Upon the start of my internship at Ruder Finn Israel I did not have a lot of experience in public relations. In some capacity I knew that I would be working towards improving the image of clients, which in this office ranges from high tech startups, to publicly traded companies, to non-profit organizations that operate both in and out of Israel. However, I was unsure of what exactly an intern in the PR industry would be responsible for on a daily basis.

I am now almost nine weeks into my internship and can honestly say that I have learned a great deal about the industry itself and I now have a more concrete understanding of what the job description is for one who works in public relations.

Among the many things that I have learned over the last two months, the most important for me are the general knowledge that I now have about the field, as well as the tools that I have gained that will enable me to perform better when working in the industry.

On a basic level, I understand that Ruder Finn is responsible for the writing of news releases and bylined articles, the composition of media lists and constant awareness to find opportunities that will help clients to flourish and gain worthwhile mention. But more specifically, the staff at Ruder Finn Israel has showed me that teamwork, creativity and determination are just as important as knowing how to find an editorial calendar on a publication’s website.

In a recent brainstorming session at Ruder Finn Israel, the team discussed creative and fun ways to physically deliver a press release that would be a far step from the ordinary route. Experiences like these make me really appreciate my internship and think about the understanding that I’ve gained as I begin to contemplate the next steps in my life after my upcoming college graduation.

When I ask myself whether it’s time to seriously consider a career in public relations, I think about the brainstorming sessions that I’ve attended, the writing I’ve done, and the amazing and innovative companies that I’ve had the opportunity to represent.  I love that I go to work each and every day knowing that I’ll be doing something different from the day before and I love that the needs of each client vary greatly. This allows me to use the different strengths that I have and to cater to the various client expectations to the best of my ability.

But my favorite aspect about working in public relations is knowing that I can make a difference. As an intern, I conduct lots of research and do other tasks that serve as the basis for much larger projects. Although I am not speaking with company representatives one-on-one, I know that the results I achieve make a strong impact and help to meet the needs of the clients.

The internship program at Ruder Finn Israel has provided me with a strong foundation for what might likely be the start of a career in public relations. I now have confidence in myself that I can work successfully in a PR firm and be a strong asset to a hardworking team. However, just as a house is not complete after the foundation is laid, there is still much more for me to learn and experience.

I look forward to continuing this path of learning and exploration and will not forget what I learned during my nine-week internship at Ruder Finn Israel.

So given that professional experience, it should be relatively simple to diagnose the PR problems Israel is having and prescribe a certain program to improve the situation.

And it is simple, but not in the way you might think.

Much has been written over the past few weeks – ever since “The Flotilla Affair” – about the overall weakness of Israel’s PR, both when crises hit and in general.  In fact, journalist Yair Lapid wrote a column about it on June 4.  And the Jerusalem Post wrote an extensive article this past weekend about the branding of Jerusalem, in the context of “The Affair” and the regional conflict as a whole.  And they all brought wonderful examples of how and why Israel’s PR has missed the mark.

But I’m afraid they’ve missed the mark as well.

Lapid laments Information Minister Yuli Edelstein’s frustrating cell phone contact system.  And he’s right.  Edelstein’s system of screening and passwords stinks.  But he’s also wrong, because a better contacting system for Edelstein wouldn’t help Israel’s image one bit, due to a much larger problem, which I will mention soon enough.  Fixing his voicemail wouldn’t help fight the incredible PR machine our enemies have built.

And the J. Post article misses the point as well.  Here’s a short excerpt:

As the dust begins to settle around the flotilla events, Jerusalem is in the midst of starting its new public relations campaign, “Something Good Is Happening in Jerusalem.” The municipality is pushing aggressively to recast the city as a cultural destination, whose international importance in the world of art and music is just as celebrated as the city’s historical and religious significance.

This being Jerusalem, a few problems have cropped up.

“Jerusalem’s brand is undermined by troubles and how the media portrays it,” says Foster George, a tourist from London in Jerusalem for a week as he strolls through Jaffa Gate for the first time.

“The image of Jerusalem is so tied to Israel abroad which, unfortunately, especially now, is not so positive,” adds another tourist, Kate Engberg from Gothenburg, Sweden.

The problem, this article suggests, is that as long as Israel is not able to separate the politics from the tourism, Jerusalem’s tourism industry is going to suffer.  But again, the J. Post is incorrect.  Jerusalem is the center of the religious universe, and as such is going to be the hottest point on Earth for conflict.  That is the deal and we must all understand and even embrace that.  But this is irrelevant as well, in terms of the larger question about Israel’s PR, although we are getting closer to the point.

