CASE STUDY Pfizer's PR campaign „Openly about sex“ - PRO.PR

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. Thorsten Luetzler, German PR Association DPRG Public Relations Industry Germany Public Relations Practitioners The total number of full-time public relations practitioners in Germany is estimated to be at least 20,000. Around 40 per cent work with a company, 20 per cent in organisations such as associations, unions, churches, etc., and another 20-30 per cent in different social and political institutions (such as political and municipal administration and courts). Approximately 20 per cent of the public relations practitioners work in public relations agencies. The number of public relations practitioners is increasing more quickly than the number of journalists. It is difficult to give a detailed overview of the entire public relations counselling market in Germany. This applies both to the produced turnover and to the actual number of consultancy firms and employed PR consultants. Many agencies and individual consultants offer public relations services, yet they act under the name of other professions (such as advertising agencies, management consultants, freelance journalists.) In addition, the open access to the profession and the high fluctuation rate make an exact count of PR consultants and agencies even more difficult. As to the level of organisation, only an estimated 10 per cent of all public relations professionals (around 1,800) are members of the DPRG (German Public Relations Association), which was founded in Bonn in 1958 (www.dprg.de ). The number of organised public relations practitioners in the German Journalists Association - most of whom work in press departments - is estimated to be 4,000 (www. djv.de). In 1973, the leading public relations agencies founded their own association (Gesellschaft PR- Agenturen, GPRA; ‘Association of Public Relations Agencies’). At present it counts as members about thirty public relations agencies, representing nearly 1,500 employees (www.pr-guide.de). Degree of Professionalisation The degree of professionalisation of this branch, which is strongly interconnected with the training facilities, has been increasing since the beginning of the 1990s. In general, the profession is academically institutionalised: 70-80 per cent of the practitioners Public Relations in Germany Public relations is still very much an ‘open’ field, a profession for practitioners with backgrounds in such diverse professions as journalism, law, and engineering. This is shown by a 1989 survey of DPRG members as well as by a more recent study. have a degree (from a university or a polytechnic) or even a PH.D. Though these data show an increasing general education level of PR practitioners, they do not say anything about the actual degree of professionalisation - that is, the existence of a PR-related academic education. Only 15 per cent of public relations practitioners have a public relations-related education and training (such as public relations courses or majors). Where do Public Relations practitioners come from? Public relations is still very much an ‘open’ field, a profession for practitioners with backgrounds in such diverse professions as journalism, law, and engineering. This is shown by a 1989 survey of DPRG members as well as by a more recent study. Both studies showed that a third of all interviewed persons originally came from journalism, another third came from business or administration, and about 15 per cent had previously worked in advertising and market research. Interestingly, about 20 per cent Membership structure Age structure of DPRG members 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 2 0 younger unter than 20 20 67 292 390 had had no other occupation before entering public relations. ‘Feminisation’ ‘Feminisation’ is a feature that has developed into a distinct characteristic of the German public relations field. Whereas in the late 1980s less than 15 per cent of the people working in PR in businesses, administration, and associations were female, by 1996 women accounted for 42 per cent of the work force. This is confirmed not only by the present proportion of females among the members of the professional association DPRG (43 per cent in 2001), but also the proportion of female students of public relations reached more than 60 per cent. State of the Art and Future of Public Relations in Germany As with social, technical and media-related developments, the requirements for the occupational field of public relations change continuously. New trends and practices of public relations emerge all the time, of which we name only these: about five years ago, numerous businesses (amongst those were young start-up firms, but also slowly developed corporations) entered the stock market, which led to a boom. As a result, investor relations especially, as part of financial relations, experienced an immense upturn. Additionally, ‘issue management’, ‘crisis communication’, ‘employee relations’ and ‘event public relations’ gained more and more relevance for practical PR activities (and PR research). New trends at bigger public relations agencies are, for example, ‘change communication’, ‘sustainability communication’, ‘brand PR’, ‘corporate citizenship’ and ‘impression management’. Another hot issue is ‘corporate communication’ (and public relations as its part), understood as an element of the process of corporate value creation. Some characteristics of public relations are typical for Germany. Among these we can mention the process of professionalisation - including scientifically based PR education and an emerging PR science - and the ongoing feminisation. Ethical problems are discussed in the scientific community - much more seldom in the practical field. 1 PROPR winter 2007. 412 402 313 older no mention 20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40 40-45 45-50 50-55 55-60 60-65 älter k. A. than als 65 65 215 109 Membership structure Number of members as of October 26, 2007: 2,677 Breakdown by sectors (in absolute figures): 61 37 34 Students/ other Civil service Training and advanced training 350 Business associations, labour and management 40 Non-profit organisations, churches Companies 1145 1010 94 103 7**P R98 278 PRconsultancy 1 1
