“I’m very optimistic about the future of PR and the thing that makes me most optimistic is that digital is ravenous for content and I think PR people are a major source of that content.”

Harold is an inspirational legend and a visionary who practised integrated comms and had a global outlook long before others. He has been working on his memoirs for three years and is “nearly finished” what will surely become a must-read for all PRs.  

In the meantime, I heard him speak last night about how the practice of PR is different to 60 years ago, but what struck me was that over six decades, nothing has really changed when it comes to the way advertising and PR companies get together.

When I was agency side, new business opportunities often came from out of the blue when an ad agency needed to wheel out a comms specialist.

More than 60 years ago, an unexpected call about an advertising exec looking for a PR would turn out to be fundamentally life changing for Harold, who went on to found the biggest PR agency in the world.

“A friend from the New York Times called me one day and said there’s a man named Bill Marsteller who has an advertising agency in Chicago and he’s trying to find a PR firm to do a project for his client, Rockwell Manufacturing.

“I called him and by pure luck I was going to Chicago the next week. I went out and we spent the day together and I got the assignment.”

The brief was to get coverage for a $295 home workshop tool – “a lot of money in those days”.

He secured three pages in Life Magazine, arguably the most influential title of the time – “people would line up to buy it” – and a few days after the piece came out the company was doing double shifts to fill orders.

Rockwell signed him up on a $3000 a month retainer and three weeks later Bill introduced him to Clark Engineering Equipment Company which he signed up for $4000 a month; the two accounts making up 60% of his revenue at the time.

The next logical step was to formalise arrangements with Bill but Harold was clear about how things would work: “I didn’t want to be the PR department in an advertising agency.”

In 1953 they decided to form a separate company, Burson-Marsteller, and the rest is history.

“There were stories at the time that I got my name first because I let him have 51% of the company and took 49%, but the fact of the matter was that I knew whose name was going to be first from the very beginning.”

Harold mined Bill’s client list, adding “four or five” new accounts in the first year, and things really took off in 1959 when the European car market was founded. For the best part of 30 years Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton dominated the international PR scene.

Harold takes credit for starting the trend of advertising agencies buying PR agencies in the 80s, after selling the company to Young & Rubicam in 1979 to finance international expansion.

Sharp as a tack and looking fresh after spending a full day in the office talking to staff and clients, Harold reeled off a host of anecdotes and musings, including these gems:

-       Aged 24 he covered the Nuremberg trial of Nazi war criminals;

-       The 1960s propelled PR from being “a minor service” to being a major force, triggered by legislation in the US around equal opportunity for women, equal opportunity for minorities and consumer rights;

-       Companies who talk the talk need to walk the walk – “it’s a line from a rap song but is one of the best definitions of PR”;

-       PR has two components: behaviour and communication and it’s behaviour which is most important over the long term;

-       PR has become a cash cow for colleges in the US churning out more graduates than there are jobs;

-       Burson-Marsteller was late coming into tech and digital because Harold didn’t realise “where the digital age would take us”.

What a legend! Do you think you’ll have a 60-year career in PR?

Bob is 80 years old and has worked in PR for more than 50 years, clocking up 40 years at Burson-Marsteller after starting as the company’s first trainee when it was just a team of six. He was international chairman for 20 years and helped grow B-M to become the largest PR firm in the world, advising companies such as McDonald’s, American Express, Coca-Cola, IBM and Unilever to name a few.

Along the way he was responsible for many PR firsts – getting the Russian state advertising agency as a client during the Cold War; signing the Chinese Government’s first PR deal; opening the first PR office in the Middle East – and worked with some very colourful characters, including Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell. (Before Maxwell hired him, Bob handled Murdoch’s successful fight against Maxwell to take over the News of the World).

He is still a constant presence in the B-M London HQ  – “a source of good humour and wise counsel” say his colleagues.

As he chatted away over breakfast this week in his broad New York accent (despite living in the UK for 40+ years), what struck a chord, amongst the many wonderful anecdotes, were the changes he has seen in the industry over 50 years.

 “Clients have gotten much tougher, unbelievably tough. They’ll pay more money today but they want to see tangible and measurable results…it’s much more difficult.”

Another dramatic difference is the role of in-house PRs. “When I started nobody left a consultancy to go in-house because the money they paid was terrible and the chief executive never paid any attention to the in-house person.”

But today’s in-house PRs “really know what they’re doing – they’re tough and they know what they want. So consultants today need to be much brighter”.

He doesn’t pull any punches, saying that the standard of writing by PRs is much worse than it was 50 years ago when many PRs were former journalists and writing was a much bigger part of the job. “Editors have shown me releases from PRs that you wouldn’t believe.”

But the biggest change is PR itself. Bob says public relations no longer exists – effective perception management has become the real key to success for all PRs.

He goes into it in some depth in his new book – The Art of Perception: Memoirs of a Life in PR – as well as recounting many wonderful stories of his life in an industry he loves dearly. Definitely worth a gander.

They’re rolling out Fitbits, a bit like a turbo-charged pedometer, to their 170 staff (if they want one) in a bid to help them keep track of their health and wellbeing. The user simply drops the Fitbit in their pocket and get on with things – it tracks everything from number of hours slept to calories burned.

Work/life balance isn’t always easy when you’re a PR, particularly working in agency, but these little critters might just help by showing the user which sleep cycle suits them best and when they are most productive.

Summer staff parties and away days are all great perks of working agency side but making sure your people are fit for PR, as well as being PR fit, seems like a really good way of looking at things.

