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(Note: Dr. J has always been my "self-brand" since I started doing PR work. I will soon realize it when I finish my PhD. Anyway, I wish to share a recent interview on me and my work)
What inspired you or drove you to enter the PR industry?
I wanted to be part of the action. I just didn’t want to write about it. I was a reporter and I was happy with what I was doing at the beginning. I got to meet a lot of high-level personalities in the fields of politics and business. I hobnobbed with them and chronicled what they were doing.
However, after while, I found myself wanting to be part of events not as a chronicler but as a participant. I found myself wanting to shape what can happen and what will happen with reporters willingly writing about it. I guess it is this power of the PR that attracted me to the industry.
More than muscle, this power involved psychology – an expression of wit, elan and creativity that people around me feel and follow without them feeling my physical presence. As PR I shape, mold, convince, and persuade without people knowing they are being shaped, molded, convinced and persuaded. I thought that was magic and the magic remains. This is wizardry without the robe and the wand.
What was your greatest break?—or event that led to your continued success?
The greatest break occurs every time one falls, at the heels of mistakes, and at the moment of wrong decisions. The learning after these falls make one better than ever. I had a number of these “falls” during my early years. I had become a PR manager at the age of 22. I didn’t know the intricacies of PR. I didn’t know who to trust and not to trust. My naivete in the industry at that time showed all over.
But I slowly rose from the doldrums and the quagmire of a number of missteps and wrong curbs. I gained more confidence and never looked back. I put up my first PR agency at the age of 25. I suffered yet another series of mistakes.
Owning an agency is far different from being a mere employee. Relationships are a lot different when you are on your own. From bad pitches to new clients and proposals being copied and to new ideas being stolen from you, I suffered all. The tenacity of spirit however raged on. I rose from these challenges, albeit bruised, but with my name as my brand intact. And the brand stuck, people remembered and more people trusted. On top of my PR agency, I put up an events company and a small “out of home” ad firm.
Learning from past experiences and rising from these challenges are the greatest breaks one can ever experience in an industry that hates mediocrity, stupidity and frowns on onion-skinned personalities. Guts, wit, patience, charm, luck and a lot of creativity and intelligence with a gracious sprinkle of good conversational skills spell for a good recipe in PR.
What was the greatest challenge that you experienced?
The greatest challenges had always been instances where morality is at stake. This is when personal motives clash with moral upbringing. And there were many instances in my career that are reminiscent of this dilemma. Should I take a client that a lot of people believed to be corrupt? Should I take a client that has already been caught bribing people? Should I take a client that requests me to ruin the competitor?
These were real cases and dilemma that had to face. I had to contend with my moral values. If I were to decide using my Catholified upbringing that exalts good deeds and vilifies bad ones, I would not have taken these clients.
However, these cases were challenges to me. Similar to a lawyer, I took on these clients and presumed them to be innocent until proven guilty. If lawyers win or lose cases in the courts of law, I challenged myself to win these cases in the courts of public opinion.
I didn’t look at these cases using my moral lenses. Instead, I looked at them as challenges on how good a PR I have become. While I was crucified by many in these chapter of my PR life (now I called my Dark Ages), I, at that time, viewed them as testimonies to my capabilities as a PR to shape, mold, convince and persuade the public to cast a good eye to my clients.
What do you think was the trait that you held on to and helped you succeed in the industry?
The constant drive to challenge myself has been the guiding post of my career. I have never been contented despite successes. My incessant desire to inquire, path-find and discover new areas where my capabilities as PR will be tested to the limits has, for weird reasons, been a mark of whatever little success I am enjoying as PR.
What advice can you give aspiring practitioners like me?
I only have one advice and this is short: just be happy with everything you do and continue pushing yourself to do better. Challenge is a word that is on top of my list all the time. But a word of caution: in your drive to challenge and carve out successes, never step on other people. If you can blend well and still come out as a winner, that is a sweet success. Remember, we PRs win not through brute force but the power of the mind and the charm of our words.
Showing posts with label PR industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PR industry. Show all posts
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
May the real PR rise?
by Ronald Jabal
(NOTE: This post is a finalist in the Top 10 Posts of the Year in the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards)
“Oh PR ka na pala”, - that was what my former colleagues in the Press told me, more than a decade ago, when they found me on the “other side of the fence”. This statement, when followed with eyes-squinting or worse, eye-rolling and then a quick cold distant, “hafta-go”, is robust with meanings. Suddenly, I am different.
