Do you think social media is a fad?
Have a look at the video.
Saturday 21 May 2011
Friday 20 May 2011
A tragicomic video about a trainee
While these days non paid internship programmes are being discussed; to share this tragicomic video below which a Turkish communication firm made for so called an internship ad in a sarcastic way would be meaningful.
http://webtv.hurriyet.com.tr/2/16656/0/1/stajyer-ilani-icin-klip-yaptilar.aspx
TURKEY HEADS UPWARDS
 | The PR sector in Turkey is booming.Sconaid McGeachin is optimistic about business prospects in a market where the demand for PR services is evolving fast. |
Record economic growth in Turkey, 9.9% according to the OECD in 2005, is having a dramatic effect on the development of the public relations industry in the country. The significant progress Turkey has made in overall economic and political modernisation combined with the vision of entering the European Union have opened new horizons and major opportunities in the fields of communications and marketing.
Following growth of 20% on 2005 the PR sector is predicted to grow by a staggering 60% in 2006. It is apparent that companies on the Turkish market have truly begun to understand the need for and the importance of a clear PR strategy as part of their overall businesses development.
Until recently, the local perception of PR activities has been purely in terms of media relations. This has now changed as many leading companies in the market have launched major investments into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects, CEO and corporate reputation management programs as part of wider strategic communication plans. The result has been an awareness of the wider public relations activity portfolio available.
Private sector application of PR activities has developed more rapidly than in the public sector. Recently however the Turkish public sector has understood the necessity of communicating with wider public. In particular, driven by EU accession process, public institutions have started to apply PR solutions to communicate their messages to their target audiences.
The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) listed in its ‘2005 World Report’ the industries which made the greatest use and development of PR tools. Globally this was the IT, telecommunications, health and biotechnology sectors In Turkey it was the health, IT, construction, telecommunications and retail industries. The report also points out that in Turkey the second most demanded service has been crisis communications, while the worldwide trends put it further down the list.
Successful Crisis PR
The effectiveness of Turkish crisis PR was recently illustrated with the highly successful campaigns to restore public confidence in the country’s poultry industry following the bird flu scare. Leading celebrities and journalists, like Uğur Dündar, leant their support to the campaigns resulting in a swift end to the crisis.
International public relations companies aware of the key developments taking place in Turkey and the PR sector have also helped to drive the growth of the communication sector. The growing volume of FDI in the Turkish economy has resulted in a significant rise in the number of trans-national communication companies competing in the Turkish marketplace.
Such development has had a very positive impact as competition increases and the quality of services provided improves. Thanks to these dynamic changes in the market, clients are now able to choose from many high-quality PR companies and are able to feel more confident when entrusting their companies’ communication strategies to true PR experts.
Even with increased competition, most PR agencies remain small or medium sized businesses and it is very rare to find any business with more than 30 or 40 employees. Istanbul, as the country’s economic powerhouse, remains the most important location for PR activities with most agencies being based exclusively there.
Despite the growing sophistication of the market, media relations continue to top the list of most demanded services in Turkey. The success of Turkish PR agencies is usually measured by the coverage numbers, but PR professionals expect that the PR sector will soon be asked to offer a much wider range of services to their clients. The reason for this is the degradation of media as sources of trustworthy information. Turkish readers are becoming increasingly sceptical of the ‘ad-like’ articles in the country’s media.
Encouraging Research Findings
Institutions such as the Public Relations Consultancies Inc. of Turkey (PRCI) or the Turkish Public Relations Association (TUHID) try to improve the quality of the PR services provided by conducting various research to raise the overall industry awareness. One of these surveys of business leaders, media and PR representatives, conducted by the PRCI, discovered that public relations is considered as the most efficient sub-sector for satisfying communication needs by both customers and PR companies.
The results also showed that in Turkey, the business world believes that corporate communications consultancy, media relations, research and measurement will be the most important services in the following couple of years.
Corresponding to the global trend, online communications and social responsibility activities will continue to gain more importance. A striking result of the survey is that “strategic communications consultancy” and “public relations” are considered as two different professional areas and Turkish PR companies don’t have a common opinion on this issue.
Finally, the most important message for the PR industry is that all the three groups participating in the research agree that “corporate communications” is crucial for companies to achieve their business objectives, and hence most of the companies who currently do not cooperate with a PR agency plan to hire one in the near future. That’s hopefully good news for all of us!
