PR Council

The PRMuseum and PRWeek have announced the first-ever awards program for pros with 15 years or less in the business. They will be competing for a chance to win one full year of mentorship from some of the world's top leaders in PR: Jano Cabrera, Bill Imada, Torod B. Neptune, Bea Perez, and Sally Susman. And unlike other awards programs, the PRMuseum NextGen competition will judge nominees not on business success, but on character traits such as leadership, courage, and innovation. The awards will be named after PR trailblazers —such as Bayard Rustin, Inez Kaiser, Irene Hirano Inouye, Fernando Valverde Lara, and Wilma Mankiller— who, because of their race or gender, have remained unrecognized by the field. Applicants will be chosen solely based on how well they have exemplified the traits of these pioneers and need not be of the same background as those for whom their award is named. Nominate here: https://lnkd.in/eWFVE2nV

We asked our Member leaders: How are you advising clients to capture growth in this period of guarded optimism? Katie Huang Shin, President, Big Valley Marketing, explained how "instead of focusing on how the operating environment is more VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) than ever, direct your energy and resources to formulating and executing a compelling growth strategy. Ask yourself: What choices do you need to make, how can you uniquely position your company in its industry, and what differentiated values can you offer versus your competition? It is also important to remember that you cannot cut your way to growth."

We asked our Member CEOs: How are you advising clients to capture growth in this period of guarded optimism? Josh Inglis, CEO and Founder, Propllr PR and Content Marketing, explains how "[Propllr] works with B2B technology companies, many of which have sales cycles that can last six months to a year or more. And now, given today's environment, they're going up against more competition on these deals than before. As a result, we are encouraging our clients to lean into trust-building communication strategies that shorten sales cycles and put them in a position to compete on something more than price. Our trust-based plans focus on the twin pillars of building authority for our clients' people and credibility for their companies and offerings."

Check out what we have going on at the PRC this May! 🚀 → May 14: HR Community Meeting → May 29: Effectiveness of PR: What Needs to Happen Next (OR Now) with Johna Burke, AMEC Measurement and Evaluation; Tony Cheevers, Researchscape International; and Kim Sample, PR Council → June 5: Margin Makers: Intelligence to Help Agencies Maximize Profitability with Alex Halbur, Prosper Group → There are still spots left in our Mini MBA for PR Pros with Section. Reach out to the PRC team to get the sign-up link. To gain access to these events and more, apply for Membership at: https://bit.ly/3SvCHQ6

We asked our Member CEOs: How are you advising clients to capture growth in this period of guarded optimism? Jennefer Witter, CEO, The Boreland Group Inc., explained how "now is the time to be even bolder—shout out your brand strengths; be even more creative on social media; showcase how your creative thinking/products/services meet the needs of your target audiences. A strategic, quantitative PR program combined with a strong business plan will enable you to jump further ahead when companies are pulling back."

We are partnering with Anchin and Davis+Gilbert LLP to offer an in-person roundtable discussion on May 30th from 8:30–9:30 a.m. in NYC. This event will feature discussions by Michael Belfer, Partner and Leader - Public Relations, Advertising and Media at Anchin, Brad Schwartzberg, Co-Chair of the Corporate + Transactions Practice at Davis+Gilbert, Michael Lasky, Co-Chair and Founder of the Public Relations Law Practice at Davis+Gilbert, and Kim Sample, President of the PR Council.

Agency Business Report 2024: As client spend diminishes from double-digit growth in 2021 and 2022 to 3% last year, agencies invest in #AI and higher-value work to demonstrate value. Read the agency trends analysis featuring PR Council's Kim Sample, Omnicom PR Group's Chris Foster and BCW Global's Corey duBrowa and Chad Latz.

Last year we convened a focus group with agency creative directors along with a cross-disciplinary team of experts in ethics, corporate reputation, digital and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) to update our generative AI guidance. The new guidelines include a detailed AI continuum, a toolkit for maximizing generative AI and a set of AI bias questions. Download here → https://bit.ly/3JBMQoY

We asked our Member CEOs: How are you advising clients to capture growth in this period of guarded optimism? Annie Scranton, Founder & CEO, Pace Public Relations, explained how "we remind our clients (and ourselves) to continue to promote the excellence surrounding the product or service they deliver to the world. By sharing the specific ROI their own customers see, directly by working with our client, this in itself will be enough to likely compel new clients to sign on or grow their work. We are all cautiously optimistic, but we still need to show and detail quite clearly the benefit of working together."