If you’re in the PR industry, you’ve spent endless hours debating, agonizing over and reading about the future of PR. But it’s not every day that you’re invited to look into the crystal ball of one of the great PR minds of our generation.

Last week, Worldcom Public Relations Group invited its members to do just that. Paul Holmes, president & CEO of the Holmes Group and editor of the HolmesReport, shared his predictions for the PR industry in 2012. And to my relief, it looks like there may be exceptionally clear skies ahead.

In fact, Holmes predicts that PR will soon earn a seat at the executive table as the C-suite begins to recognize the importance of effectively managing relationships between organizations and key stakeholders.

But is PR really ready to take on this challenge? According to Holmes, we’re in an era of unprecedented opportunity for our industry – but it won’t all be smooth sailing.

Here are the 10 things Holmes says PR must “get right” if we’re going to succeed:

1. Recruitment: We must attract top-level people – those who understand not only PR, but the business environment impacting our clients.
2. Development: Our industry is evolving; it’s critical that our people keep pace. We must ensure we are continuously seeking out and providing learning opportunities for our colleagues/employees.
3. Retention: Attracting the best people isn’t enough; we must also retain them. It’s important that we create engaging work environments and put our people first… even if that means letting clients go when they don’t do the same.
4. Research: Think Moneyball. Billy Beane was able to defy conventional wisdom and outsmart much richer baseball franchises with the use of research. PR needs to do the same.
5. Conversation: PR isn’t about crafting and delivering messages. It’s about two-way conversation; listening as much as talking.
6. Content: We have to become adept at content creation. We must be able to create content that enables us to reach stakeholders in an impactful way.
7. Courage: “Do one brave thing today… then run like hell.” We must have the courage to counsel our clients; to truly earn a seat at that executive table.
8. Integrity: Credibility is critical to our industry. As Marcus Aurelius said, “If it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it.”
9. Independence: The advice we give must be genuinely neutral in terms of media channels and tactics. PR folks: that means that if the right solution is advertising (gasp!) – that’s what we recommend.
10. Measurement: At the end of the day, if we’re going to have a seat at the table, we must become better at measuring the value of PR and the relationships it builds and manages. We have access to more data today than ever before. We must find more effective ways of using it!

What else would you say PR needs to “get right” to survive as our industry and the business environment we work in continues to evolve?

To connect with Aven:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: aven@blisspr.com
Twitter: @avenlea
LinkedIn: Aven James

[Full disclosure: I am a New York Giants fan.]

As a leader, sometimes it doesn’t matter whether you’re right or wrong. It just matters that you make a choice. Actually, that’s completely untrue. While decisive action can earn you the respect of your key stakeholders, New York Giants Head Coach Tom Coughlin would be the first to tell you that when leaders send the wrong message, it could spell disaster, or worse, it could mean your job.

In just a few words: “adapt or die.” Coughlin, who is about to lead his team to its second Super Bowl in five seasons has taught us that and it’s given him historic success. But there also are lessons for us as communications professionals. Let’s think of the coach as the “agency” and the players as the “clients.”

Lesson No. 1: Adjust the message if it’s not working. Post haste.

Coughlin joined the Giants in 2004. After three seasons of locker room and front office tumult brought on by his rigid leadership style, he led the franchise to the Super Bowl in 2007. Just as they will this Sunday, the Giants faced the New England Patriots. Quarterback Tom Brady was still captivating audiences on and off the field. Coach Bill Belichick was still donning hoodies and being lauded as a brilliant strategist. The communication between player (client) and coach (agency) was clear. The system worked. The Patriots won games. No one asked questions. No one was threatened with a pink slip.

Then there was Coughlin, who was being nudged out because he couldn’t communicate clearly with his players and, thusly, was losing games. Here is a leader who proved he could convey a gameplan to a squad of the toughest men in the world, but he couldn’t get them to even like him, which meant they couldn’t execute. That’s when he changed (sort of) in mid-2007. While he held firm on his approach to the game, he adjusted his master-commander dynamic with the players. Communication became a two-way street. It was interactive. One might even go as far to say that Coughlin went from traditional to digital. Either way, it translated to a Super Bowl victory that year.

