Ray has been CEO of Ketchum since 2000. During that time, the firm has added to its client service footprint in Europe, China, India and Russia and nearly tripled in size. He actively counsels clients, has been included in PRWeek’s Power List and serves in leadership positions across the industry.
On July 1, Rob Flaherty, currently Senior Partner and President, will assume the role of CEO of Ketchum and I will become Chairman. I am certain that our clients, our employees and the industry will greet this news with great enthusiasm.
The two of us have had the great pleasure of working together for more than 20 years. During the past couple of years we have carefully planned this transition to ensure it is a seamless one.
Not a day goes by that I’m not proud to work at Ketchum, but last week that pride was taken to a whole new level. Being named PRWeek’s Agency of the Year by the industry and its professionals is an extraordinary validation of the work that our 2,500 employees do each day. It demonstrates an appreciation of our teamwork and collaborative culture. It recognizes our incredible clients who place their trust in us to excel on their behalf.
In their award commentary, PRWeek cited several reasons for our recognition, including our client retention rates, “impressive” new business wins, commitment to creativity and career development, and pro bono work.
At the beginning of each New Year, I enjoy in pausing for just a moment to reflect on the year past and consider the possibilities that lie ahead. I am energized by the relevance of public relations to the marketing mix and at the corporate level, and by the increased sophistication of our discipline.
While it’s impossible to forecast the future, working with Ketchum counselors from around the world, there are 12 communication trends we are putting forward for your consideration for 2012. They are included in the video here. Hope you will take a moment to view it and that you will share your point of view and comments.
It was back in the summer of 1986 that Ketchum first brought to life a camp experience for promising up-and-coming employees as a way to build an esprit de corps among this group of Ketchum future leaders – helping them develop as leaders as well as learn about Ketchum methodologies and all we have to offer clients. Our world, and, of course, Ketchum, were different places then. Reagan, Gorbachev and Thatcher were on the international stage; U2 and Bono topped the charts; Argentina took the World Cup; and Germany was still divided into East and West. There was no Facebook, no blogs. In fact, IBM just unveiled the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer. Ketchum, for its part, was a fraction of the size it is today but had already earned a reputation for being a creative agency with great collaborative spirit and a strong commitment to professional development. Our culture had already become distinct.
Creativity. When I look back, that’s what I first loved about our industry, and it still thrills me. Finding an idea that’s truly new, fresh, bold. In a business, media, and cultural landscape that’s never been more complex and crowded, innovative thinking is now more important than ever. For me, that’s always been the challenge and, simply, the fun of it – the chance to break through.
The art and science of public relations have never been more sophisticated and effective. Or as we’ve called it in the past, “passion and precision.” Today, clients are looking for the big idea, and they are happy for it to come from anywhere. More often than in the past, those ideas that provide business impact are coming from public relations.
The Ketchum culture is rich with a restless and relentless spirit of creativity. A determination to see if we can’t turn something to the light in a different way, or to turn it on its head altogether, to drive positive perceptions – to inform, to surprise, to delight. Creativity has been in the Ketchum DNA from the beginning. Today, we are expanding that focus, in all directions, 360 degrees.
We match this with an equal focus on our left brain as well. Our analytical insight into every practice area is as deep as ever. Our leadership in measurement remains fundamental. The best idea in the world goes nowhere without flawless execution, the organizational skill to bring it to the world. We’re also acutely aware of the need to integrate what we do with every other internal and external player that contributes to what a brand, or a company, or an institution communicates about itself to the world.
Today, the words I mentioned – “break through” – are our core promise, and they’re also a series of eight striking images, which are available at Ketchum.com. A suitor on one knee represents “Earn engagement.” A kid frisking a British bobby, “Provoke searches.” A bird in flight composed entirely of other birds in flight, “Mobilize movements.” They are images we see as a kind of visual genetic code of who we are, and I think their humor and vitality show a bit of how much we love what we do, too. Indeed, the fact that the entire campaign was developed and designed by Ketchum people working across continents is better evidence of that than any.
I’ve been at Ketchum for nearly 30 years. It’s been an amazing journey, but never more so than right now. In the past few years, we’ve become a profoundly global agency, with the most significant step being our partnership with Pleon that formed Ketchum Pleon in Europe. I think that this decision, and other partnerships and acquisitions that have followed, exemplifies the kind of thinking on behalf of clients that is our past, present and future.
So many walls have come down, geographically, culturally. You can reach just about anyone, anywhere, but so can just about anyone else. The deluge of information in front of all of us, all the time, is in a sense a new wall. To break through it, you have to think in all directions. Any note of complacency – “This has always worked in the past, this is how we did it last time” – will not serve a client sufficiently. Experience counts, sure, knowing what’s worked in the past. But that’s just the ground under your feet. We want our clients to take off – to fly. To break through.
Marshall McLuhan’s prediction of nearly 50 years ago that we would be living in a Global Village — that the media will create common and shared experiences among everyone on the planet — was amazingly farsighted. We see clear evidence of this most every day now, with recent events in Tunisia, Egypt and now the broader Middle East as the latest — and certainly a most dramatic example of — McLuhan’s vision. But today with the proliferation of social media and its near worldwide presence and power, we also are seeing this relatively new media channel drive new behaviors, as well. In one moment, 6.8 billion of us seem to be riding the broad McLuhan media currents commonly shared by all but a few. In the next moment, we return to and spend time in smaller, highly defined communities or networks in which narrower bands of individuals from places throughout the world unite digitally and create, send, receive and react to information of specific interest — media tribalism, as McLuhan’s work suggested.
Welcome to Ketchum's blog portal, where we capture the opinions and insights of several of our employees on a variety of communications topics. We are proud to participate in the sharing of thoughts and ideas about our industry. Read More.