The Agency of the Future

by Margaret Ritsch, APR

What do the decades ahead hold for the Edelmans, Richards Groups, and other agencies of the world?

Four top agency CEOs shared their outlook at PRSA International Conference in San Francisco in October. Fred Cook, CEO and president of Golin Harris, completely overhauled his 700-employee global agency to adapt to a rapidly changing marketplace.

“As our world evolves, so do the needs of our clients,” said Cook, according to the Holmes Report from June of last year when the 55-year-old agency unveiled its restructuring plan. “Clients look to us for one: insights; two, ideas; and three, engagement,” Cook explained last week to a packed audience at the Marriott Marquis. “We’ve reorganized the entire company around that.”

Golin Harris abolished the traditional agency hierarchy and replaced it with four communities of specialists: Connectors, Creators, Catalysts, and Strategists, he said. Connectors handle traditional and media engagement; creators create; catalysts lead accounts; strategists plan, conduct research, forward big ideas. The agency of the future will have a much broader suite of services and new skill sets are needed, he said.

Colleges and universities are turning out thousands of generalists every year and there are not enough jobs for them, said Rob Flaherty, APR, Ketchum’s CEO and president. He encourages students to specialize in an area such as research, media relations, video, digital or writing. His agency no longer hires generalists, but instead looks for new college graduates who already have specialized skills.

At Ketchum, new jobs and titles reflect the rapidly changing needs to the marketplace. Community and conversation manager is one example. “Storyteller” is another, he said.

Flaherty said the availability of so much consumer data augurs a sea change in how the agency advises its clients. “Big data allows us to market to the individual,” he said. “There are a huge wave of new jobs at Ketchum around this.” The employee of the future, Flaherty said at the conference, “understands the power of data, is a connector, digitally nimble, and believes in the power of community.”

One way the agency is tapping the boundless creativity of digital natives is Ketchum’s new crowd-sourcing idea site, MindFire. Originally envisioned as a tool to solicit creative ideas from college students for Ketchum’s clients, Mindfire has now become a talent recruitment site, he said.

Hill & Knowlton’s Jack Martin said his agency is investing heavily in research and digital. Measurement is very important – one of the most critical things in the business, he said.

The client of the future will unleash the power of big data, desire transparency, appreciate smart risk-taking, and be willing to turn over its brand to the community, Flaherty asserted.

The good news for our students is that public relations is one of the top 10 careers with a future, Flaherty said. “The most valuable media in the world is something you can’t buy: earned conversation, word-of-mouth, face-to-face,” he said.
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Margaret Ritsch, APR is director of Roxo, TCU’s new student-driven agency for strategic communication. Formerly director of public relations at the Balcom Agency, then owner of her own firm, Perception, Ritsch joined the TCU faculty in January 2012. She and five Roxo interns traveled to San Francisco for the PRSA and PRSSA annual conferences.

Know thy objective

Guest post by Linda Jacobson, APR

I recently judged communication campaigns and tactics, and was struck by the lack of planning involved in nearly every entry.  Particularly absent was the lack of specific communications objectives. If you’re in public relations, marketing or corporate communications, you need to know how to craft a solid strategic communication objective because that is the single most important focal point of any communications campaign. If you don’t know what you're aiming for, you’ll never know if you reached it.

Below are components of a communication objective, but ultimately, you’ll want to ensure this is part of a strategic communication plan that aligns with your organizational or departmental business objectives.

• Expect your outcome. Are you trying to raise awareness of a new widget or new process? Or do you need to move the needle by changing employee or customer attitudes? Perhaps you need a target audience to adopt a specific behavior. Before you can craft an objective, know what you expect the outcome to look like.
• Use verbs! Once you know the expected outcome of your objective, select an appropriate verb. Do you want customers to buy, ban or endorse? Are you looking for employees to adopt, support or change?
• Be specific. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at communications plans that aren’t tied to specific objectives. If you can’t articulate the objective specifically, then you are already missing the goal.
• Who is the audience?
• What is the timeframe?
• What is the attainment level?
• Measure the objective.  Know how to accurately measure your objective, and know your baseline. This is your starting point. What is the current status quo? You need to know this before you initiate your strategy; otherwise, you won’t know whether you moved the needle or not.

