The press release is not dead and public relations isn't either. Now, there's a lot more to say about press releases. We'll probably have to do a whole episode about this in the future. But public relations in the era of AI and automation and all kinds of innovation is still thriving. And it's not what people remember about the old fashioned discipline of PR. Abbie, what's on your mind? Well, I was having a conversation earlier today with a client.
We were talking about how we got into the businesses that we are in. And I was talking about when I was in journalism school and had to make the decision about which version of journalism I was going to go into. At the time it was either editorial or public relations or photography. I was terrible at taking pictures. I didn't really want to write for a newspaper that left public relations as the default.
And if I had to guess, the textbook that we use was probably 95% how to write a news release or a press release as it was called then. Maybe a chapter on special events, maybe a chapter on crisis communications. And that was basically what the definition was when I was in school. And that's what we all did. We wrote press releases all day long. We put them in the mail. That will tell you how old I am. And waited, hoping that a reporter would call us back.
And then if they didn't, we would get on the phone and start calling and asking them if they got our press release. Were they interested in what we had to talk about? Well, we still use press releases, news releases, and they are still a valuable component of what we do. But they are not a strategy, they are a tactic, an important tactic.
But there is so much more to what public relations is and continues to be that it's really in my mind right now this idea about how do we take this discipline and remind our clients and our prospects and our businesses that this is a very important and very strategic part of any business that needs to think about how to invest in what you are communicating internally and externally.
I mean, I think you just said the two keywords that have to get tied to this topic, which is "strategic communications." That's the parent discipline, if you will, that public relations falls underneath, along with marketing communications, internal communications, many other forms of communicating. I mean, look, human beings are communicating all the time. We talk to ourselves and each theraboutourselvesand and each other.
But being strategic communicationsandreallyaligningcommunicationswithexecutivepriorities,withthemissionand thevaluesoftheorganization,with theneedtoengagecommercially,inmany casesinaviableway,bring in many cases, market,changethe perceptionofthepublic.Imean,thisislike,I guessthissort oflikeMerlintoKingArthur.Imean,no I guess this sort of like Merlin to King Arthur. I alittlewizardry inthe mixtomakeit allwork
out.AndwhatI'mseeing,tellmeifthisringstrueforyou, isthattherearesome business leaders,someexecutives,somemarketingleaderswhomaybedevaluepublicrelationsbecause they thinksomeoftheothershinierobjectsaremoreinterestingormore compelling.Andtherearealotofinterestingand compelling thingsoutthere.ButPRinaclassicsensehasaseatatthetable. Well, it should have a seat at the table.
It doesn't always, but sure, you know, and it's come up in the last couple weeks pretty predominantly in some conversations as we're talking with businesses, we're preparing responses for specific projects. Even the words that the clients are using for what they want versus what they're actually asking for are not, you know, correct or they are using interchangeably advertising and public relations, or they're using interchangeably public relations and marketing.
And they all have by definition, potentially the same outcome: awareness building, bringing attention, reputation management. How you go about it might be a little bit different. And we have always believed in how do all of these things play well together. And they need to play well together. Gone are the operatinginourown laneandstayingputandjustdoingwhatwe'resupposed todo.There supposed to do.
There needs to be conversations that happen, especially if you bring together a variety of partnering organizations or internally, someone with a title of chief communications officer, with a chief marketing officer, with a director of advertising. All of these individuals need to be talking and sharing and being part of the conversation. We may come at the project in a different way because of what we are trained to do and educated to do.
But the end result and what we are all trying to do for the good of the organizations we represent needs to be considered in all of these different categories. And certainly there are other elements of the communications environment. Advertising, marketing have all evolved and changed, and there communication.Dowehavesomethingimportanttosay?Wherearewegoingtosayit?Whoarewetryingtotalkto?Buthow wegoaboutitmightbealittlebit to the table. It's all rooted in solid messaging, solid communication.
Do we have something important to say? Where are we going relationsproblem.Well,theydon'thaveapublicrelationsproblem.They might be a little bit different or more evolved over time. And you know, there are, we all know a situation or have heard a situation where it is said, oh, that company has a public relations problem. Well, they don't have a public relations problem. They have an operational problem that istheabsoluterightthingto
do.Butwearetrainedtothinkobjectively.We aretrainedtobeconfidentinourrecommendationsandourcounselandlookatallsidesofaparticularissueandbring forthoptions. AndIthink What will the ramifications be? What will the impact be? We aren't perfect. I mean, we'd thinkthateverythingwesuggestistheabsoluterightthingtodo. Butwe aretrainedto But we are trained to think objectively.
