Every year, PR News honors a select few communications executives whose leadership has helped define the industry, and these four are no exception: From one inductee who could
have been a professional tap dancer to another who is a former social worker, to the reality TV star, to the man who helped put Famous Amos on the map, these four professionals
take PR to a whole new level. Without further ado, we give you the 2007 Hall of Fame inductees.
Richard Laermer, CEO
RLM Public Relations
The World According To Richard
Richard Laermer just wants to have fun.
It may sound like a trite twist on a Cyndi Lauper song, but within the first minute of speaking with him, you'll realize that it's precisely why he is so successful in PR.
"[As director of public affairs for Columbia's business school], I had a boss who was the biggest pain in the ass. But even then, she was always having a good time," Laermer
says. "I decided then that no matter what I do in this business, I'm going to have fun. I don't care what else happens."
Mean People Suck. So Do Press Releases.
Not only was he going to have fun, but he was going to play by his own rules. That's why, when he founded RLM PR in 1991, he decided that no client of his would have a bad
attitude and get away with it - a decision that would lead to some very rewarding and lucrative professional partnerships.
"Whenever a client is mean, I just show them the door," he says. But don't interpret his intolerance of callousness as oversensitivity; rather, consider it a brilliant
business strategy, and one that's served him well over time. After all, at 46 - still an adolescent relative to many of his peers - he has offered the industry innumerable fresh
perspectives worthy of a "hall of fame" title, some of which have admittedly ruffled a few feathers. Like his take on press releases, for example.
"I hate press releases. People spend hours on a single comma, and they don't actually say anything," he says. So, what is his recommendation for an alternative?
"Send flowers. Talk to people. Call them, instant message them, reach out on Facebook. Send them something in the mail, which still exists, by the way."
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times
His sarcasm isn't unfounded. Laermer has built a career and a thriving business on building aggressive buzz via his aggressive attitude, and, just as there were the best of
times, so too were there the worst.
As one of the first dot-com PR firms on the East Coast, he helped launch Internet campaigns for sites including E-Centives, BettyCrocker.com, Internet.com and Word.com. But
that wave of success in the late '90s was quickly followed by its downfall in the early 2000s. The wake of the combustion prompted a cultural shift through which Laermer
gracefully navigated by expanding RLM to encompass healthcare and issues management, and to offer project-based services. Then, as the digitalization of communications gained
momentum, he joined forces with clients as diverse as HBO.com and Bluefly, shaping strategies that were universally adaptable - like Adtag and Adcopy, two services he launched for
Comcast's Spotlight that enables the development of ad campaigns as local as a three-block radius, and on up to the regional and national level.
"Now that we've survived the dot-com period, we've learned," he says. "We have criteria. We know what it takes to have success without killing ourselves." So, what exactly
does it take, besides innovation and adaptability?
"If you craft a perfect message and stay consistent with that, you can do anything. People are so darn inconsistent, and that's where they fail," Laermer says. "We are now
living in a media-saturated world where every five-year-old knows who's bull-shitting them. You can't just make 'statements;' you have to talk like a real person."
Which, clearly, Laermer does. If you ever doubt it, log onto his Bad Pitch Blog (badpitch.blogspot.com), where he lambastes terrible PR pitches with the vitriol befitting of
those meanies he avoids doing business with; the difference is that, after the stern review, he explains how they could be improved. It's basically a free communications
consultation from a guy who wrote the book - literally. His best-selling book "Full Frontal PR" is matched only by his 2004 cult-hit reality TV series on The Learning Channel,
"Taking Care of Business."
"I was the first person to be on TV as a PR person," Laermer says. "I even beat Lizzie Grubman." But celebrity or no celebrity, the success of Richard Laermer is because of
Richard Laermer, and his refreshing way of speaking the truth.
"[After starting RLM] people would say, 'Your name is on the door,'" he says. "And I would say, 'No, my attitude is on the door.'"
Out Of Office Reply
All work and no play? That wouldn't be much fun. That's why Laermer stays balanced by keeping up with his "magazine fetish," traveling and redefining the meaning of frequent
flier.