Author's Details
CURRENT PR ANALYSIS OF TURKEY
by Feray AlpayPromedia Public Relations Company
While the whole world is affected by the economic crisis, what are the developments within the Turkish PR sector in recent years?
Companies in Turkey appreciated the magic of public relations in recent years, and began transferring a part of their advertising budgets to public relations activities.
Turkish economy achieved the growth of 9.9% in the year 2005. Between the years 2002-2006 it grew by 7.1% which displays a performance far beyond the world average.
In the year 2006 Turkish economy reached to 59th place, jumping 12 ranks in Global Competition Index compared to the year 2005. It was included in the biggest 21 economy of the world with its volume of 400 billion dollars. However, estimated to be 60 billion dollars in the world, turnover of public relation sector is below 100 million dollars. Although it achieved a growth of 15% in average during 2000's, turnover of public relations sector in Turkey being so low is due to fact that importance of public relations is underestimated by the Turkish companies.
Programmed itself to grow on efficiency and higher competition, Turkish industry and service sector invest increasingly in communication activities, primarily in advertising. As a natural result of this PR sector displays an uninterrupted growth at least in terms of turnover for the last 5 years. In the survey conducted by ICCO covering 22 countries including Turkey, Turkey became the country with the highest sectoral income increase compared to the previous year. Turkish public relations sector displayed an increase of 27% compared to the year 2007. It is estimated that such increase will continue in the year 2008 as well.
After 2001 financial crisis in Turkey, thousands of media employees were discharged. In this period many journalists shifted to PR sector, established their own companies, and began to obtain shares from the cake. Therefore, the fact that demand for and supply of public relations services has been increasing in Turkey within the last five years, led to competition being focused highly on price parameter. While the Public Relations sector is growing, with the increase in number of players, profits decreased. Emergence of public relation companies of quality to pioneer institutionalization of public relations sector in Turkey became more difficult.
Despite the large scale privatizations and foreign companies' investments in Turkey, 99% of economic activities are still carried out by SME's which preserve their quality of family business. Therefore, companies in public relations field are mainly foreign companies and holdings. Their public relations activities are seen especially in the sectors of pharmaceutics, personal care, food, finance, information, recreation and automotive.
Situation of PR agencies providing public relations service in Turkey conforms to this picture. According to TUHÝD-ÝDA survey, 44% PR agencies create a turnover over 500 thousand dollars. Only 25% of the agencies can obtain consultancy income over 500 thousand dollars. 57% of the agencies have clients less than 10, and they employ 16 people in average. Top three communication services they provide are media relations, corporate social responsibility works, public relation for products and brands. Indeed fields of service in which demand is considered to be increased are respectively media relations (94%), activity management (74%), corporate social responsibility works (69%) and product and brand public relations (66%). In this scene rate of firms of which communication consultancy income actually exceed USD 1,000,000 is only 14%.
These figures explain us that "PR sector in Turkey obtain their income mainly from operational PR services they provide to their clients. Instead of corporate communication consultancy such as reputation management, perception management, crisis management, they concentrate on company and product publicity."
This case is due to demand from clients receiving public relations service in Turkey. Clients place media relations (96.3%) and activity management (92.6%) in the first two ranks of service they receive, and these are followed respectively by corporate internal communication (92.6%) — which is mainly provided by the companies' own corporate communication departments — and communication of products and brands (92.5%).
In short, in Turkey it is possible to mention a PR sector led by the client demands.
Turkish economy achieved the growth of 9.9% in the year 2005. Between the years 2002-2006 it grew by 7.1% which displays a performance far beyond the world average.
In the year 2006 Turkish economy reached to 59th place, jumping 12 ranks in Global Competition Index compared to the year 2005. It was included in the biggest 21 economy of the world with its volume of 400 billion dollars. However, estimated to be 60 billion dollars in the world, turnover of public relation sector is below 100 million dollars. Although it achieved a growth of 15% in average during 2000's, turnover of public relations sector in Turkey being so low is due to fact that importance of public relations is underestimated by the Turkish companies.
Programmed itself to grow on efficiency and higher competition, Turkish industry and service sector invest increasingly in communication activities, primarily in advertising. As a natural result of this PR sector displays an uninterrupted growth at least in terms of turnover for the last 5 years. In the survey conducted by ICCO covering 22 countries including Turkey, Turkey became the country with the highest sectoral income increase compared to the previous year. Turkish public relations sector displayed an increase of 27% compared to the year 2007. It is estimated that such increase will continue in the year 2008 as well.
