The Power of Public Relations

If PR is about changing behavior instead of polishing an image, then what makes a great PR campaign? According to Cunningham, it involves taking on problems that the client company is criticized for without either glossing over them or denying their existence. Take the case of Firefly Network, which produces Web sites that build communities around shared interests. Firefly falls right into one of the hottest controversies on the Web: the battle over privacy. You can't have the personalization that community requires unless consumers give away information about themselves and allow a site to watch what they do online. But what happens to all that private information?

"We could have gone the way of every other company: 'Consumers are pretty dumb.' " says Saul Klein, Firefly's senior vice president of brand and strategy. But influenced by Cunningham, Firefly adopted a model of open communication with customers. Its Web site states explicitly what the company will or will not do with information that customers volunteer. It also provides a way for them to have that information deleted at any time. In short, the company directly addressed the biggest criticism that could be leveled against it - and ended up with a lot of positive press coverage and a big voice in the debate over privacy standards.

This approach to PR makes the fit between Cunningham and its clients a matter of utmost importance: It doesn't work with every high-flying startup, and most companies don't measure up to the firm's standards. While a traditional agency of its size would serve as many as 50 clients, Cunningham works with just 12. And while it has received more than 300 inquiries from would-be clients in the last two years, it has added new clients very selectively: In January 1998, for example, it entered a joint venture with two other firms to handle worldwide PR for Oracle, the database giant.

To be sure, Cunningham account executives still talk to journalists and analysts on their clients' behalf, much like people at any other agency. But to Andy Cunningham, the new direction in PR is clear: "The job of PR people in the future is to find communities of knowledgeable people and to communicate with them," says Cunningham. "It's to make them aware of the product, listen to what they have to say, and move that information back and forth. It's a position of influence for people who like to be influential."

The Power of PR Pros

Andy Cunningham and Pam Alexander represent opposing views on the role of PR in an era of media proliferation. But they agree that there is a new model for PR in the new economy: PR professionals need to become informed participants in the industries they serve. They need to collect and analyze vital information about their clients. And they need to find new approaches to image-making.

In developing a corporate image, says Andy Cunningham, PR has to emphasize substance over style, real change over a superficial makeover. PR, she says, isn't public relations - it's personal reinvention. "Doing the new public relations is like serving as a physical-fitness trainer for companies that want to shape up the right way," she says. "We get in there and help companies with their exercise routines, their diets, their habits - all the stuff that will make them a better company. That's a huge change from what public relations used to be: 'Here, just wear a dark pin-striped suit, and you'll be fine.'"

Katharine Mieszkowski katharinem@fastcompany.com is a senior writer at Fast Company. You can reach Pam Alexander http://www.alexander-pr.com and Andy Cunningham http://www.ccipr.com on the Web.