In 2008, following the improbable Super Bowl victory, a former business editor at the Star Ledger wrote:

“He (Coughlin) was an autocratic tyrant with an explosive temper who was fired from his last job and came close to being canned from his current one.

But Tom Coughlin had an epiphany: The taskmaster coach, who once fined two of his players for being late for a meeting even though they had been in a car accident, loosened his management style this season and opened lines of communication with players.”

Fast forward: this season’s negativity and dissention reared their ugly heads again when it seemed the Giants only succeeded at losing when it mattered most. But this time was different. This time the leader refused to waver.

Lesson No. 2: If you’re confident that the message is sound, stay the course.

While Coughlin may’ve softened his approach before his last Super Bowl appearance, by and large he’s been the same person throughout. Yet this time his players are in his corner.

In the communication business, the client has to buy into an idea. Once we establish the message, the onus is on us to execute. It’s a two-way flow of ideas, but the foundation of that flow begins with us, just as it began with Coughlin. Get your client (players) to believe and then follow through. What proves execution more than a Super Bowl victory?

To Connect with Matthew:

Email: matthew@blisspr.com
Twitter: @kirdahy
LinkedIn: Matthew Kirdahy

I’ll never forget where I was on May 21, 2007. What’s the significance, you might ask? Well, I was just about seven months into my first healthcare public relations job when the news broke. The New England Journal of Medicine published results of an analysis of data from over 40 clinical trials that found a 43% increased risk of heart attack among type 2 diabetes patients. These were not just any patients though. These were patients treated with a blockbuster diabetes medication – the very medication that I and a team of 10 strong had been working to support. A marquee client, if you will. Of course, as with any crisis communications situation, the resulting media fallout came quickly and seemed to linger – on and on and on. The FDA got involved, the government investigated, lawsuits ensued and the crisis was even dubbed the top healthcare issue of 2007.

The medication ultimately got a strict warning on its label in the U.S. and was pulled from the market elsewhere. Years later the healthcare industry still talks about the issue and when I run into old colleagues, we talk about “those times.”

This begs the question: what good can come from a crisis? For starters, an excellent learning opportunity. What follows are some tips for navigating your way through a crisis, no matter what industry you focus on:

The obvious – stay cool, calm and collected: your clients will be under immense pressure; tensions will be high. It may seem impossible, but try your best to keep a level head. If you need to take a step back and re-group, please do. Positive energy from the agency side will only help re-affirm just why you were chosen in the first place. Beyond keeping yourself and your team together, be there for your clients. To talk, to listen, to serve as a sounding board.

Keep on top of the news cycle: designate at least one or two team members to actively monitor the media – not only for client-facing updates but also to keep the internal team up to speed on the latest developments.

Stay two steps ahead: try your best to get ahead of the curve. For example, if you hear there’s going to be a government panel discussion open to the public, get those travel plans and conference rooms booked – well ahead of time.

Think beyond the crisis: “this too shall pass,” right? Though plans for proactive efforts or campaigns may stall in the near-term, keep ideas for the future on the back burner. Another crisis or major story of interest will always emerge. You won’t stay in the spotlight forever (though it may feel like it at the time).

Hopefully you’ll navigate through the storm. And if you’re lucky, you’ll emerge with the ability to help others fare just as well.

To connect with Taryn:

Phone: 212.840.1673
Email: taryn@blisspr.com
Twitter: @tarynberman
Linked In: Taryn Berman

Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled “Drug Reps Soften Their Sales Pitches.”  In it, Jonathan D. Rockoff reports that several drug companies (including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck& Co and Eli Lily & Co) told sales reps to stop “detailing” doctors with aggressive, tightly-scripted sales pitches and instead provide information that doctors really want – i.e., patient education materials, caregiver resources and reimbursement guidelines.  In the process, physician satisfaction has improved and drug sales are rising.