Could you, please, list some of the activities used by the German public relations association in practice? The DPRG… • organises annual congresses, specialist conferences and, via its regional groups, events and workshops on central PR issues • since 1999 has established the conference series “Capital Market Relations“ in cooperation with various regional stock exchanges (Frankfurt etc.) • has annually awarded the ‘Deutscher PR-Preis’ (German PR Award) since 1970, the highest award for PR and/or communication management in German-speaking countries; since 2002, joint call for submissions with the ‘F.A.Z.-Institut’, several hundred entries each year. • has biennially awarded the Albert-Oeckl-Nachwuchspreis (… Award for junior PR specialists) for academically outstanding theses on PR issues; this has now been integrated into the ‘Deutscher PR-Preis’ since 2002 • as a member of the Féderation of European Industrial Editors Associations (FEIEA) participates in the annual Grand Prix honouring the best European staff publications • Provides special services at the regional level and in expert groups • Has strong international links to CERP, Global Alliance for PR and Communications Management, IPRA etc. Some time ago Eastern and Western Germany united. What was the perception of public relations before and after that? The most important difference is that in the former Eastern part of Germany, free press was not known. Censorship and government-owned press was the norm. This has now changed completely, westernstyle media has taken over regional newspapers, the former state-owned broadcasting stations are now often privatised. In the East, public relations has been considered more propaganda than in the West, even though there are still many people who confuse both terms in the whole of Germany. Image of the public relations field The image of the public relations field varies considerably. The wider public has a rather diffuse image - if any - of public relations and can hardly perceive it directly. Media representatives and journalists often have an ambivalent image of public relations: they recognise that public relations is indispensable as a source of information, but at the same time they often use such characterisations as ‘PR gags’, ‘PR pretence’, ‘typical PR’. These expressions refer to events that are considered overstated and lacking content. In contrast, communication experts are treated by journalists as partners, colleagues ‘on the other side of the desk’. In company boardrooms especially, the image of the communication expert has significantly improved over the last two decades. New technologies have contibuted to the development of communication. How do you see a distribution of communication messages in the future? In Germany, the wide circulation of broadband-internet has its implications on the way PR is practised. Journalists do not want to receive press relea- PROPR winter 2007. ses via Fax anymore - they prefer emails with digital attachments or links to further information. Also, there is a wide offer for journalists to subscribe to online news programmes from companies. They will then receive podcast- or videocast-information automatically. Access from company-websites on mobile phones or other mobile devices is also a future trend that is clearly picking up speed in Germany. The whole web 2.0-discussion over interactive media, user-generated content, second life and online-blogging has also found its way into the German communications market. Companies use those tools to build up communities of customers or journalists around their services, products, and brands. In your opinion, what are the most important rules in running a successful public relations agency? The most important rules to run a PR agency in Germany are to find your niche, to work in a very service-oriented manner, and to explain every step that you make to your client. German companies want to know exactly what a consultant spends the budget on, and why an activity is necessary. Clear invoices are also important, otherwhise the strict German accountants will cause you trouble. Some Germans want to see senior staff on their team, as young consultants are not considered qualified and experienced enough to run whole campaigns on their own. As there is no real center of Germany, the right location for the consultancy is also important. Major business areas are Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Hamburg. The role of media Can you describe the media structure in Germany? Germany has one of the most vast and prolific media industries in the world. German-based print, radio and television deliver high-quality journalism that is widely respected by both the German public and international media experts. The media system is divided into the privately owned print market and the broadcasting market (dual market), consisting of private and public sectors. The basic types of print medium are daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, magazines and free newspapers. In the 1980s private broadcasting was introduced. Public and private broadcasting are subject to different legal regulations. Public broadcasting has to serve public welfare and guarantee basic programmes (information, sports, entertainment, culture). It has a central integrating function since it articulates the interests of minorities and encourages interaction between different interest spheres. For that reason, public broadcasting carries out a strict internal pluralistic concept: every programme has to reflect the actual diversity of the society. Private broadcasting, on the other hand, since it depends on income from advertising, faces lower constitutional demands. As an indirect consequence of economic competition, the concession of private broadcasting activities is expected to result in an increasing diversity of offerings and thus in more choices for the radio and television user. Besides the dual broadcasting system, and as compensation for the concession of large private providers, some provisions for ‘citizens’ broadcasting’ have been made. Citizens are allowed to produce their own radio and televisions programmes for these ‘open channels’, and they can also publish printed products. In 2001, there were 136 ‘media units’ in Germany - a media unit is an independent complete editorial office, with a politics department and all the other editorial departments. This amounts to 386 daily newspapers with 28.4 million copies sold. Adding local and regional editions the number rises to nearly 1,600 newspapers. On top of that, there are 23 weeklies (circulation 1.9 million), 845 popular magazines (circulation 129.7 million), and 1,094 professional journals (circulation 18 million). Please list some of the most important communication features towards the foreign public. 1
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CASE STUDY Pfizer's PR campaign „Openly about sex“ - PRO.PR

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