Sympra Public Relations Blog

The Public Relations Network (PRN) held its first meeting outside of Europe in New York on June 26th and 27th. The meeting was hosted by partner Mantra Public Relations. 15 members from Europe, Australia and America gathered at the Omni Berkshire Hotel on 52nd Street to discuss projects and collaboration within the Network as well as to swap experiences and talk about trends present and future in the world of PR. (here you can find PRN press release; keynotes on the future of publishing and the current state of social media will follow on this blog so stay tuned!)

Actually I don’t want to write much about the Big Apple. Those who have been to New York know that it is a feast for the senses – there is just too much to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, and it would not do the City justice to try and describe everything in a short blog posting. (To those who haven’t travel to New York yet: Go there as soon as possible!)

However, I would like to note some of my observations.

Mark Sanford, Farah Fawcett and… Michael Jackson
The day I arrived was the day Michael Jackson died. In fact the day began with former American dream girl Farah Fawcett passing away. No, to be honest it started with a live press conference by Governor Mark Sanford who, after going AWOL (absent without leave) for seven days, admitted that he had secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he was having an affair. Wiping away the tears, he apologized to his wife and his four sons. CBS, NBC, CNN and all the other stations broadcasted live. Colleagues and experts were in the middle of commentary when suddenly the program was interrupted by the news that Farah Fawcett had passed away after having suffered from cancer. CBS, NBC, CNN and all the other stations broadcasted live. Colleagues and experts were in the middle of commentary when suddenly the program was interrupted by the news that Michael Jackson had been rushed to hospital. CBS, NBC, CNN and all the other stations broadcasted live, at the beginning referring to news brought by the paparazzi news service TMZ.com , showing just a helicopter view of the hospital. Colleagues and experts commented live. What a haunting issue forcing everyone to talk, pray and then mourn – and the media to live-broadcast and to print. Less than 24 hours later at Times Square T-shirts with ”Jacko – R.I.P. 1958-2009“ were sold by the hundreds.

Everybody is in the media business and makes media their business
During the four days I got to know a couple of people and got the impression that in Manhattan everyone is in the media business. I met an ad, video and documentary producer turned Social Media Content Strategist, a publisher of print magazines and a lot of PR people. Walking down the streets you see all those skyscrapers belonging to Condé Nast, Murray Hill, CBS or NBC, and at each corner there is a camera team making a film, interviewing passers-by. There was a live TV broadcasting from outside our hotel and I very nearly appeared in the video on New York’s Pride Parade on Michael Bloomberg’s website ((www.michaelbloomberg.com)); you can see my arm…

Celebrities
Talking about famous people. I was standing two meters away from New York’s Mayor Mike Bloomberg and I had a close-up of the Chief of New York Police Department. I saw the legendary Hotel Chelsea and read ”The Guide To Spotting Celebrities In New York City“ (e. g. Halle Berry at Barney’s and Paris Hilton at Butter). I saw so many stretch limousines and I am sure that behind each black window there was a celebrity, a politician or a business tycoon on his way to a cocktail party or a concert. (Okay I have to admit that in Little Italy the driver of one of black stretch limos offered us a ride ”forr the same prrice as a cab“.)

Reasonable and unreasonable prices
Thanks to the relatively strong Euro the US is still not too expensive for us Europeans. From JFK airport to any place in Manhattan there is a taxi flat rate of 45 Dollars (+ toll + tip), a good price for a 45 minutes trip, satellite-based onboard entertainment with satnav and news service included. The luxurious hotel ($199 per room) offered free WLAN in the room and free morning coffee. The daily rate for WLAN in our meeting room would have been $1,100, the costs for the rental of a video projector $1,100 per day.

Apple Store
I visited the Apple Store at 767 Fifth Ave. in front of the Plaza Hotel. The cathedral of the Apple disciplines is open 24/365. Located underground it can be entered by a glass cube via glass stairs. Just for your information: There is nothing for free, you have to pay for iPhone, iPod, MacBook & Co. – but really – the last time I saw crowds like this were at the CeBIT trade fair years ago! Dozens, no, it must have been hundreds of Apple fans were queuing to see and test-drive one of exhibited products or to get a personal shopping experience. To be successful you have to be hard-nosed or make a reservation in advance via the store’s website. Buy an iPod or rather buy Apple stocks!