With this shift, big pharma has discovered what the services sector has long known:  customers want conversations and solutions, not well-rehearsed messages.

The challenge, of course, is that real solutions are hard to come by.  As Chris Wright of Zs Associates notes:

“Shifting gears has proven thorny in some cases….Some longtime sales representatives, used to repeating  a scripted message, aren’t equipped to intuit and respond to what doctors want.  Promotion of drugs is highly regulated, making it tricky to give salespeople lots of leeway in what they discuss with physicians.”

In this respect, healthcare companies are quite similar to financial services organizations.  Both sell complex, sophisticated products.  Both are highly regulated.  Both have been slow to adopt new marketing and distribution models.  Both are under intense pressure to transform themselves due to new regulations and new financial strains.

Each sector has important lessons to teach the other, including:

1. Education and Personalization.  More than a decade ago, financial services companies understood that consumers are in the driver’s seat.  In response, they supplemented product campaigns with financial literacy programs, decision-support tools and advice.  They also customized products and educational programs by customer life-stages, behavior patterns and goals.
2.  Consultative Sales.  Years ago, money management firms replaced “sales professionals” with “advisors” and “planners.”  Today, big pharma companies are moving toward a more consultative sales model – as are health insurance companies, who are acquiring healthcare advisory firms and integrated care management firms at a rapid pace.
3. Endorsement-Marketing.  Pharmaceutical companies are experts at endorsement-marketing.  They understand the power of Key Opinion Leaders (e.g., doctors, researchers) – and the credibility of advisory boards and academic studies.  Financial services companies have been slow to enlist expert endorsement.  As consumers take on more responsibility for their financial futures, look for more guidance from highly-credentialed financiers and risk managers.

What other lessons can communicators and marketers in these two sectors teach one another?

Connect with Meg:

Phone:  212.840.0095
Email: meg@blisspr.com
Twitter: @megwildrick
LinkedIn: Meg Wildrick

The idea for this post struck me as I was reading the back of a frozen fish sticks bag. I’m sure it sounds odd, but so was the fact that the messaging stuck with me. I was first drawn in by the description – that they add only 35% breading vs. 50% of most national brands. But what really caught my attention, surprisingly, was the picture of the founder and chairman of the company (Trident Seafoods) on the bag, followed by a message describing the fish they catch, the preparation process and his commitment and confidence in their products. The note ends with an email address and invitation for customers to provide feedback.

I know it’s just marketing language, but somehow it grabbed me. And sold me. On fish sticks of all things?

It started me down a path of thinking about how my own clients’ leadership teams demonstrate their commitment to and passion about their firms to the external world. Most B2B companies don’t sell products and services that are as simple or tangible as fish sticks, so how can leaders effectively showcase their zeal?

Enter the thought leadership PR campaign. Think about 1 or 2 critical issues facing the firm’s customers to which the CEO can bring personality and a point of view. Then, address those issues forcefully. This can provide several benefits:

• Rally Employees: Leaders set the tone for an organization. If they demonstrate passion and commitment on a particular point, it can quickly energize others. Whatever the topic, the messaging should also help to underscore the mission or purpose of the organization. What makes the company and its employees tick? Think about IBM and its “smarter planet” platform. Leadership expert John Baldoni offers some good insights about why it’s important for leaders to define a clear purpose for their organization and its trickle-down effect on achieving results.

• Prompt Customer Conversations: If the head of the organization is visible in the marketplace talking about the challenges and trends affecting its customers, that’s an excellent prompt for connecting with clients and prospects. Take one or two of the articles in which the CEO appears and have the sales force use it as an excuse for an email marketing or calling campaign around the issue. We often have clients tell us about being in a new business meeting where a contact in the room brings out an article in which a senior leader was quoted. Did that seal the deal? Maybe not. But, it sure helps to warm the room.

