Posted on PR Axis

The serious business of public relations

It is interesting that the word ‘consultant’ derives from the Latin, consultare, meaning to debate or discuss.  That implies its function is to assist in two-way communications – yet, the role of management consultancy is positioned as assisting organizations to improve performance, through logical analysis and development of plans.  The focus is more on management rather than consultancy. The history of management consultancy is tied closely to analytical processes and a rational, scientific approach to...

Posted on PR Axis

How to cut 50% spend on public relations

To paraphrase that old saying about advertising, is it possible that organizations are wasting half their PR spend? In the face of plans by many governments - such as the UK and Italy - to cut their communications budget, how should the public relations industry respond? Here I share some of my thoughts - and a suggestion from Toni Muzi-Falconi.

Posted on PR Nexus

Public Relations before, during, after acquisitions and mergers. Fascinating lessons from Poznan, Poland!

Ok… it took me more than 20 hours by van to return to Italy, while an Icelandic dust closed all of Europe’s airports… courtesy of two young polish drivers (found via the Internet the evening before by one of my benefactors Monika Bogdal from Poznan’s University of Economics… the power of social media…)… yet I was thrilled, honoured and inspired to have been granted the privilege by Prof. Ryszard Ławniczak to participate to the EconPr...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Pink Gloves, Hashtags and Lost Opportunities

A few weeks ago on the Hobson and Holtz Report (For Immediate Release 493), Shel Holtz mentioned that participants at this year’s Blog World Expo had been requested to use the Twitter hashtag #fightcancer during the day in order to raise awareness for the fight against the disease. At the time, I remember thinking, “So what? What impact did it have?” Cancer is hardly an orphan disease for which basic awareness is required, so what...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

+10%! those increasingly muddy waters between evaluation/measurement and return on investment

A few days ago, I accompanied a few colleagues to an important pitch for a global public relations program on behalf of a prominent market leader on which we had been feverishly working for the three preceding weeks.. We went through the whole proposal and, at the very end, the Ceo asked: ‘ok, this is all very fine and dandy, but how would you estimate the impact of all this on our bottom line?’.

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Show me the money? A challenge for PR

For the last 50 or so years, advertising money has made the world go round.  Despite the fact that Viscount Leverhulme (or was it John Wanamaker – either way, both were early pioneers of advertising for their companies) is quoted as having said: I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted, but I’m not sure which half The fact that half of the spend was considered to be worthwhile was enough to compensate...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

‘Enough is Enough’ – an economic model for Net-Work and Net-Worth?

With its roots in 1546, the wisdom underlying the John Heywood proverb ‘enough is enough‘ has been recognised by many. But when is enough truly enough? The churning over the recessionary pressures – real or otherwise – have, more so in recent months, led many to question the economic models we have used for so long. Unsurprising really, as they are models which, as I have mentioned here before, were created for another space and...