Getting the best out of your PR Agency

by Grant on March 22, 2011

Why is it that a PR agency can be ‘let go’ by one client for allegedly not performing, yet can win accolades by another client – more often than not a competitor to its original client?
What set me thinking about this were a couple of excellent – but different – commentaries I came across in [...]

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NAB’s advertising and PR ambush: Lots of short-term noise, but doubts about it being a real game-breaker

by Grant on March 1, 2011

The NAB’s brilliantly coordinated and executed marketing, advertising and PR ‘ambush’ on its sister Australian banks a couple of weeks back rightly got a lot of favourable comment at the time.
As a campaign it was bold, brazen, well timed and very different for a bank. As an ‘attention-grabbing’ exercise it must have been seen and [...]

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A PR challenge for 2011: better management of social media within your organisation

by Grant on February 15, 2011

A couple of recent matters that caught my eye demonstrate how important it is for Australian public relations and communication managers to make as one of their 2011 priorities a more proactive approach as to how social media is managed and practiced within their organisation.
What sparked this was the recent controversy over Commonwealth Bank’s rather [...]

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The nexus between media and PR: is it time for a heart-to-heart with your CEO?

by Grant31 January 2011

It won’t be surprising if one of the biggest tasks many Australian in-house PR and communications professionals face on returning to work after the summer break will be having to convince their senior management that the recent bad media experiences of a few should cause them to take fright and go into their bunker.
This follows [...]

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Crisis and Reputation: Time to brush up on the latest thinking?

by Grant18 January 2011

Two words – crisis and reputation – must surely strike a chord with Australian public relations and communications professionals in the corporate world as they gear up for the 2011 year.
While what’s happened in the past is not necessarily a predictor of what may happen in the future, if I were an in-house corporate PR or [...]

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PR goes wrong:Australian retailers score an ‘own goal’

by Grant5 January 2011

What a PR disaster to start the New Year! Hard on the heals of the public relations challenges the Australian banking industry struggled against late last year a group of retailers from the Australian retail industry has scored a spectacular ‘own goal’ with its advertising campaign against the evils of online trading.
One of the basic [...]

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A self-analysis for the Australian PR Director:10 questions about your 2010 performance

by Grant13 December 2010

If you are the typical Australian PR, public affairs or communication director or manager you probably face a multiplicity of challenges.
Not only do you need to be top-notch PR professional; there’s a multitude of management tasks to juggle, not the least of which is to manage both an internal PR department, as well as an [...]

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The challenges facing those within PR in the Australian banking industry

by Grant29 November 2010

Oh to be a fly on the wall of the PR and Corporate Heads of major banks as the Australian banking industry faces a major corporate reputation, public relations and communications challenge.
Ironically, the current perceived ‘crisis of confidence’ and “PR problem’ facing the Australian Banking industry is based on criticisms against the banks that are [...]

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Is PR’s contribution to brand building getting ambushed by the love affair with social media?

by Grant15 November 2010

As a PR Manager are you finding the explosion in social media is making PR unfashionable – and unsexy – to your marketing and brand folks?
Is this because your marketing and brand manager’s are having a love affair with social media – egged on by the advertising and digital agencies who have squeezed public relations out [...]

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Australian PR Awards: Where are the great in-house communication campaigns and programs?

by Grant1 November 2010

There’s a huge amount of very good PR and communications work being done in-house in Australia in both the corporate and Government sectors. Why then are PR Directors and PR Managers not more active in trying to submit their corporate internal and external work for critical acclaim? 
That’s what comes to my mind when I read [...]

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Problems in getting PR accepted? You may be using the wrong PR organisational model.

by Grant18 October 2010

Many of the issues that Australian corporate PR Departments and their Manager’s face come back to a lack of clarity regarding the PR organisational model they, and their organisation, are pursuing.
In fact to me it’s the prime reason why many Australian PR Manager’s struggle to get recognition within the Executive Suite for the strategic contribution corporate [...]

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PR agency relationships: Who owns the media list? And can you poach PR staff?

by Grant5 October 2010

While US PR practice when it comes to hiring, and working with, PR consultants or PR agencies can be perceived as rather legalistic Australian organisations are probably at the other end of the spectrum – just a tad too loose with their paperwork.
In my experience across Australia and New Zealand too few senior internal PR [...]

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Opportunity for PR Managers to push Reputation Management post BP

by Grant20 September 2010

The aftermath of the BP Gulf of Mexico crisis creates a great opportunity for PR Managers or corporate communicators to sell top Australian management within their organisations on the need to think more seriously about corporate reputation management.
The importance of PR and crisis management, and the corporate reputation problems BP faced as a result of [...]

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Could advertisers teach us about PR agency relationships & pitching?

by Grant8 September 2010

Australian PR Managers – if you are committed to running your PR agency relationship to the highest standard then take note from your counterparts who manage advertising agency relationships.
Often comments emanating from the advertising world can be taken with a grain of salt.  But I thought that those reported (albeit only briefly) from the latest Australian Association of [...]

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PR agency billing:is it time for a discussion and review?

by Grant30 August 2010

Is a debate against the way users of public relations pay for external PR agency services likely to erupt within the Australian PR industry? That’s a question in-house PR Managers and PR agencies should asking given the revolt that seems to be emerging in the local legal profession about charging systems.
Judging by the space given [...]

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