• Humanize the Brand: It’s easy for B2B brands to lack personality. Personality gets shaped through a combination of content, (the aforementioned) purpose and visibility in the marketplace. And social media has helped bring a more direct connection to an organization’s leaders. There are a host of hospital CEOs who are blogging to help demonstrate their hospital’s commitment to the community, tell its stories, and discuss challenges/solicit improvements. The number of socially engaged CEOs is only expected to rise – check out this infographic on the future of C-suite social engagement from Social Times. Think about the statement you make by having a CEO directly engaged with customers and prospects online, even if it’s in a limited way, like a weekly chat on a general social platform for the company.

What outcome can a good thought leadership campaign produce?  Craig Badings recently compiled thoughts from a variety of leading experts on this very issue, which is worth checking out. Or maybe you’ll just end up buying fish sticks?

What thoughts do you have to share about the impact of CEO passion on PR programs?

(Note: I have no affiliation with Trident Seafoods; just a big fan – as is my 2-year old)

Photo by eschipul

Connect with Kellie:

Email: kellie@blisspr.com
Twitter: @kshe
LinkedIn: Kellie Sheehan

Fun, for me, is:

• Holding my 6 year old upside down until he giggles
• Watching the Golden Globes instead of the Giants this weekend
• Sneaking a good piece of fiction into my business travel

Sometimes work is not fun. There are lots of good reasons for that.  Budgets grow smaller, project scopes change and turnover happens.

Once in awhile, you have a project that puts a smile on your face.  This one made my year a little brighter.

Our client, Life University, is the world’s largest chiropractic school. They have a mission that goes way beyond Chiropractic, though. Simply put, they want you to start thinking about your health in a new way.

Dr. Guy Riekeman, President of Life University, believes “your body knows better.”  He hopes each of us will begin listening more carefully to the signs our body is giving – and then act on that innate intelligence.  We can start to do this with lifestyle changes of clean diet, appropriate sleep, exercise, healthy attitude and having our nervous system free from interference.

From a marketing perspective, Dr. Riekeman has been a terrific client for many reasons. He has great ideas to share, he has lived a rich life (entrepreneur, author, film student, among others) and he is a dynamic storyteller. The real bonus?  He has a sense of humor and is willing to try new things.

So, when we launched his new blog, we wanted people to “meet him” in an exciting new way.  Instead of a boring biography, we worked with Jonathan Mann of TedMed fame to create a song that summarizes Dr. Riekeman’s life and his philosophy.

The result? A song that stayed in my head for weeks and put a smile on my face for months. Give it a listen here:

The song has been incredibly well received by his old – and new – audiences. (And I still listen to it, just for fun.)

So why am I telling you about this?  After all, we rarely blog about clients. But I honestly believe digital marketers need a creative jolt this year.

I want to encourage you to think more creatively about your 2012 marketing content and thought leadership. Digital PR offers you new ways to package and share information. Why not take advantage of that and experiment?

Have you tried a new approach to packaging your marketing content? Will you share it with us?

Connect with Elizabeth:

Phone: 212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow

In case you haven’t figured it out yet – this makes SlideShare an ideal platform for B2B companies.  B2B businesses tend to be chock full of presentations. For the most part, these are presentations that can easily be repurposed for marketing purposes.  

And if you think no one’s interested in presentations – think again.  SlideShare received some 60 million visitors per month in 2011, up from just 1.5 million per month in 2007.  It’s not ‘Old Spice Guy’ kind of traffic, but it’s impressive nonetheless.  SlideShare’s also one of the top 150 sites on the web and displays around 3 billion slide views a month. If you thought your last presentation was rushed that’s around 1,140 per second.

The gradual increase of B2B businesses on social media and intrinsically good SEO in presentations (if you’re not using keywords in your slide titles then what are you using?) likely have something to do with the platform’s phenomenal growth.

Fortunately we can also use all of these presentations to guide the development of our own future decks.

An infographic from ColumnFiveMedia (which can be seen in all it’s glory here) does show us some interesting facts about the “optimal presentation.” Among the most interesting:

• Brevity is key: 78% of decks have 30 or fewer slides and the average number of slides per deck is 19.
• Go Visual: There’s an average of 19 graphics per deck (the same as the number of average slides per deck).
• Don’t hidetheball: The average number of words per slide? Only 24.