"I have a new hobby. It's called planned layovers," he says. "I have made it my mission to stop off in one of the layover points and do something random there. People want
me to start a club. It's like a part-time job."*
*Footnotes: Richard@RLMpr.com
Kenneth Makovsky, President
Makovsky + Company
Acting Out
Ken Makovsky's path to PR was a circuitous one. An actor-turned-tap dancer-turned-writer-turned-law student, his ultimate career choice was many years - and many experiences -
in the making.
"When I was a little boy, I wanted to be an actor," he says. "When I was four years old, my mother put all four of her sons into acting school, singing lessons and tap-dancing
lessons. Out of all of us, I was the one who completely fell in love with it."
With acting as his starting point, Makovsky rapidly matured into a rising star. By age 10, he was employed as a tap-dancing teacher. At 13, he had the male romantic lead in
an operetta. How, then, did his theatrical arc become so disjointed as to end in public relations? Well, as he sees it, there's nothing disjointed about it.
Mother Knows Best
"My mother taught me the value that has been very important in my career in PR," Makovsky says. "She believed in exposing her children to many different things, so we were
given lessons in everything from sports to ice skating. That was influential because it made me look for a career that would enable me to have access to many different
areas."
But Makovsky's dabbling was far from a Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none susceptibility. After finding his talent for writing in college at Washington University in St. Louis,
Missouri, and his passion for client advocacy in law school, he landed in a meeting with Al Fleishman (of Fleishman-Hillard fame) and never looked back.
"PR seemed to combine all of these facets of my life - my interests in writing, information, intellectual challenges, a diverse exposure and client advocacy," Makovsky says. "I
have always been a believer in following your passion - and your instincts."
So he did.
Trial By Fire
Makovsky's first PR job was at Ruder Finn, where he got his feet wet with a campaign that largely defined a generation.
"One of the cardinal campaigns that I was involved in was addressing the Aerosol industry's need to meet safety and environmental standards that resulted in a market revival
after the ban on fluorocarbons," he says. "I was a senior account executive at the time, at a rather tender age, and I ended up taking the helm [because of a client conflict with
the SVP]."
Handling such a monumental case proved to be more than enough training, and, in 1979, he left to found Makovsky + Company.
A Place To Call His Own
From that point on, Makovsky's curriculum vitae could consume an encyclopedia worth of real estate, but his achievements in the last year alone make him worthy for any Hall of
Fame: He launched his own blog, "My Three Cents" (blog.makovsky.com), added an Online Fluency practice to his firm; grew the agency by 33% (to date); and earned $7.5 million in
fees in 2006.
More important, though, is the advice he can offer other PR professionals based on his own storied career.
"You have to find and maintain the right talent, which is what enables growth," he says. To this end, he hosts the Mak Awards - an internal competition in which distinguished
professionals judge the best campaigns of the ear - and Mak University, a program for mid-level and younger pros dedicated to best practices education.
"It's also essential to have an entrepreneurial culture where you are proactively going out to get business," he says. "And, always have a dedication to client service, to
keeping your clients instead of churning them out."
Oddly enough, the philosophy behind these lessons can be traced back to his college days at the University of Washington, when he was the president of his fraternity.
"That had a deep influence," Makovsky says. "When I got into office, I discovered that [the fraternity] was on the brink of bankruptcy. Suddenly, I had a turnaround job to do
when I was 19 years old. I came up with an approach of going to people at parties who hadn't paid their dues and asking them to leave. That's when I discovered I loved
management."*
*Footnotes: KMakovsky@makovsky.com
John Rosica, President
Rosica Strategic Public Relations
Star Maker Extraordinaire
Prior to starting his own firm in 1980, John Rosica spent 20 years in the entertainment industry building new musical artists ("We developed stars - literally," he says) for
such companies as ABC Records and RCA Records. Clients in his roster included Neil Sedaka, the Monkees and the Partridge Family. But, despite the celebrity musicians he helped
launch to stardom, they wouldn't be the most ubiquitous thing he made "famous."
Making Amos Famous
In 1976, Rosica left his post as vice president of promotion, merchandising and advertising for RCA Records to join Wally Amos in his then-burgeoning cookie-making venture.
Rosica developed the marketing plan that made Famous Amos a household name.
"Wally never had money to advertise," he says when explaining why the meteoric growth of Famous Amos was so remarkable. "The fame of Amos was totally in the lap of public
relations." When Famous Amos was sold to Keebler in 1998, the mouth-watering brand was valued at $200 million.