When one hears the phrase (usually a stable in banter among friends), “ang PR PR mo talaga!” followed by a hefty laughter – one is left to wonder what do friends actually mean. When officemates tell you point blank, one day in the office pantry, “Huwag ka ngang mag PR dyan!” – which to some is indeed replete with emotive colors, one is again at a loss on what the statement really means.
Most of the times we assume we know what people mean by these statements, and yet we still ask ourselves, (and here I am having a Carrie Bradshaw moment), “What does PR really mean?
I will not bore the readers of this tongue-in-cheek thought piece with a textbook definition. Nor will I write here a litany of what PR teachers (like me) tell students about what PR practitioners (like me again, grrr) do. Let me, however, tell what PR people do and some people perceived that PR practitioners do.
From the term Public Relations, we can already deduce, without the need for Mr. Webster that PR is about relating to the public. No brainer indeed. It is in the process of relating to these various publics that interpretations seep in.
Many think PR work is organizing parties. It is about dressing up, feeling and looking good, hobnobbing with corporate bigwigs, celebrities, powers-that-be, the elite and the pseudo-elites, the wanna-be-seen, the “it” and the “in” crowd, the “members-only” group, the social climbers, the “xoxo” gossip club etc. Hence, sometimes, people look at the PR person as somebody with an easy life, thus the expression “pa PR,PR”. To some extent, PR work involves these activities.
Many think PR work is about employing dirty tricks - keeping the FACE of clients/bosses even themselves through ingratiation or worse, outright lying, hence the expression “huwag ka ngang mag PR”. At times, PR work involves, as some people perceived (hmmm.. actually see), paying people up for press coverage, hence the expression “PR ka nga” – with PR as the term and as a profession becoming a pejorative word. To some extent, this is also true.
Just imagine a student of PR being confronted by these realities. Would you still want to become a PR practitioner?
While the above-mentioned issues are true to some extent (but not true all the times), there is a lot more to PR. And there are more PR practitioners that remain true to the noble practice of Public Relations as a profession.
In crisis situation where advertising money shrinks but competition remains stiff, PR is the best weapon of companies. Even non-government and government entities which promote their services and accomplishments rely on PR as their platform. And PR is not hard sell compared with advertising – a lesson advertising agencies embrace with gusto.
Nowadays, the line between “above the line” and “below the line” has become blurred. Editorial spaces used to be the playground of PR practitioners – a testing ground of how good a PR practitioner writes and frames his/her stories and how close is his/her relationship with reporters and editors, deskmen and producers.
Today, it is not uncommon to see the emergence of “branded “ content – editorial stories containing product features, celebrity endorsers, brand events to name a few being given editorial spaces. And people patronize these products because the “content” is not made to appear as advertisements but stories written by reporters/editors - stories that were earlier distributed/released by PR practitioners – thereby giving an air of legitimacy to the ads-cum-news features. PR is the new adman at less cost!
PR has also ceased to become just a vehicle to help inflate bottomlines. PR is now involved in social causes – transforming corporations as community citizens. Instead of merely informing, PR engages and harnesses people and businesses towards a collective action on issues such as health, environment, child and women’s rights, ageing, equality etc. Indeed, PR has placed the heart where it should be. It is this humanizing role that differentiates the current practice of PR.
I look forward to the day when a new expression on PR practitioner will be made. “Wow PR ka? Galeng naman. Kainggit!”.
There is however one role that the PR industry has not practiced to the fullest and that is to help define the public agenda in the country that the media will cover and that the policy and decision makers will heed.
In a country where public agenda (major concerns, issues, wish, wants, desires etc) is virtually non- existent; where the policy agenda is defined by personal interests or is a reaction to issues unearthed and covered by the press (the media agenda), the PR practitioner has a distinct role.
With his/her close ties with the Press which has partly defined the behavior of both elected and appointed officials, the PR practitioner can rally behind a particular social, political, cultural, and environmental issue and release them to the press. This way the public gets to read/watch/hear these issues helping solidify its own agenda. Lawmakers and executive officials who doggedly
follow press coverages believing that they can ignite public outcry can also improve its agenda.
While this may sound too grandiose and yet simplistic in approach, the role is not an impossible task. If the current roster of PR practitioners cannot do it, the future PR – yes YOU - who are reading this material can help realize this simple dream.
By then we may hear the expression “Ang galing nya grabe! kasi PR sya eh”.
(NOTE: This post is a finalist in the Top 10 Posts of the Year in the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards)
“Oh PR ka na pala”, - that was what my former colleagues in the Press told me, more than a decade ago, when they found me on the “other side of the fence”. This statement, when followed with eyes-squinting or worse, eye-rolling and then a quick cold distant, “hafta-go”, is robust with meanings. Suddenly, I am different.
