Recap: Media & Public Relations Best Practices

Business Wire and Black PR Wire recently launched their joint Minority Leadership Series, in honor of Black History Month, with a webinar entitled Media & Public Relations Best Practices.

This 90-minute event, co-moderated by Bernadette Morris, President and CEO of Black PR Wire; and Raschanda Hall, Global Media Relations Manager for Business Wire, highlighted the communications and targeting strategies of professionals at three different types of organizations:

• The Corporate View: Racquel White, Communications Director, The Coca-Cola Company Eurasia and Africa Group
• The Small Business/Agency View: David Rudd, Vice President, The Axis Agency
• The Government View: Althea Harris, Esq., Assistant District Director for Marketing and Outreach, Area 1, U.S. Small Business Administration

After an introduction in which reasons to target minority markets worldwide were discussed, each speaker discussed his or her own programs and successes in outreach and communications.

Among the highlights:

• Coca-Cola takes a local approach to most of its campaigns, and encourages its consumers to engage with the brand or their own communities and talents via contests, challenges and other approaches.

• The Axis Agency, a multicultural PR firm, recently completed a successful campaign for Disney Interactive Studios by using a multi-channel strategy developed over several months.

• The Small Business Agency works with cities, chambers of commerce and other organizations to help leverage local expertise for their programs.  A recent partnership with the City of Miami resulted in a 350% increase in loans to underserved communities over five years.

For in-depth details on these and other strategies discussed by the panelists, please listen to the archived webinar (you will need Windows Media Player 9 or higher); and follow the #bwevents hashtag on Twitter to keep up with future Business Wire events.