PR Newser recently published public relations predictions for 2010 from several industry leaders, including Saxum Public Relations CEO Renzi Stone. The questions covered business forecasts, industry acquisitions and the biggest PR story of 2010. One standout prediction from Renzi was that a new player will emerge to challenge Facebook. The full responses to the questions are included in this post.
Q: In 2010, I expect my business to be up/down/flat, and here’s why.
A: We’ll be up – way up. Like double digits. But then again, we were up 20 percent plus in 2009.
Three reasons-
First of all, we are headquartered in the South. Population and job creation trends for this part of the country are far better than the rest of the nation. One demographic study by noted author, Dr. Wendall Cox, shows Texas and Oklahoma ranked first and eighth, respectively, in net domestic migration gains in 2009. More jobs equal more people, which equals more PR opportunities. Ask Detroit PR firms about their 2010 forecast. Not good, I’m sure.
Secondly, advertising remains broken. This week on Forrester’s Blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals, Augie Ray, a new senior analyst of social computing, correctly asserts that consumers feel there is “too much advertising.” From our perspective in our markets, it means that clients who used to spend big ad dollars are coming to us for more bang for the buck. That means more video, social platform development and CSR. Public relations as a profession has almost made the monumental leap from press release people to strategic brand and interactive communications managers.
It wasn’t long ago that brands engaged in massive one-way communications, anchored by big media buys, commercials shot on film, billboards along highways and full page newspaper advertisements. Public relations people, the stereotypical little brother to our bigger budgeted marketing brethren, were relegated to the sidelines writing press releases and planning social events. Or were they?
And then the world changed.
Advertising became too big. As the traditional media fractured over and over again after the internet was formed and events like 9/11 killed consumer spending, agencies and Chief Marketing Officers alike needed more money to hit target audiences. The problem was, even for the biggest brands, the key audiences became harder to find, as did the money.
“Clutter” was everywhere.
No longer could one television advertisement or full page insert reach the masses. Making things worse, the old financial model of “bill creative hours and buy media” (for the sacred 15 percent commission) stopped working when advertising budgets shrunk and brands got smart by buying the tools themselves or finding talent to do what only Madison Avenue could previously produce.
A bitter global recession. Unemployment reaching 7.1 percent at home. Wind, rain and cold conditions on election day. Opposition led by the heroic people who protect us.
Like my college basketball coach used to say, “find a way to win.”
The third edition of MAPS found a way with 54 percent of the winning vote. It was a team effort, with voter turnout topping 30 percent – a high number for a municipal election.
So why was it so important to pass MAPS?
The MAPS brand has defined the last fifteen years of progress in our community and a vote against this MAPS would have slowed down recent momentum. Critics argued that money should be used for public safety, a valid request. Unfortunately for them, MAPS has never been about catching up, it has been about leapfrogging the competition.
Show me another community investing like this? It doesn’t exist.
Be careful about talking in circles. When trying to make a point to clients about how few people they know, I ask how many contacts they have in their CRM (Outlook). They generally say, “about a thousand.” I then ask how many unknown numbers ring on their cell phone. They say, “very few.” A false sense of security can be achieved in social media circles by communicating key messages to a small, yet focused audience without other tactics. If you are going to talk in circles, however, social media is the place to do it for many reasons. Just understand it is not an all-encompassing tool – yet! This conversation could look different a year from now.
On Tulsa’s new mayor
Dewey Bartlett and Tom Adelson battled it out for the right to be mayor of Tulsa last week, along with Independent Mark Perkins. In the hotly contested election, Bartlett beat Adelson, a reverse from the state senate seat won by Adelson a few years back. We wish Mayor Bartlett the best. Tulsa has a ton going for it right now with the BOK Center drawing national acts, a strong small business and entrepreneurial community and downtown baseball (Saxumclient, OneOK Field), a hallmark of great communities, just a few months away.
We knew it could happen, but hoped things would improve. State revenue projections look like they’ll be off for the rest of this fiscal year and next. The legislature should work with agencies to cut as much as possible and then tap the Rainy Day Fund for the rest. In talking with a large school superintendent friend, he shared that this year’s budget, which is concentrated with teacher salaries, is already set. More cuts threaten core services. If the gap is partially covered this year, then he can make difficult hiring decisions next school year. Kudos if leaders of both parties can come together and work on this tough issue.