Another PR complaint over the years has been the lack of Israel spokespeople who are able to speak strong English.  Well, we now have Mark Regev at the wheel, one of the best I’ve ever seen, as well as Michael Oren in the U.S., who is also fantastic.

And yet, Israel has had one of its worst PR runs over the last 12 months that it has had in decades.  Doesn’t this seem strange to you?

How can it be that we did better PR during the post-9/11 phase, when Ariel Sharon was prime minister, than we are doing now, when U.S.-educated Binyamin Netanyahu is at the helm?

When you consider the overall futility of the three above arguments of 1. Logistical ineptitude (the Edelstein example), 2. Brushing aside the negative, in favor of the positive (the Jerusalem tourism example) and 3. Native-English-speaking spokespeople (The Regev-Oren-Bibi example), there is only one conclusion that should be drawn.

It’s not about any of these things.

To understand why we are failing, we must first look at why the other side is succeeding.  And the answer to that question is simple: A Unified Message.

It wouldn’t matter if Edelstein drank Red Bull 24 hours a day and was 100% available for all requested interviews.  Because an hour later, someone from the government opposition will submit to an interview and completely contradict what Edelstein has said.

It doesn’t matter that Jerusalem has wonderful views, great restaurants and almost-perfect weather, especially this time of year.  Because the world is being told – by Jewish-Israelis – on a regular basis that Jerusalem is a place of conflict, and that it is all the fault of the Jews.

And it doesn’t matter that we have our strongest international spokespeople since the days of Golda Meir and Abba Eban.

Because we do not have that item that can often be the difference between success and failure for any PR campaign.  In fact, it should be the cornerstone of any campaign.

It is the unified message.

After 9/11, Israel was unified, not only in its condemnation of the attack, but in its message to the world of “You see!  This is what we’ve been going through!  Now, do you understand us?”

But time has “healed,” and we have once again descended to our previous disagreements and ideologies.  We are not united.

And sadly, if Israel itself is not unified – as our enemies are, for the purpose of destroying Israel – then there will be no unified message, and we will continue to lose the PR battle, even if we are right.

So, please do not waste your time analyzing the PR strategy – or even lack thereof – or tactical approach of the Israeli government.  It’s not about that.  It’s the same problem that has plagued the Jewish people for centuries. We can’t unify.  Even about a message.  Even when our future is at stake.

]]> http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/communicating-promise/2010/06/why-israel-cannot-solve-its-pr-challenge-or-its-the-message-stupid.html/feed 3 http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/communicating-promise/2010/02/when-stupid-rules.html http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/communicating-promise/2010/02/when-stupid-rules.html#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:08:39 +0000 Glenn Jasper http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/communicating-promise/?p=87 I often ask myself, how is it that many Israeli companies that receive tens of millions of dollars in funding … not to mention the tens of millions in profits, are unable to spend a reasonable amount per month on a PR campaign?

Today, I finally realized the answer.  It is simple.  They are stupid.

Stupid means that a company can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a single advertorial, because the CEO likes to see his/her face in a magazine, but won’t spend that kind of money on a PR campaign because there is no guaranteed ROI.  Of course, it doesn’t matter that the advertorial they bought gave no ROI either.  At least the CEO can show the picture to his army buddies, right?

Stupid means that a company embarks on a branding campaign that does not have market research as one of its preliminary elements.  And when the branding firm – which the company paid $50,000 to develop the new branding, unveils a name that sounds ridiculously similar to another Israeli company’s name, and the color scheme does as well, the company is forced to accept it because, well, they paid $50,000, and it would be a shame to let that money go to waste.

Stupid means that a company believes it only has $1,000 per month for international PR, so it hires a second-rate freelancer to do the job, when that money would be better spent on Google Ads or, frankly, snacks for the staff.  Any PR firm willing to accept $1,000 per month for international services can’t get the job done.  I assure you of that.

Stupid means that a company spends $150,000 on a small booth at a gigantic trade show, but won’t spend a few thousand on a PR firm to secure them interviews while they are there.

Stupid means that a company produces items that are marketed for tens of thousands of dollars apiece – and bought by thousands of customers, but doesn’t have the money to commit to a momentum-building PR campaign that, over the course of a year, will cost the company the same amount as a single one of their products will cost a single customer.

Of course, there are also smart Israeli companies, and they are a pleasure to work with.

