Last year we introduced the PR PREMIERE. It was a great success, and proved that advertising and public relations are two sides of one coin: communication. Eliza Rogalski, this year’s president of the PR jury and last year’s juror in Cannes Lions agrees, as you can see below in an interview.
An interview with Eliza Rogalski, president of the PR jury, and Vladimir Bystrov, PR juror
How come that advertising festivals are incorporating PR in their competition lately? And why not before? Would you consider them as separate industries or as one under the umbrella of communication?
Eliza Rogalski: Advertising without PR is advertising of the 80s. I consider both of them to the expressions of one communication idea.
Vladimir Bystov: The biggest European advertising festivals are no more advertising festivals – during last couple of year almost each of them already incorporated also other disciplines of corporate communications. This applies for PR as well, however it took few more years before festivals like Cannes Lions or Golden Drum invited PR professionals to their competitions. In my view PR as a discipline is much closer to the general concept of corporate communications than any of the other forms or disciplines. Public Relations function in the organization is a strategic discipline which sets the goals in profiling the company or institution among their audiences. Selecting the right communication channels and tools (like advertising, direct marketing or media relations) is just the next step. I advocate a broader approach to the meaning of public relations.
How will you judge the works? What are you looking for in it? What are your criteria for a good PR campaign? And how would you define a bad PR campaign?
Eliza Rogalski: My criteria for a good PR campaign are: to clearly formulate a problem or an opportunity, to creatively exploit it and to effectively solve or exploit it. I think my criteria are most PR people criteria. They are not new.
Vladimir Bystov: Good PR campaign is the one which touches the point, targets the audience and delivers results defined at the beginning. This is obviously often hard to recognize and measure, nevertheless we have to keep trying 🙂 In PR the success depends much more on the strategic approach, rather than on a fresh creative but just an immediate idea for single use. Execution quality is an important factor; anyway without a strategic balance in the beginning it is useless. This is how I define bad PR campaign: when too much effort is focused to shock, attract the attention, but without real justification. Also, I strongly dislike campaigns which deceive the public – this is unacceptable in PR, in contrary to – let’s say – advertising or promotion.
What would you suggest to agencies sending their work: how to prepare a presentation of it? Can a good presentation outshine an average PR campaign?
Eliza Rogalski: A good presentation is the extension of a good campaign. My personal advice is to present the campaign as they present to their clients: don’t exaggerate, don’t overlook, don’t get into details too much, stay interesting, generate curiosity.
Vladimir Bystov: Good presentation is a crucial part of each PR campaign – very often we have to communicate with non much interested audiences about not so much interesting topics. The quality of presentation and persuasive argumentation decide. Who else should be better masters in presentation if not PR professionals?
PR JURY AT THIS YEAR’S GOLDEN DRUM
· Eliza Rogalski, Managing Partner of Rogalski Grigoriu Public Relations, Romania – president Carola Purtscher, Managing Director, kobza integra public relations & lobbying GmbH, Austria
· Dejan Verčič, PhD, founder of Pristop agency and Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Ljubljana
· Vladimir Bystrov, Strategic Planning Director, Bison & Rose, Prague
· Ulrich Proeschel, Brand Director Europe, TBWA, Germany
Eliza Rogalski, Managing Partner of Rogalski Grigoriu Public Relations, Romania
Eliza started her career as a journalist in 1999 and entered PR in 2001. Since 2004 she has worked at Tempo Creative Group, one of the most important communication groups in Romania, where she developed the PR business that later became a PR agency of its own: Rogalski Grigoriu Public Relations.
Eliza was the first PR professional to have graduated from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership (in 2009), with a thesis that explored Leadership 2.0, both conceptually and practically, and analyzed its implications to the present and the future of communication.
Rogalski Grigoriu Public Relations was the first Romanian PR agency awarded with Golden World Award – the Oscars of PR industry – by the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) for a product launch (2007) and double awarded for “the best ePR campaign” and “PR on a shoestring” in 2009 – a performance unique in Europe.
