By Scott White and Monica Feid, co-founders
Time flies when you’re having fun . . . and building brands.
BizCom turns 21 this month and it seems like only a few days ago that we were popping 20th anniversary corks and looking forward to turning 2020 into a year-long celebration.
Who knew?
As an agency, we’ve made it through 9/11, great recessions, wars and more. We’ve watched our children grow into young adults and begin building families of their own. We’ve watched bright young professionals and interns mature into PR superstars. We’ve seen technology completely disrupt the way we communicate almost overnight, forcing agencies and brands to rethink the way they market their products and services.
Nothing, however, compares to 2020.
It’s been a sobering 12 months, but one in which we could not be prouder of the way our team has responded to upheaval to their worlds and their lives with a client-first focus on making sure they were always there to do whatever our clients needed.
And like our entire client roster, our team’s perseverance and ability to be flexible throughout 2020 has made us even stronger for the future.
A Rite Of Passage
For many, turning 21 is a rite of passage. That is the case for all of us at BizCom.
This month we step out of the old and into the new with an updated look and focus on the future while honoring our past.
But the changes are far more than for appearance. We are accelerating an evolution that began a few years ago from traditional PR services into a blended PR approach. Our DigitalBizCom, BizCom Design and BizComPress divisions give us the ability to capitalize on the many tools needed to reach any audience regardless of where they consume their information.
There is no doubt that the world of PR and communications is evolving faster than ever. The lines between PR, advertising, branding, social media and other marketing tools are disappearing.
Gone are the days when a single story in a national publication was all you needed to drive hundreds of franchise leads. If you are marketing a product or service today, you need a blended approach to PR or you very likely will not reach all your audiences with the impact to make a difference.
As we wrote recently in the International Franchise Association’s Marketing, Operations & Development Toolkit, if your PR program is focused on the old-school tactics of sending out press releases, calling the media and hoping for the best, then not only are you wasting your money, but you are using only a fraction of the PR tools now available for marketers wanting to grow their brands.
Think about it. What is the primary way you learn about news today? For many, it’s not a traditional media outlet. Instead, it’s an alert through a social media feed. Where do you go to learn about the latest business trends and techniques? Increasingly, it’s a podcast or YouTube channel over a business magazine.
Today, an appearance on a highly targeted podcast can deliver more impact than a mention in Entrepreneur magazine. The right micro-influencer campaign can deliver more sales than a TV interview.
Many brands are even skipping third parties altogether and creating their own platforms to deliver their news. And the real beauty is that digital media is much more measurable than traditional media, which depends on numbers attempting to measure impressions and reach, but are vague, at best.
At The Forefront of Change
While the media landscape continues to shrink in size and influence, the explosive growth of other communications platforms has created opportunities for savvy PR brands to amplify their message as never before.
Back in 1999 when we set up shop in a shared office space in north Dallas, we could not anticipate the changes the future would bring. But like most 21-year-olds, we embrace new ideas and different ways of thinking, and we want to be at the forefront of driving that change.
Happy Anniversary, BizCom. And thank you to all the clients, the teammates, the suppliers and other business partners who have made this incredible journey possible.
Yorumlar