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Mayang Schreiber on the Secret Life of Public Relations

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Wikipedia describes public relations as “…the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) and the public” — and many people understand that public relations professionals and firms are where individuals, companies, and governments turn to when they need to win favor from their respective public.

The practitioners of this particular craft — facetiously, and archaically perhaps, referred to as spin doctors — work to polish a brand or company’s image, but there’s a whole other side to public relations that’s more than promoting a brand or lobbying for an entire industry: called crisis management, this is basically picking up after someone else’s mess. For example, there was a lot of anger and animosity aimed at British Petroleum after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, which is why they spent more than US $500 million on public relations to win back trust from customers and stockholders. That’s a lot of money to spend, but positive public perception is priceless to big corporations.

Politicians and governmental organizations also frequently turn to public relations firms to win the votes they need: in 2012, Obama’s Affordable Care Act was sold to the American public with a little help from a PR company that won a US $20 million contract. So while many people tend to think about public relations in Thank You For Smoking terms, there’s another Wag the Dog aspect to the industry that can make or break the fate of political leaders, organizations, and movements.

One of Jakarta’s busiest public relations firms is Burson-Marsteller, a global PR firm which is spearheaded by its CEO, Mayang Schreiber. Not only she is the youngest head of a PR consultancy in the region. We sat down with hear to learn a little more about the business and what it takes to succeed as a woman in the boys’ club.

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Hi Mayang! First question: how did you end up in the PR business?

“I just sort of fell into it. After graduating from university, I worked at an IT consulting company. A friend of mine there applied to work at a PR consulting firm, and she told me that the person who interviewed her was fierce and really hard on her. She said she wasn’t sure about her chances at getting the job, but that ended up intriguing me. I thought, ‘How hard can it be? It’s just PR.’ So I went for the interview and ended up liking it. So I moved from IT to PR, where I’ve remained ever since.”

How has the rise of social media changed the way PR works?

“I don’t see the digital world as a threat to PR, I see it as a tool. In advertising, marketing, and PR, they all have to use digital. For the past five years, I stopped telling people I’m a PR consultant, and started introducing myself as a communications advisor. Broadly speaking, we help our clients connect and communicate with their stakeholders, whether it be the public or government through the media or digital mediums. So I don’t see digital as an adversary, but rather as an integrated part of communications.”

And how has the PR industry changed since the ’90s?

“In the ’90s, the golden rule of crisis communications is that you have to respond in 24 hours, or you risk losing the trust of the public. But in today’s world, I feel that a response to a crisis must be within the first hour, or 2-3 hours at most.”

 

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Have  she faced gender-based discrimination in the PR Industry?

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