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Left: Nicholas Trad, managing partner, Reputation Institute; Niamh Boyle, managing director, Corporate Reputations; and Seamus Gillen, managing director,
Reputation Institute UK. Corporate Reputations was recently appointed exclusive Irish associate of the Reputation Institute
Right: Mark Cahalane, managing director, Edelman Ireland, at the launch earlier this year of the Edelman Trust Barometer
not necessarily supplant more traditional media in every case. Looking to the future
At the end of the day the key principles of communication still A future challenge for PR companies, according to Padraig
apply, i.e. determine your audience, focus your message in Slattery, will involve managing the time resource needed for
terms of content, context and response required, use the an increasing number of channels and ensuring that they
most appropriate medium of communication and seek to eval- remain a legitimate voice of the client organisation.
uate the response/results.” “New work practices will be needed to ensure consistent
Cahalane makes the point that tailoring suits the PR sector monitoring, speedy engagement and replies and
much more than the ad agencies. “PR is much more effective community building/management while remaining produc-
at reaching niche audiences with impactful messages that tive,” he says.
influence behavior,” he says. “I believe that despite the current Darren Connolly, meanwhile, says that social responsibi-
challenges posed by the economy, PR has become far more lity will need to move back to the core of each business and
vibrant because of the way that communication has changed.” decision-making process. “It will need to drive real change,
He also believes this has opened up the industry for not cosmetic,” he says. “There is little point in, for example,
younger people. “If you’ve grown up online and live within a a bank sponsoring a national competition when on the other
culture of online communication then you are the type of per- hand it is not believed to be lending to small businesses. It
son our industry now wants to hire,” he says. will be about putting the customer back in CSR [corporate
Because communication has moved towards a more con- social responsibility]. Goodwill that had previously been built
verged model, companies need to have a conversation about up has been wiped out. There is an opportunity for public
their reputation and brand in a holistic way, not each element relations to be part of identifying real opportunities with
in isolation, says Darren Connolly of Connolly English. “Also, stakeholders and driving that change and understanding
reputation management has moved from command and con- through communications.”
trol to a much more collaborative approach. Companies that “The core capabilities of public relations will continue to
think they can ‘control the message’ are deluded. Today, more increase in demand across all communications field as
than ever in light of the global financial crisis, consumers want digital proliferates,” says Rhona Blake. “And so, while the
openness, transparency and accountability. Technology is an fundamentals of our business remain the same – fuelling
enabler of all three. I also believe that the traditional ‘CEO’ will conversations, building relationships and doing so in an
evolve over the coming years into more of a communications- authentic, credible way, the role of public relations will
focused role. Recovering from the financial meltdown will undoubtedly expand to cut across all communications
require strong and charismatic leadership, combined with an disciplines. This is truly a historic time to be this profession.
ability to make tough decisions.” The golden age of PR has arrived.”
72 Marketing Age Volume 4 Issue 1 2010
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