Red Skies over Twitter
In Chinatown we saw a strange weather phenomena following a heavy thunderstorm: A green-yellow-purple sky with extraordinary clouds shaped like huge balloons. The setting sun dipped the buildings in surreal bright colors. What an experience! And what a flood of tweets and Flicker photos on this meteorological anomaly the next day!

And even more…
By coincidence we saw the Pride Parade on Fifth Ave. (“40 years of Stonewall riots”), there was model shooting at Abercrombie & Fitch, in the Financial District they prepared a film set, some of the photos taken from on top of the Rockefeller Center show a wonderful rainbow…

We twittered on the PRN meeting; just follow #PRN@NYC.

http://fehlermeldungen.pons.eu/?p=155

Die Welt ist ein Dorf geworden. Nicht nur große Konzerne müssen sich darauf einstellen: Auch viele kleine und mittlere Unternehmen stehen früher oder später vor der Herausforderung, ihre Produkte und Dienstleistungen auch im Ausland anzubieten. Damit einher geht unmittelbar der Bedarf an internationaler Kommunikation. Global abgestimmt und doch an nationale und regionale Gegebenheiten angepasst, so sollte sich ein zeitgemäßes Unternehmen heute präsentieren.

Sympra kommt dem steigenden Bedarf an grenzüberschreitenden Public-Relations-Aktivitäten seit einigen Jahren verstärkt entgegen: Statt sich einem etablierten Agenturnetzwerk anzuschließen, hat die Stuttgarter PR-Agentur mit Büros in Berlin und München mit den Anstoß zur Gründung eines eigenen Netzwerks inhabergeführter PR-Agenturen mit hohem Qualitätsanspruch gegeben. Über die Erfahrungen im und mit dem Public Relations Network (PRN) berichtete Sympra-Geschäftsführer Veit Mathauer am Abend des 15. Juni 2008 bei einer Veranstaltung der Deutschen Public Relations Gesellschaft (DPRG), die bei Sympra in Stuttgart stattfand. Titel der Abendveranstaltung: “Hitting the Headlines – vom Arbeiten in internationalen Agenturnetzwerken”.

Netzwerk bietet Zugriff auf PR-Agenturen in 21 Ländern

Ausschlaggebend für den Aufbau des internationalen Netzwerks von PR-Agenturen war laut Veit Mathauer der Wunsch vieler Kunden, im Bedarfsfall rasch international Public Relations aufbauen und nutzen zu können. Für Sympra sei PRN eine wichtige Infrastruktur, auf deren Basis die Agentur auf Anfragen reagieren könne. Nach einem Testbetrieb 2005 und der Gründung mit neun Mitgliedern im Jahr 2006 ist das Netzwerk bis Juni 2009 auf 21 Mitglieder in unterschiedlichen Ländern angewachsen, Tendenz rasch steigend. Ein dreiköpfiges Board unter anderem mit Sympra-Beteiligung, zwei Mitgliederversammlungen jährlich, verschiedene interne Kommunikationstools wie ein Newsletter sowie ein teilweise durch Umlagen finanziertes Sekretariat, das von Deutschland und Italien gemeinsam gemanagt wird, sorgen für den operativen Zusammenhalt. Ein “Bill of Rights” definiert die Regeln im Miteinander und sorgt dafür, dass der Umgang zwischen den Partneragenturen fair bleibt.