Smart means that a company gives its agency access to as much information as possible so the agency can decide which items may be newsworthy.

Smart means that a company provides its agency an efficient, but reasonable budget, so the agency will feel motivated to provide outstanding service.

Smart means that a company is just as interested in the constructive feedback a journalist gives when the answer is “no,” as they are in securing the “hit.”

Smart means that a company considers PR to be not only a marketing function, but a corporate function as well, since positive PR will impact all audiences positively and negative PR will impact all audiences negatively.

So here’s the kicker, which is also simple …

Over my five years here, I’ve found a direct correlation between a company’s ability to be smart versus stupid, and a company’s likelihood to be successful versus unsuccessful.

So what do we do about this problem?

What do we do when our clients go crazy about a negative Blog post, but dismiss a positive one we’ve worked hard to secure because, after all, it is just a Blog?

What do we do when a Blog gets the facts wrong but doesn’t feel a professional obligation to correct them because, after all, it is just a Blog?

And finally, what do we do when a Blog posts something that then is one of the top ten results in a Google search, thereby potentially hurting the subject of the post?

The answer: We do nothing … and everything.

We do nothing means that this is a new media format and we have to deal with the fact that it plays by different rules (or no rules).  And when there are no rules, there is really nothing you can do to turn things in your favor consistently.

But we also must do everything.  We must do everything in our power to run our businesses and organizations properly and with super-high standards.

That means we must make sure our products work and our customers are served well.  It means we must run our organizations cleanly, and in a way that will not call into question the money we are spending on operating those organizations.

That means that the Israeli catch-phrase of “Yihiyeh B’seder” (“it will be alright”) must go out the window, because Blogs are making sure that it won’t be alright.

And, by all means, we all must understand that honesty, integrity and truth must now rule.  Because if there is one rule by which the Bloggers play, it is that lying will not be tolerated.

This is the world we live in.  In most ways, it is much more complex than the early days of my career, when there was no Internet, e-mail, email, cell phone nor Windows.

But in one very important way, our world is much simpler:

Take one bad step, and it costs you dearly in the blogosphere.  Do the right thing, and, well, our Blogger friends might still slam you … but at least you will be able to look in the mirror.

And if I can sum up the blogosphere simply, it would be just that.  It’s a mirror. For the world.  For industry.  And for each of us to gaze at and ask: Do we like what we see?

]]> http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/communicating-promise/2009/10/blogs-and-the-media-%e2%80%93-shall-the-twain-meet-part-ii.html/feed 1 http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/communicating-promise/2009/07/blogs-and-the-media-%e2%80%93-shall-the-twain-meet.html http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/communicating-promise/2009/07/blogs-and-the-media-%e2%80%93-shall-the-twain-meet.html#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:45:53 +0000 Glenn Jasper http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/communicating-promise/?p=64 I’ve been in the PR industry for more than 15 years.  That doesn’t make me a grizzled veteran, but I have plenty of gray hairs that I keep as a badge of PR-career-honor.  And I entered the industry at an interesting time.  I accepted my first position at Hill and Knowlton in the days immediately preceding Windows, cell phones and email.  True, each of those three technological developments was already in existence, but none of them was ubiquitous. 

 When they came upon the scene, since I was still relatively young, I was able to quite easily roll with it.  Heck, my biggest client was Verizon Wireless, so I was right in the middle of the action. 

 Over the years, there have been other developments, like cable news and specialty stations becoming legitimate outlets for my clients’ news.  And then, of course, the Internet took over, and has now become the primary source of news for many of the world’s top decision-makers.

 And there are the more recent developments you all know about.  My firm, Ruder Finn Israel, has gotten involved in the social media phenomenon, creating and maintaining Facebook pages and Twitter accounts for our clients.

 So here we are, many years later, and yes, I’m still rolling with it.

 And then, there are the Blogs.  Now, let me begin by saying that I love Blogs.  My brother has a fantastic one.  The concept of creating a public venue for one to give his/her views on a particular topic or the world at-large is not only exciting, it’s the logical next step for communications.  And there have been some great ones.  For example, Bill Simmons is now a well-paid, well-respected columnist for ESPN.com because his “Boston Sports Guy” Blog was so successful years ago. 

 But I have a problem with the Blogs. And that problem is one I can’t figure out how to solve.  Here’s the conundrum …

 Blogs today are as highly respected as media.  In fact, certain Blogs are considered media themselves, such as Huffington Post and TechCrunch.  Public relations folks spend a lot of time crafting communiqués that will impact these Blogs, they way they would back in the day to elicit the attention of a Today Show producer.