After 2001 financial crisis in Turkey, thousands of media employees were discharged. In this period many journalists shifted to PR sector, established their own companies, and began to obtain shares from the cake. Therefore, the fact that demand for and supply of public relations services has been increasing in Turkey within the last five years, led to competition being focused highly on price parameter. While the Public Relations sector is growing, with the increase in number of players, profits decreased. Emergence of public relation companies of quality to pioneer institutionalization of public relations sector in Turkey became more difficult.
Despite the large scale privatizations and foreign companies' investments in Turkey, 99% of economic activities are still carried out by SME's which preserve their quality of family business. Therefore, companies in public relations field are mainly foreign companies and holdings. Their public relations activities are seen especially in the sectors of pharmaceutics, personal care, food, finance, information, recreation and automotive.
Situation of PR agencies providing public relations service in Turkey conforms to this picture. According to TUHÝD-ÝDA survey, 44% PR agencies create a turnover over 500 thousand dollars. Only 25% of the agencies can obtain consultancy income over 500 thousand dollars. 57% of the agencies have clients less than 10, and they employ 16 people in average. Top three communication services they provide are media relations, corporate social responsibility works, public relation for products and brands. Indeed fields of service in which demand is considered to be increased are respectively media relations (94%), activity management (74%), corporate social responsibility works (69%) and product and brand public relations (66%). In this scene rate of firms of which communication consultancy income actually exceed USD 1,000,000 is only 14%.
These figures explain us that "PR sector in Turkey obtain their income mainly from operational PR services they provide to their clients. Instead of corporate communication consultancy such as reputation management, perception management, crisis management, they concentrate on company and product publicity."
This case is due to demand from clients receiving public relations service in Turkey. Clients place media relations (96.3%) and activity management (92.6%) in the first two ranks of service they receive, and these are followed respectively by corporate internal communication (92.6%) — which is mainly provided by the companies' own corporate communication departments — and communication of products and brands (92.5%).
In short, in Turkey it is possible to mention a PR sector led by the client demands.
Feray Alpay is a public relations and corporate communications specialist
in Turkey. He has been working as General Manager at
Promedia Public Relations Co. since 1992.
For further information on public relations in Turkey visit
www.promedia.com.tr
in Turkey. He has been working as General Manager at
Promedia Public Relations Co. since 1992.
For further information on public relations in Turkey visit
www.promedia.com.tr
Very nice article in terms of PR process of a developing country: Turkey
Developing economic structure of Turkey is a fact known by most organizations and countries across the world. However, when it is elaborated that how much PR sector has a share of the development pie, variety of factors should be taken into consideration. With an increasing rate of a number of veteran journalists who entered the PR sector and established their own companies, focusing on prices for the industry competition rather than effective interaction between organizations and customers can be assume as one of the factors mentioned below.
Quo Vadis Turkish PR?
 | The Turkish PR market continues to grow but competition among agencies has put pressure on margins and there are concerns that many local clients do not fully grasp the benefits the discipline can deliver. By A. Cem İlhan. |
What are the developmental trends in the Turkish PR sector? Coming up with a clear answer to this question is both easy and hard.
The easier part of the answer is connected to growth. After a severe economic crisis in 2001, triggered by the collapse of the financial sector, the Turkish economy has grown by 7.1% on average between 2002-2006, performing well over the world average. Today, the Turkish economy is one of the top 20 economies in the world with a GDP of approximately USD 400 billion.
A Chaotic Growth Trend
After the 2001 crisis, Turkish manufacturing and the services industries, which set high growth targets for themselves on the basis of productivity and higher competitiveness, invested heavily in communications, particularly in advertising. Naturally, the PR sector, in turn, has shown continuous growth at least in terms of revenues for the last four years.
Yet, it is highly questionable how healthy this growth has been. It is hard to deny that the firms in the industry have grown or increased their profitability.
In fact, after the crisis, with large-scale layoffs in the Turkish media, a considerable number of veteran journalists entered the PR sector and claimed a share of the pie as they established their own companies. Consequently, competition in the industry has largely focused on price. In short, while the total revenues of the industry increased, profitability declined considerably due to the proliferation of new firms. This in turn hindered the emergence of firms of scales that could pioneer further institutionalization of the industry.
The harder part of the answer concerns where the Turkish PR sector is heading from a professional perspective. The Communication Industry Perception Study commissioned by the Turkish Public Relations Association and the Communications Consultancy Companies Association on October 19, 2006 provides us with important clues on the issue.
