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1 The New Role for Public Relations; Connect to Strategy Welcome! The presentation will be starting shortly 1

2 The New Role for Public Relations; Connect to Strategy Kye Strance Director of Product Management Vocus, Inc. 2

3 Jeffrey Julin, APR PRSA Chair & CEO since January 2008; national PRSA Board of Directors member since 2002 President, MGA Communications, Inc., a Denver-based firm that is nationally regarded for its award-winning work in stakeholder engagement and issues management Member of the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards Areas of Expertise: Strategic Planning, Crisis Communications, Risk Communications, Community Relations, Research and Media Relations 3

4 Jerry Swerling 37 years as a PR practitioner, consultant and educator Director of PR Studies and the Strategic PR Center, Professor of Professional Practice, USC Annenberg School for Communication, Los Angeles, CA SPRC mission: Conduct applied research aimed at advancing the study, practice and value of PR Principal of Swerling & Associates, a consultancy he formed in 1996 Organizational optimization, agency search, etc. Toyota, Home Depot, Cisco Systems, ACS, GM, Symantec, State Farm, +++ Public Relations Person of the Year 2000, LA PRSA 4

5 Amy Mauzy Public Relations Manager for Malibu Boats ( the number one selling water sports boat manufacturer in the world Malibu Boats marketing maniac and evangelist for over 10 years Amateur public speaker Student of the Internet Avid wakeboarder Mother of two boys 5

6 A Convergence of Opportunity Jeffrey Julin, APR Chair & CEO, PRSA President, MGA Communications, Inc. 6

7 What is Public Relations? Reputation Management Publicity Promotion Special Events Issues Crisis Communications New Media Management Employee Word of Mouth Marketing Investor Relations Communications Public Relations... Strategic Relationship Building & Management 7

8 Marketing Communications Public Relations offers critical third-party endorsement, affordable alternative to advertising 8

9 Organizational Communications It is critical that organizations communicate with, not just to, their audiences 9

10 Drivers Today & Tomorrow Customers & Consumers New technologies and market dynamics are changing the way people communicate New media requirements engage the traditional core of the Public Relations value proposition relationship building Best suited to engaging new and social media, Public Relations is getting increasing market share of promotional dollars 10

11 Drivers Today & Tomorrow Customers & Consumers Relationship building is growing as an essential component of integrated marketing Public Relations is becoming a strong partner of advertising for promoting goods and services Demand is increasing for the historic value proposition of Public Relations relationship building and publicity 11

12 Drivers Today & Tomorrow Stakeholders Corporate executives are committed to reputation management Public Relations skills, strategies and relationship building are vital to developing reputation Stakeholder relationships are vital to reaching organizational goals, and management support for Public Relations is increasing With enhanced relevance to reputation management and other core business elements, Public Relations is attaining Board-level attention 12

13 Drivers Today & Tomorrow Stakeholders Societal demands compel organizations to exhibit civic responsibility Demonstrating good organizational citizenship requires delicate relationship building with multiple stakeholders Among stakeholder demands are green business practices and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles 13

14 Convergence of Opportunity Emphasis on new and social media in integrated marketing campaigns puts Public Relations in lead role Organizational needs for reputation management and good organizational citizenship demand Public Relations skills in relationship building (New media + marketing skills) + (new organizational needs + relationship building) = New levels of relevance and success for the Public Relations profession 14

15 GAP V Public Relations/Communications Generally Accepted Practices Study Fifth Survey Jerry Swerling Director of Public Relations Studies and the Strategic PR Center USC Annenberg School for Communication 15

16 Key Findings: Budgets (520 responses) Average: $4.5 million % Budget Change, 2007 vs Range: +4% to +9% All Respondents: +7% $6B+: + 4% $100M - $580M: + 9% % Budget Change, 2008 vs Range: 0% to +9% (?) All Respondents: +5% $6B+: 0% $580M - $1.6B: + 9% (?) PR/GR Ratio: F 500: $786 spent on PR per $1M in GR 16

17 Key Findings: Working with Agencies Reason #1: Additional arms and legs Reason #2: Strategic market insight and experience Reason #9: Ability to quantify results For agencies, a period of growth and prosperity Clients working with multiple firms More relationships are ongoing Numbers of agencies used has stabilized Relationships are more stable Client budgets increasing (up 3% from 2006) Percent of budgets allocated to agencies is trending upward Not recession proof, probably recession resistant 17

18 Key Findings: Evaluation Average investment: 6% of total budget Far too little Absence of reliable tools? Inflexible budgets? Focus on execution? Methods used, 1 7 scale, 17 choices #1: Influence on corporate reputation (4.67, #1 since GAP I) All scores mediocre Good news: Trend away from clips, ad equivalency, impressions, etc; Trend toward share, content analysis, etc. Bad news: Limited/no financial analytics Non use of info from data-driven units Still media driven 6% 18

19 Key Findings: Senior Management Perceptions CEO s ranking of 9 key functions contributions, 1 (Low) - 7 (High) PR/Communication ranked #3 < Finance, Marketing > Strategic Planning, IT, Sales, HR, Law, Security Senior management beliefs re. PR Reputation contributes to success (6.14) PR contributes to Maintaining or increasing market share (5.15) Maintaining or increasing sales (5.03) Financial success (5.03) Senior management support Overall quite high (5.73) Recommendations taken seriously (5.67) Involvement in strategic planning, decision making (5.33) Participation in non-communications meetings (5.29) 19

