Personal Branding: Marketing the Individual

about me handwritten on blackboard

Personal branding has never been more relevant. In order to get recognized, you need to catch the eye. That much has always been true – but in the past, it wasn’t always as simple. Gone are the days when journalists took the bulk of decisions on who and what should be in the news, and how it should be reported.

Thanks to digitalization, everyone has the ability to market themselves through various channels. This applies for stars and celebrities as much as for politicians, executives, freelancers and anybody else whose expert knowledge means they have something to say. However, this doesn’t mean that classic media can be neglected. For personal branding, the mix is key – as well as the right strategy, of course.

PR skills are in demand: Knowledgeable across all industries

(c) fotolia

A few weeks ago, a woman looking for a PR agency gave me a call. She was so impressed by our website that she grabbed the phone immediately. She indicated that she worked in an extremely specialized industry and that she needed immediate help with PR, in positioning both herself and her company.

She told me that her current agency had left her out to dry, completely alone with her projects. I didn’t even have to ask her why she got rid of them. She shot the reasons out like a pistol, intent on getting it off her chest! Wow, believe me. All I can say is what happened really doesn’t speak well for the PR industry.

Notes From The City Of A Hundred Spires

Thanks to guest author James Kelliher
Original text from the Whiteoaks blog

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting up with the Whiteoaks International Network (WIN), hosted this year by our wonderful partners in the Czech Republic.

The beautiful city of Prague was certainly a suitable setting for this meeting of minds, with more than 60 countries represented at our annual get-together.

Since it was founded in 1998, WIN has provided a real alternative to the one-size-fits-all approach of global agencies. The need for local expertise, cultural sensitivities and know-how is never more apparent than when set at a table with my colleagues from across the globe, discussing the future of international PR and sharing insights from a broad range of cultures.

Storytelling V - Storytelling with style

Stories require protagonists and a conflict. However, it is the way in which you tell them that is decisive. Why that’s the case, we will explain here.

Why storytelling works, we already discussed at the beginning of our series. Messages have the greatest impact on humans when they aren’t purely factual but are able to evoke emotions. This will only happen if the story includes characters which the reader or listener can identify with and has an exciting conflict. It’s a famous rule: no conflict – no plot.

Best Practices for PR Storytelling – LEGO

Lego Steine © Niels Åge Skovbo, FOKUS

We would like to add a very recent example that fits to our previous blog post about best practices in PR storytelling: In April, all the important German print media reported on LEGO – cover story in Capital, two-page report in the SZ magazine, a story in Stern, Spiegel etc. All articles praise the economic revival of LEGO to becoming the second largest toy manufacturer worldwide under the aegis of its CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp. Just as a reminder: in 2004, the Danish company was close to bankruptcy and 1,000 jobs were lost. After the triumphant turnaround, journalists are commending LEGO’s successful market strategy, which is based on the ageless, positive identification and the fun of playing with the plastic bricks.

International PR? Yes please!

Naturally, large corporations want to distribute their PR work worldwide. Most of them do this with the help of PR agencies. Medium-sized enterprises are more hesitant in this regard. Perhaps, to them, it seems as if the efforts and costs are too high? Many don’t realise that, aside from the domestic PR work, there are also different international agency models. It is noteworthy to take a closer look at the market and to choose the most appropriate model.