The Turkish PR Market
The Turkish business environment has a structure dominated by large, mainly family-owned conglomerates. On the other hand over 90 percent of the active firms are Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Two important and new developments that changed this picture are the major privatizations and the inflow of foreign direct investment on an unprecedented scale.
Finally, although there is a very vibrant Stock Exchange in Istanbul, going public is not yet a widespread practice among Turkish companies.
In this market, the driving force of the Turkish PR industry’s customer portfolio consists of Istanbul-based conglomerates and their subsidiaries, global companies, services and retail companies aimed at niche markets. Outstanding sectors are FMCG, consumer durables, automotive, construction, finance and information technologies.
A notable fact of the fast growth, post-2001 economic crisis period has been the emergence of PR services as a sine qua non for large companies. Parallel to this development was the new found enthusiasm of SMEs that produce goods and services for domestic consumption for PR services. The cutthroat pricing policies of the new PR companies that filled the industry also contributed to this expansion of demand for PR services.
What Does The Industry Think?
Which services does the PR sector offer in the face of these trends?
The results of the TUHÐD-ÐDA poll with 65 companies are pretty objective: 44% of PR agencies (that is almost half of the industry) have annual revenues of over USD 500,000. Consultancy services are very limited. Only 25% of the agencies receive consultancy fees that exceed USD 500,000. A great majority (57%) serves 1 to 10 companies; employs 16 people on average.
Among the communications services they provide, media relations, corporate social responsibility efforts, and product and brand public relations take the top three slots. Likewise, the services for which they believe there is an increase in demand are media relations (94%), event management (74%), corporate social responsibility efforts (69%) and product and brand public relations (66%). In this broad picture, realistically speaking, the ratio of companies whose communications consultancy fees exceed USD 1 million is just about 14%.
In short, the picture we have of the industry is as follows: The Turkish PR industry makes most of its income through the operational PR services it provides to its customers.
Professional Development
In terms of professional development, this picture has a very clear meaning. In Turkey, just as in most of the rest of the world despite great efforts by pioneers of the profession to alter the situation, PR is yet to be acknowledged as a communications device. It is rather recognized as a service that concentrates on the promotion of companies and products. The answers given by the representatives of the sector in the above-mentioned opinion poll also confirms this.
The representatives of the PR industry have a rather gloomy opinion of the managers they serve. Only 42% believe that their clients appreciate the importance of communications strategies to obtain business results. The three services where they expect to see a significant increase in demand are media relations; event management and corporate social responsibility.
Agreeing with the PR professionals’ assessment, the clients cite media relations and event management as their top two priorities; they place corporate internal communications and product and brand communication to the third and fourth ranks, respectively.
It is noteworthy that for a great majority of the firms receiving PR services, more abstract tasks such as reputation management, subject and crisis management do not even appear on the charts.
As for expectations, although customers emphasize the importance of reputation management, their projections for their future demands on extra-advertising communications activities highlight five areas:
- Online communications
- Corporate social responsibility
- Lobbying
- Sponsorship management
- Direct Marketing
Yet most corporate CEOs expect their communications executives to have heightened competence on issues such as crisis management, to follow the agenda more closely, and to be better informed on economic and political matters. The communications executives’ top expectations from the PR professionals are operational issues such as adherence to the time schedule/delivering on promises, followed by creativity, creation of solutions and strategic thinking. Last but not least they want the quality of the services to be on par with their price.
Conclusion
Although certain contradictions are apparent, the picture on the customer front actually complements the assessments of the professionals of the PR sector. The PR industry undergoes the convulsions of institutionalization just as it tries to offer higher value added services to its clients. While struggling in the search to provide itself and its customers with value-added services on the one hand, the Turkish PR sector goes through the pains of institutionalization on the other.
In this sense, two important questions come forth that might have a defining impact on the future of the Turkish PR sector.
First is the international PR networks’ approach to the Turkish market. There is a rather curious situation here. The list of the top ten firms in the Turkish advertising industry is dominated by international companies. Multinationals are lining up to invest in Turkey. Yet in the PR industry, notwithstanding occasional memberships in networks, there is almost no foreign capital investment.
Second, and more importantly, is the direction chosen by the Turkish PR industry as it develops its growth channels in a buzzing economy and learns to take its customers expectations into account. Here, the most important parameter is the appropriateness of the service provided to the fee paid.
The Author's Details
Resource: http://www.ipra.org/archivefrontlinedetail.asp?articleid=12
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