We our trained to be confident in our recommendations and our counsel and look at all sides of a particular issue and bring forth options. And I think being, being to the extent we are a voice of reason, but we're also there to say, this isn't going to work. This is why. This is our suggestion. This is why. And we are better, we being public relati So "integrated" is, you know, look, it can be something of a buzzword, but "integrated communications," really that is the goal.
That is the ultimate goal. And if you're a leader of an organization, consider this. How many different specializations might you have that really need to be talking to each other, not siloed. hounderstandsyouraudience,your customers,other other stakeholders the best? Well, tobe acombinationofyoursalesteam, your marketingexperts,yourproductpeople. your product people.
Customer ofthemostcurrent insights aboutwhatpeoplearedealingwithwithregard toyour productor,oryour with regard to your product or your service. Your internal comms folks and HR people know tohear.Likeourwonderful episodeaboutinternalcommsand to hear, like our wonderful episode about internal comms and feedback discussed. So finding ways to bring these people tosayarevolutionthat'sgiving the most sense.
You know, there's been a — I don't want to say a revolution, that's giving these people way too much credit — but in the world of which isanewwayof a service or other forms of tech, it's become commonplace to talk about "RevOps," revenue operations, which is a new way of thinking about the bringing together of sales and marketing and growth and product and other things.
I think you need to think about "communication ops," getting these people together so that everyone can bring their specialty to bear on business problems. At the end of the day, that's what you're trying to solve. This isn't about, you know, specialization for specialization's sake. It's because you need to reach a targeted audience. You need to change a perception or point of view about something.
Your government relations or lobbying people, if that's somehow involved, maybe you're dealing with issues around regulations or tariffs or local zoning laws or something. These are all communication problems. Everything that you are trying to make happen has a communication component to it. Now, practically speaking, Abbie, you're running an agency. You're often considered the outside counsel. You may have in-house counterparts that you are working directly with.
But we've talked pastabouthow,youknow,theidealplaceis tohavease Yeah, well, that's, that's the million dollar question. Right? So it's, it's. Yeah, yeah, good for you. If we can get the idea entrenched in organizations that we are all there for the same purpose, a successful organization, a successful business, a successful resolution to whatever we are working with, we all bring to that conversation different experiences.
Either, you know, different lived experiences, different educational experiences, different talents that we bring to this conversation. And each one of those is valuable. They may not be what is ultimately carried out, but the perspective of those individuals is important and should be valued. And so as you would bring your attorneys in or your accountants in, or others to help guide your business from a financial and legal perspective, communication is critically important in that same way.
And so part of it is executive leadership needs to understand the role that their communications teams play. Then there's this part that has all of us needing to work well and play well with others. So about, youknow,IknowwhatIdo,I knowwhatIdo well, I know what myteamiscapableof,what we canimplement,howwewantto do itallthatstrategythat goes along withit.And, butitmightnot betheresolution that'srequiredforthis particular project.Thismight bemoreof aadvertisingstrategyorofamarketing
strategy.Butunless advertising strategy or of a marketing strategy. But myviewpoint,andrecognizingthat webring that togethertotheorganization,wewillnotgetintegratedandaligned.And we have, asan agency,wehaveareasofexpertise,we have,you know,strategic tacticsthatwedoonan ongoingandregularbasis.Wehaveindustriesthatweareknownfor and thatweworkwellin.Andthereare times,many, manytimeswherewesay basis. We have industries that we are known for and that we work well in. And there are
timesIbringintothatconversation?Whatpartnersfromotherfirmsorfrom,youknow,specialcontractorsorwhateveritiscanIbringinandbeabletosolvethisparticularissueforaclient?Becausetheyarebringing,theyaretrustingmetobringthesepeoplein.Andfortunatelywehavethispartnershipwith,you know,firmshere inthe,inthemetropolitanPhoenixarea.Wehaverelationshipswithfirmsaroundtheworldthatsays,you'rebetteratthisthanme,buttogether people in.
And fortunately we have this partnership with firms here in the metropolitan Phoenix area. We have relationships with firms around the world that says, you're better at this than me, but together we will be fantastic for our shared client. And whether that's external community, you youhaveatyourdisposalandtoutilizethemthatwayandthinkbeyondthetacticandmoretostrategyandhowthedifferentelementsoftheseindividuals,thethingsthattheyknow,playintomovingyouforward,whateverthesituationhappenstobe.
You know, I was thinking about how closely in some people's minds the idea of public relations is tied with that old-fashioned idea about the press release. And as I said at the beginning, I think we really should do an episode on the new life press releases are finding in this digital-first and AI-focused era. So we'll have to bracket that for the future. But I was thinking about what are some things that leaders might not realize their communications experts can help them to navigate.
And I came up with a few. One is this idea of an employer brand. So how do you attract top talent? What are you known for by the workforce such that you are able to bring in some of the best people? I mean, the competition for excellent talent is never been more fierce.