 And that would be fine … if those Blogs played by the rules by which the media play.

 But they don’t.

 They don’t, because they don’t have to.  After all, they are just Blogs.

 I’ll give you an example: 

We had a client that was recently ripped to shreds – including insults and factually incorrect information – by a high-profile blog’s “guest Blogger.”  We then contacted that blog with an op-ed submission that refuted those insults and lies, and took the story further by offering a different view of the situation.  The blog’s response: “We’re going to pass on this.”

Well, isn’t that nice?  The Blog bills itself as a “newspaper,” but doesn’t have to live up to the standards of mainstream media because, after all, it is just a Blog.

Okay, so that’s the situation.  And it’s not going to change.  So the question I’d like to answer is this: What do we do about it?

In my next post, I’ll be answering that question …

The event was nice, and well-attended, but there was one question several of the attendees asked me that struck a chord. “Can you tell me about the hours, if I want to go into PR?”

Interesting.

I’ve never really thought about PR as a round-the-clock career, but when I stepped back in my mind, reflecting on this question, I realized that in fact it is. But the reason it is has nothing to do with PR specifically. It’s all about how fast technology has changed.

So after realizing this, I said to this young person, “Let me ask you – What’s the last thing you do before going to sleep at night? You turn off your computer, right?”

“Of course,” was the response.

Well, in PR, we do the same thing, except that phenomenon has so much relevance to our business. Because for me, the last thing I do is check to see if any client, or any reporter, or any colleague has sent me an email since I last checked. And if they have, well, part of being a PR service provider is going the extra mile, so whether it’s 10:30 p.m. or 11:45 p.m. or 1:15 a.m., I respond.

The point is that PR has become a 24-hour business. But you know what? So has life …

Let’s take a look at how Israel did in its recent campaign in Gaza, using two examples, one from the beginning and one from the end of the campaign.

First, the war, according to Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was not against the Palestinians, nor against the residents of Gaza. It was only against Hamas. The first public communication he offered to a television audience explained the rationale for fighting and an out-and-out apology to the people of Gaza. What this means is that from the very first communication, Israel had decided to play a defensive role about the impact of the war on civilians. Now, keep in mind that this was a defensive war for Israel, after having been shelled for years in the areas surrounding Gaza by thousands of rockets. But that didn’t matter to the world media, which, frankly, simply followed the lead of Israel’s communications effort by pointing out how wrong the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were for hurting anyone but Hamas terrorists in the battles.

The important lesson is the impact of communications in a war situation.

Now, let’s take a look at the end of the war. Israel had decided to impose a unilateral ceasefire, and prime ministerial candidate Binyamin Netanyahu announced his view that the job had not been completed. He said, "I believe that in the face of Hamas’s terror and its Iranian backing, we must show no weakness and we must show a resolute, iron fist, until the enemy is vanquished."

What I found fascinating was the response of Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima), who said, "Everyone knows the IDF won. Only Netanyahu thinks we did not win."

Now, wait a second. And here’s the power of communication. Did Netanyahu say that the IDF had lost? At the same time, was Dichter lying when he said Netanyahu thought Israel did not win?

Communications surrounding a war are meaningful. And whether it’s Nasser saying Egypt was winning the Six-Day War, FDR’s D-Day prayer in 1944 or Ehud Olmert apologizing for a defensive war in 2009, we all must understand the impact of war, not only of the weapons, but of the words as well.

There is an accepted principle in the communications business, when it comes to conferences and seminars. The principle is that when one has the opportunity to speak at a conference, under no circumstances is that person to spend time promoting him/herself or his/her company. The person was selected to speak because the expectation was that s/he would have valuable information to pass along to the attendees, who have paid serious money for the privilege to listen to such speakers.

Of course, there is always marketing/PR value to such engagements. For example, any PowerPoint presentation can have the speaker’s company branding on it. The speaker can give examples of the right way to do things and mention that "this is something that happened at my company," etc.

But go much beyond that, and the speaker is likely to be facing an empty room by the end, or worse …

Well, this week I had the privilege of speaking at the first annual "MarcShoret" marketing conference in Jerusalem. My topic was "The Marketing Marriage – Company and Agency Working Together." I think it was well-received, but that’s not the point of this post.

I attended the other sessions as well, and one of them was given in such a self-promotional manner that I felt compelled to leave after about 20 minutes. It was truly a disgrace – as opposed to the rest of the conference, which was quite good.

