Romanian PR, face to face with “Holmes Report”

Cristina Blanaru PR

Romanian PR had a night in with was face to face with “Holmes Report” or, better said, with the man behindHolmes Report, Paul Holmes, that is considered the most credible analyst of international PR market.

A nice guy, that smiles a lot and fills his speech with little jokes that maintain public’s attention. A man that said, laughing, that “taking over an idea from someone else means plagiarism, getting ideas from many is research” and that he never worked one day in his life in PR, but wrote, as a journalist, for over 20 years, about this industry.

The meeting between Romanian PR representatives with Paul Holmes was arranged by  The Practice and CCRP and brought together, as Teodor Frolu said, more people than any reunion of the club. Frolu also mentioned “New Year’s Eve in Romanian PR”, referring to people present at Radisson SAS, that hosted the event.

In the 50 something minutes of his speech, Paul Holmes said many, many things. All interesting for both less knowledgeable ears and specialists’ ears.

In his speech, Paul Holmes mentioned:

  • Romania’s success at Sabre Awards, not matched by any other country
  • The fact that “the best work from Romania is as good as any work from Europe or the world”, reason why Romanian PR’s industry activity is exceptional
  • The importance PR has strategically for companies
  • The opportunity PR offers in developing digital
  • Boost for PR industry following the international economic crisis
  • Transparency era in which we live and in which companies are under public scrutiny; the fact that PR specialists are doing their job in a world where brand is controlled by consumers and is what consumers think, not what company wants them to think
  • True value of PR that consists in courage to give up control over brand and let someone else to send its message, an action that brings credibility to the brand
  • Neuralgic points in PR: women that work in the domain quit, around 35 yo, because the lack of balance between personal life and career and the fact that some specialists are very good when it comes of communication, but do not understand business mechanisms
  • the needs of PR industry, mainly integrity, especially when it comes of reflecting brands in media, as paid PR looses its value and can be done by anyone, without bringing real benefits to the brand.
  • PR as a job for courageous people, that need to assume the risk to tell clients what they don’t want to hear, when it comes of decisions with major impact.