This does lead to a somewhat interesting discussion regarding deck design.  Upon designing a presentation the author needs to consider – will this presentation be “presented” or will it live on its own, i.e. will it not have the benefit of a speaker to actually deliver the message.

With a live presentation the host would want to be the attention hog, and rightfully so.  The deck is created to more illuminate points being spoken about. Consider any good TED video you’ve seen – the “speech” could live on its own, but the points raised are magnified by the accompanying presentation.

On the other hand, standalone presentations need to deliver their message completely within the presentation itself – likely resulting in more than 24 words per slide.

So then, how do we design a presentation that can both be presented effectively and can live on its own, assuming we want to repurpose the content?

It seems there are two main options:

• Try to strike a middle ground – Draft the presentation with both goals in mind: provide as little enough information as needed to keep it interesting but enough to cover the topic.  A college professor of mine called this the ‘skirt’ rule for essay length to his freshman level philosophy students.
• Do it twice, or more accurately, make two versions.  One that’s presented, and then a second, expanded, version (potentially starting with the short version) that fully expounds on the points brought up in the smaller version.  This one really allows the author to capitalize on their keyword research for full SEO benefit.

What have your experiences been with SlideShare?  Have you changed your own presentation style based on the ability to share the presentations with the world at large?

Photo courtesy flickr user Engin Erdogan.

Comfort – If you’re in this business, you’re a Mad Men fan. That being the case, you know Roger Sterling, partner at Sterling Cooper. In the show, Sterling mentions something to the effect that 50 percent of his business is getting people to like you. (Note: he was shouting at an account executive at the time) Returning back to reality for a second – billionaire industrialist John D. Rockefeller said, “The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.”

While in the eyes of a client, much of a PR agency’s success can be quantified in media “hits” and other end-results, it’s the relationship forged in the life of the account that ends up being the true strength of an agency. If you are to succeed at an agency, client relationship-building must be a primary goal.

Credibility – Why are you here? For the purposes of this exercise, think less philosophical and more skill set. Under the best circumstances, you will be given ample time to prove yourself on the job. The pace with which new talent is integrated into an account will vary by agency and job title. Regardless, it’s important to have a voice as early as the first week with clients and your work will speak for itself in due course. Be succinct in discussing your background as it’s relevant to the account. Study the client’s business and offer expert counsel by introducing some new ideas. It won’t always matter that you’re right. It will always matter that you’re smart and speak eruditely about the company.

Continuity –To avoid an argument, let’s agree that change is neither good nor bad. It just simply is. Your arrival at the new agency represents change, whether you were part of a wave of new hires or are filling a new post. Every client has a different tolerance level for change. Your job is to get them comfortable with the new arrangements. Assuming the existing work was satisfactory, the client expects a minimum of what they already have, but ideally, your agency wants to exceed those expectations. You’ll want to show that by working you into the lineup, the team will ensure a consistent and continuous level of performance in a smooth transition.

Now, go make Sterling and Rockefeller proud.

Connect with Matthew:

To Connect with Matthew:

Email: matthew@blisspr.com
Twitter: @kirdahy
LinkedIn: Matthew Kirdahy

“What’s the name of the dog?”

When I first started as a newspaper reporter more than two decades ago (has it really been that long?), this was the question cub reporters were often asked. As long as the story referenced a dog, that is. If it mentioned a child, a horse, a cat, then the question was changed appropriately.

The important part was not the subject of the question, but what the question itself represented: It was meant to remind us that the details matter. That you should never be so caught up in the excitement of a story that you can’t take a step back and make sure that you’ve thoroughly reported on the issue and understood all sides.

News-making was simpler then. The only real competition for newspapers was local and national television news. The Internet was several years away. Still, TV was eroding the number of newspapers nationwide and subscriptions dropped. We consoled ourselves with the notion that TV might get the news out first, but newspapers told a more complete story.