And I'm hearing this from the trenches, from professional services firms, law firms, you know, how do we attract the top junior attorneys to our firm, all the way through to big corporations, high tech and innovation companies trying to attract the best engineers. Well, building an employer brand is one way to do that. There are legacy companies that have adapted to current or new emerging environments, but are still thought of in a, in a traditional way.
Kind of like we're talking about the PR firm. So repositioning a legacy brand for the present or for the future is essentially changing the corporate narrative. That's a communication function. Mergers and acquisitions. You mentioned wehavedonean episode onoursisterpodcastfor podcast for the Public Relations really Network, really diving into some do youcommunicate and whenandwithwhom?Youknow,the,the with whom? You know, the internal stakeholders, the investors, the buyers, the employees.
There's a whole you needtothinkabout verycarefullythere.Andthen someofthethingsthatwetalkaboutmoreoften,thingslikeinfluencers, findingmicrochannelstocommunicateyourmessages.Reallythisrunsthegamutfromallkinds ofbusinessoutcomes,from theleadgenerationandsalesendofthespectrumallthe way throughtointernal functions,retainingpeople,attractingnewones. And thenof
course,we'dberemisstonotmention.Isthathowyousaythat?Itwouldbe remissnottosaythat crisiscommunicationsremainsoneofthemostcritical waysinwhicha strategiccommsfunctioncan helpyour company.I mean,youalluded toitearlier.We'vetalkedaboutthePR WeekIncisionreporton previousepisodes.Itfoundthat96% oforganizationshaveexperienceda crisisinthe pasttwo years.Well,the We've talked about the PR Week and Cision report in previous episodes. It found that 96% of organizations have experienced a cr Right.
And in all of those examples that you listed and the others that are still out there to talk about, all start with a basic premise like we, we are a 45 year old company. We are known for X and Y and we'd really like to be known for Z. How do we, how do we get there? Well, you're going to bring in your product development people who are going to say, well, we need to update, we need to do this, we need to do this. We're going to bring in your packaging people, whatever it all is.
Well, it started with a statement that said we need to do this. All of those people that you're going to bring in and have that conversation with also need to include whoever carries the responsibility for communications of any kind, marketing, advertising, digital, public relations, wherever it falls. Because when you don't bring those People in you will have a crisis problem. I mean, there's that. That is, again, they don't have a. They don't have a PR problem.
They have an operational problem. Right. They have a crisis because something along the way didn't work and which still happens. But if you don't know and talk and advise and role play and figure out all the ways that this could go, good, bad or otherwise, you find yourself in this situation. And not everything will ultimately need a fully baked, comprehensive communication strategy. It might just be a simple reminder.
We need to update the website with the new logo that we all approved last month. How come that hasn't been done yet? Well, because we didn't wrap in it and we didn't talk to, you know, so it's just a good reminder that these individuals on your team, again, whether that's internally or externally, are there to be those eyes and ears and to provide that advice and counsel.
And the tactics that if we go back to just what public relations does, does or can do, there's a variety of different tactics, and they've come and gone over the years and what's valuable now is not going to be and what was will come back. And I think that's what we're certainly seeing with the press release and that we're no longer writing a press release for the media.
We're writing the press release for the chat boxes and the AIs and the other things that are gonna find it from an authoritative source. Fantastic. We still need to write it. It still needs to have the key messaging it. It still has to align with the brand. It still has to be factual and clear and all the other things. It's just being used for a slightly different purpose than it was before. So if there is a resolution in this discussion around that PR as an industry isn't dead.
The news release as a tactic is certainly not, but has evolved. The answer for me in all of this is smart. Businesses, large or small, profit or nonprofit government, all have a responsibility to stakeholders, internally or externally. And how we get information to those stakeholders lands with your communications professionals of all kinds.
And so to be successful and to move in your audiences to make decisions appropriately and what you would like them to know about your organization means all of us that are responsible for getting that message out need to be part of the conversations throughout the process.
We will advise, we will counsel, we will challenge, and then we will develop and implement on that response and move through the idea to completion in a clear, concise, strategic way that ultimately brings forth what we sat at that table to do in the first place. Thanks for listening to this episode of Copper State of Mind. If you enjoyed the conversation, please share it with a colleague who might also find this podcast valuable. It's easy to do.
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The show is recorded and produced by the team at Speed of Story, a B2B communications firm in Phoenix, and distributed by PHX.fm, the leading independent B2B podcast network in Arizona. For all of us here at Speed of Story and PHX.fm, I'm Adrian McIntyre. Thanks for listening and for sharing the show with others if you choose to do so. We hope you'll join us again for another episode of Copper State of Mind.