Governments and regulators are fighting to preserve boundaries, minority groups are fighting to preserve identities, and newspapers and local TV are fighting to preserve their local audiences – all noble and worthwhile tasks in self-preservation, as most of the rest of us in public relations are increasingly dancing on a global stage.
Public Relations- A Global Workplace
Three events have just occurred to reinforce the Wilkinson Group’s philosophy of ‘Think Global, Act Local’.
- Wilkinson was asked for help by the Washington-based US Animal Agriculture Alliance. An Australian company had made a poorly researched investment by sponsoring the radical Humane Society of the United States, infuriating it seems most people living outside city limits (and a lot inside) – including the giant organisations of US Beef, Veal, Pork, Poultry. Our brief was to advise on applying pressure and help mediate a backdown.
- A large LA based company asked Wilkinson to work on a Consumer Public Relations campaign, injecting a Hollywood message into Australia & New Zealand.
- An Australian company is talking to us about helping it list on the NASDAQ. It produces oil beans in India, refines them in Malaysia and sells the biofuel product in the United States. We will enlist help from colleagues in India, Malaysia and NYC.
The virtual desk next to us now is in another country, and the person working there is instantly accessible (at the moment superficially) via social media or (at the moment more substantially) on speed dial. We are networking on many levels globally and conforming to a set of world standards.
In fact thanks to Wilkinson’s association with IPREX our professional network really is global. IPREX is an organisation of almost 70 forward looking and high-quality Public Relations companies located all over the world. As global networks are becoming stronger and more co-dependent Wilkinson is leveraging the IPREX network to benchmark our own skills.
And we can provide local clients with a true international scale and presence. It is astounding that from our desk in Sydney we can target a continent or target particular audiences in Hong Kong, Dublin or Milwaukee on Lake Michigan.
The point is, we think it is important to be one step ahead; that oceans no longer barriers, and the term multinational has all but disappeared from our lexicon. The banking industry led the charge and as we now know from our bitter GFC experiences the financial sector has no boundaries – and it was our mistake to ignore it.
For so many of us in public relations, the world is our office.