Input und Output stehen bei der internationalen Zusammenarbeit in direktem Verhältnis, so Mathauer. Mitgliedsagenturen, die sich eher passiv verhielten, seien mitunter vom Ergebnis des internationalen Networking enttäuscht. Aktivere Netzwerkmitglieder würden daher stärker profitieren und PRN in höherem Maße als Katalysator fürs Neugeschäft betrachten. Ein Geben und Nehmen, das ganz nebenbei jede Menge organisatorische und kulturelle Hürden meistern muss. Anhand einiger unterhaltsamer Beispiele skizzierte Mathauer die durchaus unterschiedliche Herangehensweise von PR-Agenturen in aller Welt an ein und dieselbe Aufgabe. Wenn Italiener mit Indern, Franzosen und Deutschen an einem Projekt arbeiten, dann kann man sich vorstellen, dass kulturelle Unterschiede auftreten können – umso wichtiger, dass enge persönliche Beziehungen als Grundlage den Projekterfolg dennoch sichern. Vineeta Manglani, die bei Sympra als Native Speaker für internationale Aktivitäten zuständig ist, betonte in diesem Zusammenhang, wie wichtig es sei, dass die internationalen Partner “like-minded” sind, also gleichgesinnt, handverlesen. Dass PRN-Mitglieder sich bei den Mitgliederversammlungen des Agenturnetzwerks persönlich kennenlernten, sei von unschätzbarem Wert und helfe bei der Auswahl der richtigen Partner. “It’s people Business”, hatte auch Veit Mathauer in seinen Präsentationsfolien formuliert.

Wie unkompliziert und schlank innerhalb des Agenturnetzwerks kommuniziert wird, demonstrierte eine Videokonferenz: Während der Abendveranstaltung wurde Gaye Carleton von der US-Partneragentur Mantra zugeschaltet und berichtete live darüber, die sie das Unternehmen Kärcher aus Winnenden mit dessen Reinigungsaktion für die “Space Needle” in Seattle in die Medien gebracht hatte – New York Times inklusive. Dabei sei es von großem Wert gewesen, mit Sympra einen Ansprechpartner vor Ort in Deutschland zu haben.

Demnächst Public Relations auch in Dubai, Osteuropa, Südostasien und Kanada

Die nächsten Highlights für PRN stehen bereits fest: Neben der Ende Juni 2009 anstehenden Mitgliederversammlung in New York soll es sich dabei um die Aufnahme von Neumitgliedern in Dubai, Osteuropa, Südostasien und Kanada handeln.

Vortragsfolien von Veit Mathauer zum DPRG-Event

Links:

Deutsche Public Relations Gesellschaft (DPRG): www.dprg.de
Kärcher reinigt die Space Needle: www.karcher.de/de/Sponsoring/Kultur-Sponsoring/Space_Needle.htm
Public Relations Network (PRN): www.pr-network.biz

As a Brit working in a German environment I had a certain amount of adjusting to do here – there are the PR rules, for example, dealing with journalists is different here as opposed to in the UK, and then there are huge differences in client and agency-internal relationships, which are primarily underlined by the language. In German there are two forms of the word “you” – the politer “Sie” form and the “I’m on your level” “Du” form – this defines and maintains certain relationships – a complication that we do not have in the English language.

After working in Germany and in the PR industry for over 15 years, I have pretty much got to used to working here and so, it was with much excitement that we at Sympra co-founded the Public Relations Network (PRN) in 2005. I had visions of stuffy conference rooms filled with gesticulating Italians, highly-efficient and impatient Germans, and the late-comers from all over Europe! I am not going to say that I was completely wrong but I will say this – public relations is different in countries all over the world but public relations experts are surprisingly similar!

I must add here that one of our preconditions for joining the PRN is a strong vetting service that we carry out – obviously when selecting agencies we need ones that work in similar fields so our customers can rely on experts in the chosen country as well as the pricing being similar to ours (so we don’t have to reanimate our clients after showing them cost proposals), but our “personal” vetting service is in place so we can guarantee that we, and more importantly, our clients can work with these people – the world is smaller than we think, and people actually more similar than we can imagine!

So, now we have our Network – a hand-picked, and it really is hand-picked, selection of incredibly personable communication experts around the globe. International public relations may seem an impossible and insurmountable task at the beginning but if you are on a wavelength with your partners, then it is easier than you think. To our customers in Germany: The same rule applies as with drafting a national PR strategy – know roughly what you want to achieve, listen to the advice given by the experts of that country as they know their press and their market and then, simply lean back and enjoy being called “you”!