Institute for Public Relations

CEOs look to us – look to you – to be, if not the smartest person in the room, certainly able to make some very serious judgments often under crisis circumstances when there is a great deal on the line. We have to approach that responsibility with a great deal of humility and understanding, and research helps. That’s what Don Baer said to Institute for Public Relations Trustees when our Board met last week in its first full session of 2010. Don is Chairman of Penn, Schoen Berland (PSB) and Worldwide Vice Chairman of Burson-Marsteller. He engaged Trustees in their opening ...

That’s the theme – and ambition – of Indonesia’s public relations community, which hosted a regional conference Feb. 2-4 in Jakarta for the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). There were 162 delegates from 23 countries attending. The Institute for Public Relations and its mission of PR research, measurement and evaluation had a high profile with this multi-national but mostly-Asian audience. Among the takeaways: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED? IPRA installed another woman as president: Dr. Elizabeth Goenawan Ananto who leads the graduate communications program at Indonesia’s Trisakti University. She succeeds ’09 President Maria Gergova, managing director of United Partners, an MS&L affiliate in Bulgaria. Egypt’s ...

The use of Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) as media measurement and a tool to value media placements is one of the most contentious topics in our business; the topic seems to emerge at nearly every professional conference. As you undoubtedly know, AVE is essentially the practice of assigning a “value”to a news story by equating it to advertising costs, with the implication that the news story is somehow “equivalent”to an advertisement in terms of probable audience impact. The debate about AVE is healthy because it tends to move public relations practitioners beyond simple quantitative measures to more meaningful types of analysis ...

Well, here we are. Still just days into the New Year. Time to turn over a new leaf. Start a new chapter in our personal or professional lives. Pick your metaphor; it feels good. Enter 2010 refreshed and re-energized. Apparently what characterizes our optimism at the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education – the Institute – is not necessarily mainstream. The lead in the weekend Wall Street Journal claimed: “Few decades have been as resolutely dismal as this past one, which is thankfully all over.” There have been many similar pronouncements about the times in which we live. Instead, I draw ...

The Institute for Public Relations has commissioned research into the skills, expertise and competencies required in the years ahead for top public relations advisers and corporate communicators. Dr Tom Watson of the Media School at Bournemouth University in England is leading the research, which will be reported at the Institute’s next European Professional Colloquium in 2010. Here, Dr. Watson outlines the context of the research and some of the issues being addressed. As a public relations academic, there are times of the year when I am suddenly very popular. Here’s a clue: it is not always (or often) with students around ...

People who know me know how thrilled I am to assume the role of President and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations. It is a privilege and an honor to lead this 53-year-old organization and represent our profession publicly. It’s also a personal pleasure for me to succeed two friends and colleagues who served the Institute so well: Frank Ovaitt and Jack Felton. My transition into this office – between March 5, when I was elected, and today – has been a luxury in a world where it’s common for people to leave one job at 5 pm on Friday ...

Sir Martin Sorrell touched on many things during his 50-minute Annual Distinguished Lecture to the Institute in November, including public relations in the Middle East. Valued at around $100 million, Sir Martin predicted it will grow by a whopping 200 percent in 2009. “Here’s a good example of the world being remade,” he said. On a trip wedged between the Muslim holiday Eid and Christmas, I traveled to Dubai and Abu Dhabi to meet the public relations community. I discovered that the emergence of public relations is bringing tremendous opportunities as well as new professional responsibilities to the Arabian Peninsula. The public ...

Since adopting “Public Diplomacy” – or “Corporate Diplomacy” – as my theme as IPRA President, people have been asking me to define its role in Public Relations and to cite examples. I have tackled the topic online in this month’s Frontline. I believe that Corporate Diplomacy means at least two things. It means a company embeds the value of collaboration deeply into its operations and practices, and it means the company extends the reach of its relationships to include groups, cultures, organizations, even governments, which don’t necessarily involve the company or client directly but which ultimately affect the sustainability of ...