Archive for the ‘PR's Top 50 Thought Leaders’ Category

PR Thought Leader Richard Laermer

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Richard Laermer, Owner of RLM PR and author of “Bad Pitch Blog” and 2011:Trendspotting For The Next Decade, gives his three predictions for future trends in public relations.

Richard’s three predictions about the future of PR:

1. “I think in the next few years our ‘email-centric-ness,’ the idea of always being emailed and always getting information, that’s going to die out when people realize that it’s not helping us, we’re not getting anywhere.”

2. “Flexibility. The way that we deal with ourselves and each other will be less about waiting for things to happen, because other people are finishing the product and more about getting it done ourselves…The idea that all flexibility lies with us.”

3. “Less of a reliance on technology and more face-to-face because studies have proven, and it might be more so in the next decade, that connecting is what is going to keep us going, as opposed to all this ‘hey, how ya doing?’ Twitter and email and all that SMS stuff is great; but it’s also really time consuming, and at the end of the day, maybe around 7:45, makes us feel kind of useless.”

RLM PR
Bad Pitch Blog

2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade

Search Terms: Richard Laermer, RLM PR, Bad PR Pitches, PR News, PR News’ Digital PR Next Practices Summit, Public Relations

PR Thought Leader Mark Hass

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Mark Hass, World Wide CEO of MS&L, discusses his views on paid media, the distinction between buying commercial time and product placement and the role of PR agencies in social media.

Some of Mark’s VlogViews:

“The whole issue of paying for play, paying for editorial coverage as opposed to earning that media coverage which is what the public relations industry does, it [the issue] is really at the core of our media relations function.”

“Product placement is fine as long as there is transparency around it. When you try to sneak something in, I think it’s a little more troubling, than if there is disclosure on what’s going on.”

“The one important area that has emerged over the last year or two and I think is going to get more and more important is the management of social media. The way companies and brands interact inside the space of social media …I think PR agencies play an important role in managing those relationships.”

Manning Selvage & Lee

Search Terms: Manning Selvage & Lee, Mark Hass, product placement, MS&L

PR Thought Leader Steve Cody

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Steve Cody, Managing Partner and co-founder of Peppercom, discusses his guiding principles of PR and how he applies those principles to the changing face of the industry.

Some of Steve’s VlogViews:

“Focus on innovation. Focus on trying to understand what is keeping our clients up at night. Focus on attracting and retaining the very best people. Focusing on a culture where we take our clients and our business very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves very seriously at all.”

“We in PR aren’t necessarily seen as the digital solution that we should be. Digital, obviously has proven to be the most cost effective one to one marketing tool, but public relations firms still aren’t seen as the go to source.”

“What I get from [stand up comedy] is a lot of intangibles that I bring to the workplace…and that is reading non-verbals, picking up on an audience and the audience can be a new business presentation or a staff meeting…but, because there is only you in front of that audience, you are down to the essentials, you must be able to communicate.”

Peppercom

Search Terms:  Steve Cody, Peppercom, stand up comedy, Public Relations, Mount Kilimanjaro, digital media

PR Thought Leader Sabrina Horn

Friday, July 25th, 2008

Sabrina Horn, President & CEO of Horn Group, a leading digital communications agency, discusses some of the initiatives she is undertaking at her company, the integration of PR into a more general communications framework and the role that web video plays in her organization.

“Because of the internet, PR has to become more of a general purpose communications visual medium.”

“We are in the business of helping companies deal with change and we don’t deal with change very well ourselves sometimes. And so I think as an industry we have to really get ourselves around how PR is changing.”

“You’re talking about two kinds of business models. An interactive model, which is more projects based and the PR business model, which is more retainer  based. And putting those two under the same roof is tricky.”

“We see facebook, we see myspace. These are horizontal applications for social networks but, I think we are going to see a massive proliferation of niche, vertically made social networks for specific tribes and groups.”

Horn Group 

Search Terms:  Sabrina Horn, Horn Group, Women CEOs, women owned businesses, digital media