In that environment, what set newspapers apart was the constant push for details and context and accuracy.

Fast forward to 1999, just as I was looking to make the transition to my first PR agency, and the Internet was suddenly a very real contender for the attention of the American public. My managing editor at the time told me, “You can be first or you can be right. But with the Internet, people want news the moment it happens and still want complete context. I don’t know how we’re ever going to do both.”

Since that time, the Internet has virtually taken over and the number of newspapers and magazines has plummeted. The drop was so dramatic that Newspaper Death Watch launched in 2007. Thousands of journalism jobs are lost each year. More than 3,775 disappeared in 2011 alone, according to the Newspaper Layoffs website. Despite the overall drop, the number of news outlets – from bloggers to satellite news – has proliferated.

The survivors have been left with a shrinking news hole, but even greater pressure to perform. Based on anecdotes from friends still in the business, reporters have to cover more beats and meet even more deadlines – both for the online, as well as the print publication. Speed is now king.

Besides the reporters, though, who really suffers?

We all do.

We get news faster and easier than ever before, but often the articles can be – at best – incomplete and – at worst – inaccurate and misleading. Reporters, who have always looked for compelling stories, are also looking for those that are easy to tell. In just the last few months, I’ve seen repeated coverage of biased reports that tell only partial stories – and the coverage is written as though the reports are completely accurate. Time to understand complex industries has slipped away from reporters, which makes it even easier for inaccurate information to be spread by those with an axe to grind. And, thanks to the web (the very outlet that started this wild ride), errors spread farther and faster than ever before.

The lessons from this environment have come hard and fast for many:

• It’s more important than ever for a company to take control of its reputation – after all, you either control your reputation or someone else will
• Educating media about a company or an industry can be even more important than garnering coverage
• The story you tell must be simple – especially when the truth is complicated

I don’t mourn the loss of newspapers. Times change. Communication evolves. We either evolve with it or we’re left behind. What I do mourn is that the all-too-often need for speed has seemingly triumphed over the pursuit of accuracy.

Connect with Julie:

Email: julie@blisspr.com
Twitter: @julieajohnson1
LinkedIn: Julie A. Johnson

1. Small is the New “Big.”  Pharmaceutical companies can shrink the market by 95 percent and still produce positive returns, due to higher margins and new, global markets.  “In the future, there will be many more drugs targeted to specific diseases, but the aggregate economic values will hold constant,” predicted Barry Weiner, President of Enzo Biochem.  The FDA’s approval earlier this year of Pfizer’s targeted treatment for lung cancer, Crizotinib, is a good case-in-point.
2. Value Trumps Volume.  Payors (the largest of which is now the government) will have a big say in which diagnostic tests and personalized therapies are used by physicians.  Their primary criterion will be total economic value.  What is the right drug for the right patient at the right time?   If industry demonstrates an economic benefit to targeted therapies — i.e., efficacy, reduced hospitalization – payors are likely to be receptive.
3. Technology Enables.  For personalized medicine to become globally viable, we need lower-cost tests.  According to Dr. Jorge Leon, President of Leomics, the average price of a core laboratory test is roughly $20; a personalized medicine test costs 10 to 200 times that much.  As technology develops over the next few years, cost efficiencies are likely to open up new, global markets.
4. Collaboration Fuels Success.   To deliver on the promise of personalized medicine, all stakeholders must collaborate.  “If we think that there will be one driver of the bus, we will just fail,” noted Dr. Pia Gargiulo, Senior Director of Pharma Business Development at Qiagen.   Payors, patients and key opinion leaders need to work together to address regulatory issues, funding and intellectual property.  “All of these players need to be involved in a collective consciousness moving forward,” Gargiulo said.

What challenges and opportunities do you see as medicine becomes more personalized?

Connect with Meg:

Phone:  212.840.0095
Email: meg@blisspr.com
Twitter: @megwildrick
LinkedIn: Meg Wildrick