PS Also loving the MauriceBikes which M&CSaatchi Group has wheeled out for staff, including M&C Saatchi PR staffers, to use during the Olympics.

Out of the shadows, into the limelight, commissioned by Westbourne Communications, was based on interviews with the gatekeepers of the British media, producers from all the main broadcasters, who admitted that booking female guests was far trickier than booking male guests.

The majority (66.7%) said just a quarter of their guests were female.

Obstacles to booking female commentators ranged from women being reticent about “touting themselves around” to “women take longer to be persuaded that their opinion is worth hearing”.

One producer said: “More male guests are offered to us by PRs. I would love to get more women onto my programme but it can be hard to find people who are willing and confident enough to talk.”

When asked to name the most successful women media performers Stephanie Flanders and Fiona Bruce made the list (but isn’t that their job?), alongside a handful of print journos including Polly Toynbee and Eve Pollard, politicians Louise Mensch and Yvette Cooper and Apprentice alumni Karren Brady and Margaret Mountford.

The good news is that opportunities abound for the right spokespeople because most of the producers interviewed (71.4%) said audiences would like to see and hear more women in the media.

So the question is can female commentators raise their game and put themselves forward…and can PRs be doing more to get broads in broadcast?

Linking activity to outcome, whether driving behaviour change, increasing sales, changing perceptions, etc, is the holy grail for any PR. It’s not easy to nail but that’s no excuse for reverting to the scourge of the industry – AVEs.

My Gorkana colleague Richard “Baggy” Bagnall, measurement guru (he’ll hate that), has put together a great piece giving 16 reasons why AVEs do not measure the value of PR and why they should be roundly rejected by the industry.

Eveyone should have a read!

One of the things Gorkana is known for is its great breakfast briefings – we gently grill editors, journos and bloggers, and they spill the beans on how they like to work with PRs. Lots of PRs tell us they make new contacts or manage to place coverage off the back of our breakfasts, so hooray they’re clearly working.

Last week’s breakfast was with Sarah Baxter, editor of the Sunday Times Magazine which this year celebrates its 50^th anniversary. An inspirational woman, and wonderful editor, who had this to say about getting coverage in the iconic magazine: “PRs shouldn’t just think about getting any old interview into the pages of the magazine. It needs to be the right type of story that will fit in with what the reader expects.” [As an aside, Sarah has a copy of every issue of the magazine ever printed in bound volumes in her office.]

That breakfast was a milestone for me too – over the last two or so years I’ve hosted 50 consumer breakfast briefings for Gorkana. One of the things that has come through loud and clear from all the journos I’ve interviewed is that they want to work with PRs and they think there are some great PRs out there…but, and it’s a big one, there are some clear rules of engagement which they wish PRs would follow.

So as Propergander takes its first steps, here are some tips from the breakfasts we’ve hosted this year to help you on the road to coverage glory…

Bangs & A Bun from Glamour Style Tribe

It’s better to build up a relationship first – don’t just start bombarding me with press releases. It’s better to approach a few select bloggers in a personal way than to blanket a whole list of bloggers with the same email and hope something sticks. Try to think of a way to pitch it so it’s personal to my blog.

Deborah Joseph, editor, Easy Living

Deborah hates emails that begin with “Hi there” – she deletes them immediately. Personalisation is very important when making contact. The team likes to think that when something is being pitched to them, they’re the only ones getting the news (even if it’s not true).

Dan Jones, consumer editor, The Sun

PRs had to be honest when pitching and they need to ask themselves whether what they’re selling in is really a Sun story. Don’t be offended if you’re told that it doesn’t fit the paper.  If an agency constantly sends over press releases that aren’t Sun stories, the team ends up becoming “blind” to them.

 Martin Barrow, Editor, Times Health

When pitching, PRs should try to make their pitch as simple as possible. There can be a lot of jargon attached to medical stories, especially ones to do with new medicines and what they do. PRs should try and strip this away and get it down to two simple things; what it does and what impact it will have on patients. He hates research-based stories that talk about ”Brits doing this” or “Brits doing that”. It’s a definite turn off and material like that will be instantly deleted.

Louise Court, editor, Cosmopolitan

Some PRs are totally brilliant and genius and get what you want, and cut through the noise. Others stalk you with totally inappropriate things and make you question whether they’ve actually read the magazine. Or, they spell your name wrong, address it to the editor before last, etc. It’s laziness that bugs me.

Andrew Davies, deputy editor, Mail on Sunday Live Magazine

Andrew prefers to be contacted by email and rarely answers his phone. He gets 300 to 400 emails a day and doesn’t have the time to pick up the phone unless he recognises a number. Emails should be short and punchy. Long emails are more likely to be ignored. Try not to get the name of the publication wrong when selling in. Blanket emails will also be ignored.

James Hall, consumer affairs editor, Daily Telegraph

PRs are massively important to James. Stories come from a variety of sources, but from his point of view, the interaction with PRs is vital for getting good stories. PRs should get in touch early in the day if trying to make contact, preferably before 9:30am. The night before is also welcome.

 Joe Barnes, editor, FHM

PRs are seen as the “backbone” of the magazine. Because there is now so much more emphasis on getting the experience behind stories, there is a great opportunity to send through ideas. Joe is always looking for new contacts “as you can only be a strong as your contact book”. He sees it as a two-way street. If a PR promises something, they need to deliver and it’s the same for the team at FHM.

If you’ve missed any of our events you can see full write ups under the Events section on the site. Happy reading…