Week 5: The one where Terence learnt a new word - Schlep

In the world of Public Relations, Research and Practice might be two totally-different entities but it seems that they both share a connection that is more than meets the eye - a connection that intertwines them into each other's weaving.

I personally share the view of Ron Kawalilak, director of Strategic Development and Corporate Affairs of the Department of Environment and Conservation in Westrern Australia, when he shared his beliefs in PR at the start of the readings: that it's ok to have lost out if the strategy was not the best one to navigate the situation at hand BUT a cardinal sin to have lost out if the wrong strategy was employed due to a lack of understanding / appreciation of the situation.

How does the above-mentioned example of research in PR combine with the conventional PR practice? Quite simply, both involves the target audience of the organization and agency - the general public.

Research, I feel, is probably the most important element inside a PR campaign. Never mind the strategies and efficiency of tactics for if research on the objective is not carried out properly, those two factors wouldn't even matter.

A wonderful example I can think of is the Great Schlep movement initiated by Barack Obama's cabinet while he was running for presidency against Senator John McCain. The state of Florida was earmarked by many to be a crucial foothold in winning the elections and at a certain point of time, McCain was leading the polls there with 65% of votes.

The PR agency that Obama contracted, Droga5, did their research with the objective of winning the Florida polls and concluded that if Obama were to win the state, he'd have to convince the Jewish-majority population there to vote for him, considering they were against African-American candidates................

Research might be the most important tool in a PR campaign but a failure to properly execute the idea/intent through will spoil the great work the statistics team has done prior to this.

In the readings for Public Relations Practice, the role of a PR practitioner required traits such as:

• An understanding of the big picture and why an issue or a public is relevant for an organization
• The ability to uncover the real issues or problems to be resolved and the outcomes to be addressed
• An understanding of the importance of relationships and the skills to build and strengthen relationships and dialogue.
• The skill set to create and implement the communication solution.
  

Staying with the Great Schlep, Droga5 did a fantastic job in understanding Florida's voting demographics and pinpointing the Jewish community there as the scale-tipper. While knowing that the Jews in Florida won't support an African-American candidate for presidency, Droga5 was quick to establish the grandchildren of the mainly-elderly Jewish population as the key component of persuasion as they were part of the Gen Y batch who bought into Obama's 'Change' campaign.

As such, Droga5 initiated the Great Schlep movement and with the help of comedian Sarah Silverman, a pro-Obama Jew herself, got through to Jews all over the nation, who holds the same belief for Mr Obama , to fly down to Florida and convince their grandfolks that CHANGE/Obama is good for the country.

Needless to say, the rest is history as Obama took Florida from right under the shoes of Senator McCain and went on to win the presidency.

It's a Catch-22 situation of sorts in the world of PR - Research can't be as effective without the existence of PR Practices while the latter wouldn't even survive if proper research wasn't carried out. ;)


Terence....OUT!