How American PR Is Different from PR Overseas
Feb
How American PR Is Different from PR Overseas
posted by scott on 21st Feb 2013 in category UncategorizedSP+A is one of 12 firms to have founded PR Boutiques International, a global network of boutique public relations agencies. Since our 2008 formation, PRBI has grown to more than 30 member firms in more than a dozen countries. Each of our members combines small PR agency client service with world class practice skills and sector experience.
This lively network offers many opportunities for partnerships to better serve our clients, but also facilitates the regular exchange of experiences and ideas among our trusted colleagues.
One such colleague is Lucy Siegel, CEO of New York-based Bridge Global Strategies and a co-founder of PRBI. Lucy’s firm has particular expertise helping companies based in international markets build positive awareness here in the U.S. As a result, she has a studied perspective on how our industry practices differ around the world.
In her recent blog post, How American PR Is Different from PR Overseas, Lucy discusses how corporations in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and a few other countries view the value of public relations as extending far beyond product marketing.
“In these markets, PR is not relegated to building visibility and helping market products; it also includes strategies to build and enhance a company’s reputation. PR professionals look for ways to develop and strengthen relationships that will help the entire company in its interactions with various audiences, including investors, the local community, government officials and employees, among others. In other countries, PR is more top-down, with management deciding what they want to communicate and the PR department executing those decisions. But in the U.S. there is more two-way dialogue with the public, and the PR or corporate communications department is expected to monitor the public dialogue, and also to recommend messaging and develop materials to help support the company in those conversations.”
Having worked with many international companies, Lucy experiences this difference fairly often.
“Often when I receive a call from a potential client from overseas, I can see the difference in attitude towards PR right away. I ask what the company is looking for from a PR agency, and the answer I get is usually a prepared list of PR tactics that the executives in the company have already decided will fill their needs. After talking to us and as they begin to work with us, the company’s staff begins to see that we can help in ways they hadn’t anticipated, and they stop telling us what tactics they want us to deploy, asking us, instead, for our counsel on helping them meet their goals.”
Well said, Lucy. We have had similar experiences with our multi-national clients, and believe broader corporate reliance on strategic public relations is becoming more commonplace around the world.
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