused on voluntary digital music security guidelines that have been at the forefront of issues driving the recording industry.
At a cost to EMC of more than $20,000, getting the event (now archived at http://www.emcnews.com/SDMI) off the ground required more than 125 employee hours to program the user interface, which ultimately became the container for the background materials.
Three host servers, including one on each coast, provided a sense of comfort, especially after RIAA's server briefly went down during the event, according to EMC President Patrick Pharris. While the event unfolded, seven staffers were on hand at RIAA, five at EMC's Irvine office, two with its Anaheim-based ISP and two with its sub-contracted server in Washington, D.C.
"When you have the top eight CEOs from the recording industry there, you can't have any mistakes," adds Pharris. Those at the conference included Thomas D. Mottola, chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment and Strauss Zelnick, president and CEO of BMG Entertainment.
What's on the Horizon?
Events that integrate hot news (the RIAA was tipping its hat that it has developed a framework to protect artistic copyrights) with technology advances provide a foretaste of some of the interesting alliances coming down the PR pike this year, sources say.
While PR firms beef up their services (M&A to internal communications), vendors are seeking rare deals that will both leverage their brands and meet client needs.
Tomorrow in Frankfurt, Germany, PR Newswire is co-sponsoring with financial printer Bowne International a first-time conference on reaching capital markets in the U.S.
The panel discussion is one of about 25 investor relations events the company plans to host or cosponsor in 1999. PR Newswire's costs for an event can run from several thousand dollars to upwards of $10,000.
Having nearly doubled in the past few years the number of business forums it hosts or co-sponsors, PR Newswire is generating hundreds of new business leads by partnering with other businesses, according to Michelle Savage, PRN's director of IR services.
In another partnership, eWatch - which was acquired by Newscast Today-owner WavePhore [WAVO] for $1.3 million in stock and cash in November - plans to roll out an initial version of eWatch/Newscast content in the next 30 to 60 days. A stripped-down version of Newscast will be built into every eWatch subscription, which now runs about $12,960 a year.
"We were talking to our customers regularly and this is something they indicated they wanted - a solution in one place. We also wanted the package, the whole communication loop," says WavePhore VP of Marketing James Alexander about the deal. "The synergies were too tasty for us not to pay attention."
(EMC, Patrick Pharris, 949/852-3999; eWatch, James Alexander, 914/288-0000; Medialink, 212/682-8300; PR Newswire, 212/596-1526; Max Smetannikov, 301/340-7788; Weber, 617/520-7110)