When one hears the phrase (usually a stable in banter among friends), “ang PR PR mo talaga!” followed by a hefty laughter – one is left to wonder what do friends actually mean. When officemates tell you point blank, one day in the office pantry, “Huwag ka ngang mag PR dyan!” – which to some is indeed replete with emotive colors, one is again at a loss on what the statement really means.
Most of the times we assume we know what people mean by these statements, and yet we still ask ourselves, (and here I am having a Carrie Bradshaw moment), “What does PR really mean?
I will not bore the readers of this tongue-in-cheek thought piece with a textbook definition. Nor will I write here a litany of what PR teachers (like me) tell students about what PR practitioners (like me again, grrr) do. Let me, however, tell what PR people do and some people perceived that PR practitioners do.
From the term Public Relations, we can already deduce, without the need for Mr. Webster that PR is about relating to the public. No brainer indeed. It is in the process of relating to these various publics that interpretations seep in.
Many think PR work is organizing parties. It is about dressing up, feeling and looking good, hobnobbing with corporate bigwigs, celebrities, powers-that-be, the elite and the pseudo-elites, the wanna-be-seen, the “it” and the “in” crowd, the “members-only” group, the social climbers, the “xoxo” gossip club etc. Hence, sometimes, people look at the PR person as somebody with an easy life, thus the expression “pa PR,PR”. To some extent, PR work involves these activities.
Many think PR work is about employing dirty tricks - keeping the FACE of clients/bosses even themselves through ingratiation or worse, outright lying, hence the expression “huwag ka ngang mag PR”. At times, PR work involves, as some people perceived (hmmm.. actually see), paying people up for press coverage, hence the expression “PR ka nga” – with PR as the term and as a profession becoming a pejorative word. To some extent, this is also true.
Just imagine a student of PR being confronted by these realities. Would you still want to become a PR practitioner?
While the above-mentioned issues are true to some extent (but not true all the times), there is a lot more to PR. And there are more PR practitioners that remain true to the noble practice of Public Relations as a profession.
In crisis situation where advertising money shrinks but competition remains stiff, PR is the best weapon of companies. Even non-government and government entities which promote their services and accomplishments rely on PR as their platform. And PR is not hard sell compared with advertising – a lesson advertising agencies embrace with gusto.
Nowadays, the line between “above the line” and “below the line” has become blurred. Editorial spaces used to be the playground of PR practitioners – a testing ground of how good a PR practitioner writes and frames his/her stories and how close is his/her relationship with reporters and editors, deskmen and producers.
Today, it is not uncommon to see the emergence of “branded “ content – editorial stories containing product features, celebrity endorsers, brand events to name a few being given editorial spaces. And people patronize these products because the “content” is not made to appear as advertisements but stories written by reporters/editors - stories that were earlier distributed/released by PR practitioners – thereby giving an air of legitimacy to the ads-cum-news features. PR is the new adman at less cost!
PR has also ceased to become just a vehicle to help inflate bottomlines. PR is now involved in social causes – transforming corporations as community citizens. Instead of merely informing, PR engages and harnesses people and businesses towards a collective action on issues such as health, environment, child and women’s rights, ageing, equality etc. Indeed, PR has placed the heart where it should be. It is this humanizing role that differentiates the current practice of PR.
I look forward to the day when a new expression on PR practitioner will be made. “Wow PR ka? Galeng naman. Kainggit!”.
There is however one role that the PR industry has not practiced to the fullest and that is to help define the public agenda in the country that the media will cover and that the policy and decision makers will heed.
In a country where public agenda (major concerns, issues, wish, wants, desires etc) is virtually non- existent; where the policy agenda is defined by personal interests or is a reaction to issues unearthed and covered by the press (the media agenda), the PR practitioner has a distinct role.
With his/her close ties with the Press which has partly defined the behavior of both elected and appointed officials, the PR practitioner can rally behind a particular social, political, cultural, and environmental issue and release them to the press. This way the public gets to read/watch/hear these issues helping solidify its own agenda. Lawmakers and executive officials who doggedly
follow press coverages believing that they can ignite public outcry can also improve its agenda.
While this may sound too grandiose and yet simplistic in approach, the role is not an impossible task. If the current roster of PR practitioners cannot do it, the future PR – yes YOU - who are reading this material can help realize this simple dream.
By then we may hear the expression “Ang galing nya grabe! kasi PR sya eh”.
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