Who the speaker was and what the topic was is not of importance. What is important is that, as I sat there listening to this running self-advertisement, I thought to myself, "Wow, the only way for a speaker to engage in something like this is for that person to absolutely not care about his/her audience."

Which is interesting, because the whole marketing industry is based on caring about your audience. So why would anyone in this business ever want to work with such a presenter?

If we were right now a week into the secular calendar, we’d still be making our way through the annual "Year in Review" issues of magazines, features in papers and programs on television. There’s nothing quite like time that gives journalists the license to forget "news" for a bit and focus, instead, on perspective. And so they do.

But PR doesn’t work that way. Oh, sure, our trade magazines also do their annual highlight issues, and we all read them. But our industry is all about today – and tomorrow.

I’ll give you an example: I had a wonderful relationship with a particular reporter from the NY Times some years ago. He loved the stories I pitched him and he usually wrote long, deep articles about my clients. Of course, I only pitched him the good stuff. After all, that’s how wonderful PR person-reporter relationships grow.

Anyway, it happened one time that he thought I had given an exclusive to his competitor, The Wall Street Journal. He called me in a rage, doing his best impression of George Carlin’s "The Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine. And that, as they say, was that.

He never took a call from me again. The fact is that I hadn’t been the one to give the story to his competitor. The M&A agency had done the deed. But it didn’t matter to him.

And that’s what I mean when I say that PR doesn’t work that way. Had you looked at the previous 12 months of my relationship with that reporter, it was a heck of a year for me. But that one tirade-inclusive day destroyed the whole thing.

So it’s nice to look at the magazine features, but it truly does not matter at all. What matters is where we are and where we are going, with the media, with our clients, with our colleagues, and even with our own approaches to our careers.

So congratulations on all our industry has achieved, but more importantly, here’s to a wonderful Jewish New Year, filled with positive growth for all of us!

I’m writing this blog post with the hope that some of our client prospects will say "no" to our services.

Now, why would the managing director of an Israel-based PR firm wish such a thing upon his organization?

You know, it brings me back to a time – long ago – when I would have such conversations with my mother. They would go something like this:

"Mom, can I go to the St. Joe’s game Thursday night?"

"But Glenn," she would say, "Friday is a school day. You will have homework Thursday night."

"But they play Villanova that night. It’s the biggest game of the year, and Mike (my best friend growing up) has tickets!"

"I’ll speak with Howard (my stepfather) and we’ll let you know later."

"But I need an answer now or Mike will find someone else to take!"

"Glenn, if you need an answer now, the answer is no."

And with that, she had made herself clear. She would give me an answer, but it would happen on her terms, not mine.

Now, more than 20 years later, I find myself in roughly the same position with some of our client prospects. Except now, there’s a major difference …

Israeli companies and organizations that hesitate about their approach to PR and marketing only hurt themselves.

They are trying desperately to compete and to make themselves known in the US and global marketplaces, yet they sometimes operate in a way that demonstrates they are not confident in how they should proceed.

I’ll give you an example: We are currently in talks with an Israeli healthcare company about helping them with investor relations (out of our US offices), local Israeli PR and international business media relations. We have provided them with everything they have asked for, and we have taken a tremendous amount of time to meet with them in their offices. And we have been dancing this dance for a year. They would be silly to not move ahead with us, because we have made it clear that we will bend over backwards to provide them with excellent service.

And yet they have hesitated … for a year. Now, this doesn’t mean that they have to choose us. The point is that for more than a year they’ve chosen no one. This means that theoretically, their IR/PR/marketing has gone nowhere in a year. This indecision only hurts them.

Another example:

There is a company that has decided to hire an agency. They have a major event coming up in one month, and made it clear to us during our initial meeting that they needed to make a decision by August 1. It is now August 13. The event is coming up and we’ve made it clear to them that they will lose significant media opportunities at the event if they don’t begin reaching out to the industry media now. And yet they still have not made a decision. This of course bothers us, because we’d love to have them as a client.

But it also hurts them.

I guess what I’m saying is that, for the good of the Israel PR/marketing industry, I’d love to have all these clients say yes to Ruder Finn, but I’d also be perfectly happy if a few of these prospects were to say no to us … and say yes to someone.

For Ruder Finn Israel, we’d rather hear "no" than hear nothing. For these companies, saying nothing to us means they are also saying nothing to the market.

And in the process of saying nothing, they lose the most.