20 When CEO believes PR contributes to success: 1. Recommendations taken more seriously 2. Broader participation 3. Broader responsibility 4. Broader view of evaluation 5. Data from other functions used in PR evaluation 6. PR function is well integrated, internally and with other departments 7. Organizations are more: Flexible Democratic People-first Ethical Proactive Long-term/strategic Good external reputation Successful 20

21 Strategic Implications Perceptions have improved dramatically Bigger organizations respond more positively; smaller ones can learn from them C-Suite is increasingly reputation-conscious; wants PR counsel at the table Management support can be leveraged: budgets, staff and influence Profession is now recession resistant, not recession proof The benefits of positive C-Suite perceptions are striking Best Practice: Optimize C-Suite engagement and understanding Best Practice: Report exclusively to the C-Suite 21

22 Key Findings: Responsibilities Table III/G-1: Functions for which Respondents have Budgetary Responsibility, Year-Over-Year Ranking Functions Percent Ranking Dif 05 & Corporate communications 85% 79% -6% 1 1 Marketing PR/Product PR 66% 76% 10% 3 2 Employee/internal communications 67% 68% 1% 2 3 Corporate image - Graphic standards 64% 65% 1% 5(tie) 4 Crisis management 65% 64% -1% 4 5(tie) External web site 64% 64% 0% 5(tie) 5(tie) Community relations 64% 63% -1% 5(tie) 7 Corporate reputation 59% 61% 2% 9 8 Advertising - corporate image 62% 60% -2% 8 9 Executive communications 56% 59% 3% Public affairs 52% 52% 0% Issues management 38% 42% 4% Advertising - issues 42% 41% -1% Corporate intranet 37% 40% 3% Advertising - product 39% 39% 0% 13(tie) 15 Monitoring and participation in the blogosphere* 33% 16 Philanthropy 39% 28% -11% 13(tie) 17 Corporate social responsibility* 27% 18 Monitoring and participation in other online media* 25% 19 Monitoring and participation in online social networking* 22% 20 Government relations 24% 21% -3% Investor relations 17% 12% -5% Ethics/ombudsman 10% 10% 0% Governance/standards 9% 7% -2% Respondents

23 Best Practice Responsibilities Based on correlations/patterns of positive outcomes 1. Digital/Social Media 2. Organizational Social Responsibility (not just CSR) 3. Issues Monitoring and Management More common among large organizations, but smaller ones can learn from them 23

24 Key Findings: Integration 1 (Low) 7 (High) scale Range: ; Average 4.92 (not great) BUT, more integration correlates with: More strategic than tactical More flexible than rigid More democratic than autocratic More people-first than profits-first More ethical than unethical More proactive than reactive More successful than unsuccessful More respected externally Best Practice: Champion integration 24

25 Summary of Best Practices Goal: Start discussion re. new way of thinking about Best Practices Common Practice Best Practice Based on correlations of answers to multiple questions Reveal patterns of positive attributes, outcomes for PR Caveats: Cannot prove causality Number of factors vary; how many is enough? Sometimes not associated with key outcomes More work needed Patterns are compelling Time to move the discussion beyond the subjective Constructive feedback welcome 25

26 GAP Best Practices 1. Higher than average PR/GR Ratio 2. Report directly and exclusively to the C-Suite 3. Optimize C-Suite s understanding of PR s current and potential contributions 4. Adopt an effective social responsibility strategy 5. Adopt an effective digital-media strategy 6. Adopt an effective issues monitoring and management strategy 7. Champion integration 8. Encourage ethical practices across the organization 9. Encourage a long-term, strategic organizational POV 10.Encourage a proactive organizational mindset 11.Encourage a flexible mindset 12.Champion the inclusion of reputational considerations in all organizational strategies 13.Measurably contribute to organizational success. 26

27 Amy Mauzy Public Relations Manager, Malibu Boats 27

28 Who moved my press release? Small Marketing Department A lot of hats The Malibu Difference Limited time to work on PR Treated as a task Limited results Looking past the press release PR has limitless potential online Treated as a goal not a task Increase sales and brand awareness Public relations not just media relations Influence individual buying decisions Moving past traditional Marketing From broadcast to tailored messages From hype to truth 28

29 You guessed it, more work The new tools of the PR trade Social Media Blog, Twitter, flickr, YouTube, MySpace, del.icio.us, owners sites, etc. SMNR: Social Media News Release Content Creation Video, original articles, instructionals, Pod Casts, etc. Malibu Corvette Limited Edition Sport-V SMNR, Vocus, PR Web, blog, flickr, YouTube, del.icio.us 29

30 Getting it done Get involved Owners sites Get real Get creative If you can t hire anyone, use your vendors and other free sources Use existing content Use ambassadors for your product MySpace Friends Become an example Microsoft, Vocus, PRWeb, etc. Prioritize You don t have to do it all 30

31 It s all worth it! The benefits Increase your value Spend less money, but more time Make sales Get quantifiable results Increase brand awareness Gain market share for your company Even in a crazy economy 31

32 Contact Information Jeffrey Julin, Amy Mauzy, Jerry Swerling, Moderator, Kye Strance, 32