The team We Are COM and l'ISCOM, higher school of communication and advertising, present to you, in a series of articles, the communication professions. This new episode is dedicated to the jobs of Press relations and influence. 🚀🚀
What is press relations and influence?
There are two main communication techniques:
- > Media communication, the most traditional, designates the following distribution channels: TV, radio, cinema, billboards, press, internet, etc. Those average quickly optimize the notoriety of a brand or a company, and on a very large scale!
- > Communication outside the media, meanwhile, refers to more direct techniques: public relations, sales promotions, fairs and exhibitions, sponsorship, direct marketing or even Social Media. These low-cost channels enjoy a targeted impact on the consumer and rapid improvement in sales.
The professions of "PR" (acronym for "press relations") and influence are, as you will have understood, in the category of non-media communication actions!
???? Press relations, also called "media relations", represent any form of communication established between a public relations specialist and the media.
The know-how of the press relations andPress officer will be to create a unique relationship of trust between the company or the brand it represents and the media. This, in order to ensure a very good transmission of information to the various targets.
📌 Influence, corresponds to any action consisting in arousing interest, promoting a product, convincing and inciting an audience.
The objective is in particular to amplify the communications made by a company or a brand, by relying on the notoriety and the communication of particular individuals (the famous influencers). These predispose the actions of consumers and prospects.
More concretely, what does it give?
Reputation is a vain and fallacious prejudice: often gained without merit and lost without justice!
William Shakespeare - Othello
More concretely, these professions are the builders and guarantors of a company's brand image, its reputation and its e-reputation. It should be noted that many of these professions have a very close link with the in digital. 💪
It is now customary to include press relations in a global strategy where PR and digital activations (influencer campaigns on YouTube or TikTok) complement each other.
The basic principle: create relationships of trust! 🙏
Where are the jobs in this sector located?
The main PR jobs atadvertiser
📰 At the advertiser, we find the essential Press officer. This communicator is the true spokesperson for the company: embodying the bond of trust between the latter and journalists. The press attaché also performs diligent monitoring and advisory activities with managers and company spokespersons. He must have a good management of stress and unforeseen events, while showing great diplomacy.
📱 We must also cite the Digital Communication Officer, who is in a way the pro of PRESENCE. This communicator manages the editorial line from its conception to its distribution: digital content and technical monitoring. Dynamism, mastery of digital tools and good culture - even curiosity - of the web are essential!
The main PR jobs in agency
🤓 The media man of an agency is called PR consultant. He is in constant contact with the press, and makes strategic recommendations to his client advertisers. Above all, he needs very good interpersonal skills, his job is one of human contact. In addition, his oral fluency must be irreproachable, allowing him to argue in any situation.
💡 Finally, on the “influence” side, we find the Digital consultant. The latter performs audits to define a unique digital strategy adapted to a client brand of the agency. After implementing this strategy, it measures and analyzes the results given. The digital consultant must be equipped with a sharp analytical capacity, an irreproachable writing and a sense of relational as strong teamwork.
Some figures on the job market for PR professionals 📈
- 28 is the median age of the communication and PR sector
- Bac + 4is the average level of study of communicators. In an agency or with the advertiser, the profiles that appeal the most have a baccalaureate +4/5 and a double competence
Expert opinion 🎙
Two press relations and influence professionals: Marieke Buis, advertiser side and Jean-Baptiste Quesnay, agency side, agree to tell us about their jobs.
Hello to both of you ! What is each of your jobs? 🤔
Marieke Buis : I am Global PR Manager at SmartAdServer, a platform international company specializing in the monetization of advertising space for publishers, and also in the optimized management of advertising expenditure for advertisers.
Jean Baptiste Quesnay : Former student of ISCOM, I am the creator of the communication agency TRENDS Paris. I support a large number of brands (Puma, Orangina, Lee Cooper, etc.) and business leaders. The main mission of TRENDS Paris is to optimize the brand image and the notoriety of companies with customers. THEinfluence is at the heart of our business! Starting from an adequate communication strategy and an adapted brand content, we are going towards a certain result : "earned media" (spontaneous visibility of a brand), with an obsession KING !
✅ What are your daily missions?
MB: I am in charge of understanding, knowing and managing the image of a company in the various media. My daily life consists in particular in promoting my company's news to journalists, but also in numerous analyzes of media repercussions, as well as in assiduous competitive intelligence. These are essential in my job. I am in a way the guarantor of the quality of my company's press news, and therefore the starting point of all its communication strategy and brand speech.
In other words, I coordinate daily communication actions with the management of international PR agencies.
PR are shadow professions capable of acting as a powerful lever for developing brand awareness. It's the best way to engage audiences, customers, in the most precise way. Smart AdServer actions concern the BtoB, thus our targets are mainly specialized and economic media, intended for professionals in the digital advertising ecosystem.
JB. Q .: Our agency, specialized in fashion, consumer goods, and lifestyle products. desire to bring a fresh and demanding perspective on what attracts attention today and will attract it tomorrow. We want to make the main currents and trends of our time a force and a response to brand issues. Also, in a very competitive BtoB universe, we owe it to ourselves to generate high visibility for a product or even a brand. We make every effort to develop an original approach and unique content. The strategies that we deploy within TRENDS tend to strengthen a positioning while creating a preference among different audiences.
Which PR or influencer campaign are you most proud of? (I.e.
MB: What brings us the most pride in the PR sector are obviously the qualities of our media coverage: type of audience, media coverage, richness and tone of speech.
Recently, we managed to get an exclusive interview with our CEO France, on a television channel specializing in business. By allowing him to bring his expertise, he was able to promote his company and promote it on a very popular media. It is a dream communication action for a BtoB company, and an undeniable success for the PR team behind this event. All in the midst of the covid-19 crisis!
JB. Q .: I will cite the campaign for the Lee Cooper brand. In partnership with one of the most followed fashion influencers of the moment, Constance Arnoult, TRENDS produced a photo and video look book in the streets of Paris. We therefore bet on influence, but also on the return of the brand's musical identity, allowing the latter to reposition itself directly in the hearts of fashion-lovers. This operation increased the media coverage of Lee Cooper, by more than 500% from the first month!
???? What do we remember?
The press relations professions, through the undeniable role they play in the notoriety and image of a brand or a company, still have a bright future ahead of them! 🚀
The strategic and creative dimensions are particularly stimulating for professionals in this sector. The challenges vary every day, all the more so in the current era of the “transfonum” and the proliferation of online media and social networks.
PR always requires more reinvention, in order to contribute to the development of the notoriety and the image of a brand or a company, in a world subject to constantly changing issues. 💪
