Though Andrea Kurys has only been in the public relations industry from about a year and a half, she has had a lot of experience elsewhere. Andrea graduated from OU in 2005 with a B.A. Journalism. She worked for KTEN News as a bureau reporter for two years, covering Oklahoma news in eight counties. After two years, Andrea said she had enough with the news industry and decided to tackle the PR industry. Currently, Andrea is an Account Executive with Crosby-Volmer International Public Relations in Oklahoma City.
The firm is based in Washington D.C., and has many locations around the U.S., one being in Oklahoma City. On a daily basis Andrea is responsible for new business development, following up with national media on the latest real-estate reports, searching and applying for RFPs, reading local news and searching for news opportunities for our clients, and managing office interns. Since the firm is based in D.C., they have many national clients, and of course some locally. The Oklahoma City office currently handles national media relations for the Oklahoma City Mayor, Mick Cornett and also the city of Oklahoma City. Andrea said their office has had a lot of success pitching the Oklahoma City diet and Oklahoma City as the nation’s most recession proof city.
The OKC office is also continuing a national consumer awareness campaign for the DTV transition, which was supposed to happen on February 17th of this year. That has been extended until June, so they are pushing to generate more awareness to people who have been procrastinating with the converter boxes. One of their biggest clients is a company that gathers and analyzes national real estate data. In OKC, Andrea handles national media relations for them as well. And if this is not enough to keep her busy, she personally, does pro-bono PR for Best Friends of Pets, an animal welfare organization in OKC.
Andrea said her favorite client so far has been Warren Theatre in Moore. They were hired last spring to handle their grand opening and PR surrounding the event. It was a lot of fun to come up with a creative way to attract media attention. She said they hand-delivered giant film reels filled with popcorn and a formal invitation to key members of the media at every OKC area newspaper, TV station and magazine. They also threw a giant VIP party the night before the grand opening, complete with hundreds of people, red carpet and limos. It was a very rewarding experience and resulted in dozens of articles and TV stories; overall, the client was pleased and Andrea said it didn't even seem like work!
Andrea said a PR professional needs social skills, such as an outgoing personality, ability to work well with all kinds of people, can be a self-motivator, excellent writing skills and experience with Microsoft Office Suite. Her advice for PR professional is to stay current with emerging trends, such as the current social media craze that is going on with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. She said it is very important to learn how to use these platforms to maximize your companies worth to their clients.
No comments:
Post a Comment