Do companies get the ‘press’ they deserve?
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Earlier this evening, I attended the the Isle of Man Charter Institute of Marketing’s event at the Hilton in Douglas. Stewart Gowans was our guest speaker on the subject of ‘do companies get the press they deserve’.
I thought the reference to ‘press’ in the title showed a little irony, considering the event had been promoted as a discussion of PR in the digital age. Love it!
Stewart’s main contention is that integrity and transparency are the two fundamentals to excellent public relations. He’s right.
The first half of his presentation was focused on what some might call ‘classic’ case studies…Ratner, Tylenol, McDonald’s David v Goliath lawsuit, even good old Richard Nixon was called upon to illustrate the importance of integrity and transparency in communications practice.
I remember studying this stuff way back when in college, and Stewart reminded us all that the fundamental principles of good PR practice from all those years ago still hold true.
And, I think that’s the point. Media changes. Channels morph. But the fundamentals of human communications remain the same. He ended his presentation with a nod to the risks and benefits of the internet and social media to PR which underlines this overall premise.
UPDATE: It just occurred to me that I should have mentioned that the event was sponsored by IsleofMan.com, an increasingly relevant portal for all things Manx.
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I whole-heartedly agree with the view that all communciations should be transparent – it builds integrity of character and standing; which is something you have to do within the international business and financial community.
The presentation was fast paced and captivating – I always find that if the presenter is enthusiatic about his subject matter, especially in the way Stewart is about his, then this comes across in the delivery!
Excellent evening and interesting to hear Stewart’s views on the relationship between PR and marketing. We also all need to embrace social and new media tools and techniques which is something that I’ll be looking to do in the day job!
The days of mass media manipulation are long gone and those that think they can carry on as they have done have their head in the clouds or buried in the sand. Brands and business have to be true to there values and they have a great opportunity to use web 2.0 to do this. The down side is when the communities and customers don’t agree with the direction or a decision or if companies haven’t stuck to their values – that’s when the web can ruin you, as it allows the negative messages to hit large audiences quickly.
At a recent SEO conference a similar message came out that yo mentioned in your post – people. Ts easy to forget that amongst all this technology the most important thing is people!
oh and spelling! whoops was in a rush!