Below is an example of a specific communication objective that anticipates an increase in audience awareness:
 

Within the next 60 days, 70 percent of our organization’s customers will see or hear about our new widget.

Starting with these basics, you’ll add a solid, measurable component to your strategic planning. What other components help you achieve your goals?

Grow your social media measurement skills

President's Column: Tom Burke, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
(This post appeared in the May 2010 issue of the eChaser)

It’s continual learning for me at IBM. Every day. It’s that way when you’re on a team of 400,000 people helping to build a smarter planet and 399,999 of those people are smarter than you!

Thankfully, in today’s intensely competitive and dynamic global marketplace, IBM continues to invest in employee development. Through various avenues, the company provides resources necessary to grow your skills, gain new experiences and build a high-impact career. A career differentiated by expertise. In fact, IBM’s achievements in learning and development recently earned Fortune magazine recognition as the No. 1 company for leaders.

This focus on skills and career development is also true of the Public Relations Society of America. Professional development is one of the most cherished benefits of PRSA membership. At Greater Fort Worth PRSA we continually strive to exceed this expectation of our members through relevant monthly programs and engaging events.

One of our most exciting professional development meetings is set for Wednesday, May 19, at Colonial Country Club. Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO and founder of KDPaine & Partners and author of “Measuring Public Relationships: The Data-Driven Communicator’s Guide to Success,” will lead a three-hour morning workshop focusing on key elements of engagement, including quantitative, qualitative and new relationship metrics. Over lunch she will review measurement principles and how they apply to the new, wild world of social media. It promises to be four hours of exceptional expertise building that you won’t want to miss.

In this crazy world we live in, it is more true than ever that if you’re not learning and growing, you are slowly fading away. And that doesn’t sound like too much fun, does it?

(Photo credit: Sarah Scissors)

Making the News: The Rise of the Crowd

On Tuesday, September 15, GFW PRSA members Tracy Syler-Jones and Richie Escovedo provided a session for the chapter's Education Special Interest Group.

Making the News: The Rise of the Crowd

Tracy Syler-Jones (@TracySJ) - Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communication at TCU
Richie Escovedo (@vedo) - Media and Communication Development at Mansfield ISD

Today's supercharged communication world presents numerous challenges for communicators. In the recent past, one could rely on traditional media to pass along news and information that could reach, and hopefully, influence the masses.

However, a shrinking number of reporters means communicators must learn how to effectively utilize, integrate and manage social networking and new media tools to remain visible and connected with key audiences. Learn more about the role the crowd plays in pushing your message along and how to tap into that energy.

Additional links promised to attendees:

• Social Media Guidelines for Schools
• Social Media Policies
  

@The Forefront: Successfully Navigating Social Media - Slideshows

Thank you to all of the attendees of the chapter's May 13, 2009 Professional Development Workshop -@ TheForefront: Successfully Navigating Social Media

As PR professionals, strategy underscores all our methodologies, so why would social media be any different? If you’ve been waiting to take the social media plunge, now’s the perfect opportunity to learn the nuts and bolts, best practices, strategy, planning and measurement.

Below are the presentation slideshows from the day:

@TheForefront: Successfully Navigating Social Media

View more presentations from Beth Harte.

The Nuts and Bolts of Twitter (updated)

View more presentations from Richie Escovedo.

The GFW PRSA professional development workshop was led by Beth Harte (@bethharte), Twitter maven and marketing and communications professional, with help from our own Richie Escovedo (@vedo) and Terry Morawski (@morate).

Plus, a post-workshop interview with Beth Harte:

Related posts

• Are We Missing the Next Big Thing Because of Our Twitter Obsession?
• Social media’s dirty little secret
• The Social Web is more valuable to PR than Social Media Tools