In 2008, Rogalski Grigoriu Public Relations was awarded the PR Agency of the year in Romania. In 2009, Eliza Rogalski was the first Central and Eastern Europe professional who served in Cannes as a PR Lions juror.
Vlad Bystrov, Strategic Planning Director, Bison & Rose, Prague, Czech Republic
Vladimir started his professional career in mid-90s as a promoter of top musical theatre productions in Prague, incl. Jesus Christ Superstar, The Foam of the Day (Boris Vian adaptation) or Rusalka Muzikál (a famous opera remade into a musical). For 2 years (1999–2000) he has worked as a Director for Advertising & Promotion in Komerční banka (one of Czech leading banks). For 3 years (2000–03) he was editor-in-chief of a Czech weekly „Strategie“ – trade newsmagazine for marketing communications and media industries.
In 2003 he has joined Bison & Rose, one of the leading Czech PR consultancies (currently 2nd biggest) as strategic planning director, responsible for the corporate communications and financial PR practices. His main specializations are financial communication (M&A transactions, litigations, stock listings etc.), corporate communications and crisis communication.
Vladimir has been in various juries of Czech (Czech PR Awards, Rainbow Marble, Czech Top 100, Brand Manager of the Year etc.), Slovak (Zlatý Klinec) or international (EPICA) competitions. He has been a member of Czech PR Association board (APRA) since 2004.
Entries in Group H (PR) compete in the following categories
43: Internal communication
44: Corporate branding
45: Marketing PR for products (consumer goods: automotive, foods and beverage, fashion and beauty, household products, etc.)
46: Marketing PR for services (Healthcare Services; Transport, Media, Arts and Entertainment; Travel, Tourism & Leisure; Best use of Sponsorship; Retail and e-commerce incl. Restaurants)
47: Change & Crises communication
48: Public engagement & participation
49: (Corporate) social responsibility
50: On-line and off-line media relations
51: Financial communication
52: Government relations and public affairs
53: International (including regional) communication
54: Integrated & holistic communication
55: Unconventional communication (buzz, guerrilla, viral…)
56: PR events
57: Corporate PR
58: Business to business PR
59: PR agency initiative
60: Digital PR
61: Publishing PR
DEADLINES: All registrations and all material should arrive at the Festival Office by 1 September 2010
PR PROGRAM AT GOLDEN DRUM 2010
Thursday, October 7, Morning: GOLDEN DRUM LAB: “Social Energy Brand People”, Pawel Nizinski, Managing Partner at GoodBrand & Company publisher of CR Navigator
"We are not normal brand people – we are social energy brand people! New consumer trends (enoughism, eco glamour etc.) are to be considered when we want to work for modern brands, the social energy brands. Ethical consumerism is gradually changing our perspective on building modern brands. We can observe on 8 European markets how the consumer’s expectations are changing.
Do we respond in a relevant way in PR and advertising?"
Thursday, October 7, Evening: Award ceremony
Golden Drum Open Awards Ceremony for groups Interactive, Media, Advertising Campaigns, Design & Art Direction, PR, Best PR agency and Portorož Piran Poster competition
Friday, October 8, Morning: Charlie Stjenberg, Prime Group
Charlie Stjernberg (born 1963) is a Partner and senior consultant from the Public Affairs Department. Mr Stjernberg has worked professionally as a PR Consultant since 1991. He is a former journalist, founder of PR consultancy Verkligheten and co-founder of financial paper Finanstidningen. Charlie Stjernberg has a broad experience as personal advisor on crisis management and media relations, to leaders in politics, industry and finance. He is considered one of the most prominent communication advisors in Sweden and is often engaged as a commentator on PR in broadcasting and newspapers.
He has won several national and international awards, including a Sabre Award for car manufacturer Skoda.
Friday, October 8, Afternoon: PR Round Table
