Of new markets and fresh perspectives

Scott Kronick’s presentation on international public relations during Newhouse’s PR day was exciting and inspirational.

Kronick has been working for the international public relations agency Ogilvy for more than 20 years. He began his career in the US, before having the opportunity to move abroad to China, 17 years ago. He arrived there at the beginning of the 90s, right when the economical independence and growth started.

Through his presentation, he managed to show us two things: How the use of PR in China differs from western countries, and how much one country and its whole population has evolved over two decades.

China is the country that we always hear about as the new world’s economic leader, the biggest population, or the sweatshop of the world, but we never have insights from a PR perspective. Especially because there are so many Chinese students at our university, having more information about their country allows us to appreciate and understand their culture.

Doing PR means above all knowing who are your publics. This statement is even more accurate when it comes to international PR. But the fact is, it is harder to capture these audiences when it’s another country, a completely different culture, and therefore another way to consume or respond to messages. “You can’t start talking to somebody unless you understand them,” was one of Kronic’s key points.

Cross culture business and communication has existed for decades, but the more interactions are made with eastern countries, the more we have to learn again how to do effective PR through new perspectives. “You gotta know what you don’t know”.

What I’ll remember from this presentation is that doing good PR is more than ever about curiosity and passion for your job. Having already an international background, I’m even more interested in exploring international PR as a potential path for my future career. As Kronick said in an interview he gave to Voices From Other Lands: “Building bridges between cultures is [my] mission,” and he surely knows how to talk about it.