Since the official opening of the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City in June 2009, the facility has seen its first group of patients complete treatment and has added an additional treatment room. The center is the first in the state of Oklahoma and the sixth in the country to provide proton therapy, an alternative to X-ray radiation that spares healthy tissue and results in far fewer short- and long-term side effects.
The center recently added an additional Gantry Room, which doubles the number of patients and expands the types of tumors the center can treat with proton therapy. The first group of patients completed treatment in November 2009. Patients with head and neck, brain, central nervous system, prostate and some pediatric cancers, among others, are being treated at the 60,000 square ft. facility. Patients are coming to the center from all over the state of Oklahoma, as well as from neighboring states.
The ProCure center will treat 1,500 patients per year.
To learn more about proton therapy and the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City visit http://www.procure.com/ok or call (888) 592-2854.
I recently attended the Council of PR Firms Critical Issues Forum in New York. I’m new to the council, whose mission is to advance the business of public relations firms by building the market and firms’ value as strategic business partners. As a small firm by industry standards, it was a treat to rub elbows with some of the industry giants, including Dave Senay from Fleishman Hillard, Melissa Waggoner-Zorkin from Waggoner Edstrom and Ray Kotcher from Ketchum, who was serving his final meeting as chairman.
The topic for the forum was Aftershock: Rebuilding Trust and Confidence in 2010. A Socratic debate format was used with the clever and brilliant Len Schlesinger, president of Babson College, moderating. Panelists included Beth Comstock, SVP and CMO for General Electric, Susie Gharib, anchor for Nightly Business Report, Steve Harris, VP Global Comms for General Motors (ret.), Margery Kraus, CEO of APCO Worldwide and James Wiggins, ED for Corp. Comm. for Morgan Stanley.
Len Schlesinger asked the audience, what is the role of public relations in building trust?
My answer was, public relations role is to serve as a clear voice that ethically and transparently serves as a guide for the public conscience and engages discussion about important issues facing society. People were all over the place on this issue, which turned out to be the point of the exercise.
The panel engaged in a spirited discussion and we learned how gray this issue is for our industry. The following were some of my observations:
Saxum Public Relations was recognized as the 24th fastest-growing company in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber’s 2008 Metro 50 event Sept. 30 at the Cox Business Services Convention Center. The Metro 50 award ranks the metropolitan area’s fastest-growing, privately-owned companies for the year based on their percentage of annual growth.
Entering its fifth year of business, Saxum executes creative strategies and tactics for local, regional and national organizations. Saxum has doubled its employees and increased its revenue 85 percent since 2005. To accommodate this growth, the Saxum staff recently moved to a larger office space and launched Maxus Creative, an in-house, full-service creative shop specializing in print, Web and video production, to assist with public relations campaigns.
This has been an interesting past 12 months. It has been nearly a year since Saxum launched our Speak Up campaign – seven simple tips that speak to your business during the national recession. Since Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession is “very likely over” in remarks last week, I thought I’d review our tips and give examples of how we used them during the past 12 months.
We launched the Saxum Speak Up campaign in October 2008 with a memo to our clients about how to communicate more effectively during the recession.
The tips:
1. Build customer and client relationships
Our team has focused on advising clients to become irreplaceable to their clients and customers by getting creative about relationships. The key has been an investment in time.
To date, Saxum has lost revenue from only a handful of clients and not one client laid us off because of the recession. Some have actually increased their budget. Our team approach and partner philosophy has made us a valued part of our client’s teams. We have weathered (and continue to weather) the storm together.
I’m constantly learning. How to be a better leader for our clients. How to get outside the box. How to make a difference. How to prioritize.
During the past month, I’ve been working with Sara Walker, our vice president for operations and human resources, as well as our other management team members on how to continue our momentous growth as we emerge from this recession. We’ve been talking about the best approach to hire the best talent and help talented people make a career decision that is beneficial to them. Of course, in our line of work, it is all about people.
I know all the statistics. Among the business services category in Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” 21 percent of employees leave annually. According to a StevensGouldPincus poll covering PR firms in 2008, 24 percent of firms turned over. One in four people moved on to a “better” opportunity. That’s way too high.
Visit our You Tube page for the full-length ceremony featuring Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, Governor Brad Henry and First Lady Kim Henry (coming soon).
Since the official opening of the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City in June 2009, the facility has seen its first group of patients complete treatment and has added an additional treatment room. The center is the first in the state of Oklahoma and the sixth in the country to provide proton therapy, an alternative to X-ray radiation that spares healthy tissue and results in far fewer short- and long-term side effects.