Taking Up a Cause
With Amos, Rosica pioneered the concept of cause marketing by creating a tie-in with the Literacy Volunteers of America, which told the story of Famous Amos cookies at
grassroots media events and a spokesperson tour. "We helped grow them about 1,000% while we branded Famous Amos at the same time," he says.
Since then, Rosica has paired other causes for clients, such as African Pride hair products, a division of Revlon, with The Birthing Project USA, the only national African
American maternal and child health program in this country. According to Rosica, the program has saved hundreds of babies' lives.
Starting Up
What made Rosica take the leap and found his own firm? Easy: It was time.
"I had never worked for an agency or did corporate PR directly. I got to be 44 years old and said 'I want to be my own guy--enough of the corporate life.' It was hard, but it
was worth it."
Pet Peeve
"The communications schools are not doing justice to students," complains Rosica. "They're not taking care of English and grammar. We can't find a whole person who can write
and pitch. The colleges teach skills but we don't want them to--we want them to learn."
But he doesn't blame the Internet for these eroding skills, especially because according to him, it's all about reading and can be used as an effective research tool.
Secret of My Success
Rosica points to his perfectionist streak as the true secret behind his success. "I'm a control freak," he admits. "I want things to be my way. I was never that way when I was
growing up. My parents were very strict but when I became an adult, I wanted everything to go my way. And it fits perfectly in this business."*
*Footnotes: 201-843-5600, john@rosica.com
Ellen Toplin, President
Toplin & Associates
A Mighty Heart
Having worked as a social worker for the Department of Rehabilitation at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia before later switching to marketing for IntaCorp, a division of
CIGNA that was serving insurance companies and major self-insured corporations, Toplin still feels like a do-gooder at heart. This is especially the case when she is dealing with
her clients, many of whom have been with her for two decades or more.
"I come from a giving, caring heart and that is the way I live my life," she says. "My rules have always been that everything that goes around comes around. It's not about
what's right for me--it's about what's right for the other person's life."
Goodbye Social Work, Hello PR
So how did Toplin, who holds a bachelor's degree in social work from Temple University and a master's in rehabilitation from Antioch College, migrate from social work to PR?
"Life is challenging as a social worker," she admits. "You have limited impact because the systems and challenges are so broad. There's such a multitude of problems you face.
You're not only frustrated by that but you're also underpaid and you don't have a lot of impact at the end."
On Her Own
After working for CIGNA, Toplin took a leap and founded her own agency 25 years ago. The reason, she jokes, was "happenstance or an alignment of the stars." But they stem from
something deeper: As a working mother, she wanted to alter her family and work dynamics. "In corporate life, I did a lot of overnight travel," she says. "I wanted to find a way to
use my skills to support my family and not leave my daughter for days at a pop."
Signing Up
Unsurprisingly, the campaigns that have meant the most for Toplin have been those infused with social conscience. The best example of this was her work with the Pennsylvania
Department of Health, which dealt with increasing organ and tissue donor awareness in the state. Incorporating marketing, advertising, a Web site, strategic relationships and
community relations on a very limited budget, the program inspired nearly one-quarter million Pennsylvania residents to sign up as organ donors. It also reaped laurels, including
PRSA's Philadelphia Chapter's Best of Show Award in 2005 and six first-place Pepperpots in 2005 and 2006.
Being Of Service
Toplin and her team have also provided pro-bono work to nearly 50 regional nonprofits, including the Philadelphia chapters of The ALS Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters
Association. She is particularly proud of the initiatives that have helped homeless women with children go back to school and become homeowners themselves.
"What better purpose can there be than that?" she asks with rhetorical flourish.
It Takes a Village of...Divorce Lawyers
Toplin's work with the American Bar Association Section of Family Law's 12,000 divorce lawyers promoting a 12-week high school program that teaches long-term relationship
skills, netted prestigious nationwide coverage, from a Time cover story to a mention in Senator Hillary Clinton's book It Takes A Village. "It was pretty cool to get a call from
the First Lady's secretary," she exclaims.
Words To Live By
"It's our job to make the world a better place."--Tikun Olam*
*Footnotes: 215-793-4666, ellen@toplin.com