Vladimir Frolov, CEO, RIM Porter Novelli
Interview for PR week

Are there specific challenges that are exclusive to your country/region in terms of PR and communications work?

The Russian PR market is relatively new and people who understand what the PR-business is, or even interpret the term correctly, are still in the minority. Particularly if a word “PR-agency” is concerned. Since media is considered a main communication tool for PR managers, it’s worth mentioning that relations between media and PR people in Russia looks rather like confrontation than cooperation. Yet this tendency has a positive impact on the integration of Russian PR community.What also worth mentioning is that a small-scale business in not yet involved in PR activity.

What sectors provide the most opportunity for business and growth in your country/region?

Mining and raw materials processing prevailed in Russian economy for a long time. Still they perform constant growth and stability. Today the service sector presents more opportunities for business. Financial services, for example, are new and obscure for Russian consumers so there’s a necessity for them to be explained. And that is where PR comes in. The service area is expanding together with a people’s need in information about it.
Looking into the future, IT and tourism might also be taken into consideration. These two sectors are now very closely looked after by both government and business elite.

How much of the business out of your office is truly global in scope?

As they say, think global – act local. A lot of companies all over the world tend to have their business global. But when is comes to PR strategy, it has to be customized to every specific region/nation/community.Russia is presented worldwide by fuel, chemistry and metal-working businesses. Foreign trade turnover January to April 2007, estimated by Russian Ministry of economic development, totals $157,9 billion.

How would you describe the local media scene? How has it changed? What media outlets are especially important to you, from both a local and global perspective?

The Russian media scene has two main peculiarities: One, the Russian media business is highly concentrated in Moscow. Two, the level of journalist schooling is decreasing, especially in economic issues. Since the media market gained freedom in 1991, thousands of publications have been established. There are lots of names of papers and magazines, but very few of them have large circulation.As the media market is growing, media tend to be more focused and specialized. That is very helpful when you need to reach quite a compact and specific segment of stakeholders. A big job is now being done in Russia to regenerate regional and thematic media (such as children’s media or specific industrial media).The stumbling block of Russian media market is a television. National channels are few and satellite television’s presence in Russia is still very poor, especially in small localities.International media are not popular because of the language barrier. Therefore we now have many adapted international editions in Russian, such as “Newsweek”, “Forbes”, “Harvard Business Review” and “Business Week”.

How would you characterize the PR business in your country/region? Have there been any significant changes in the past few years?

The Russian PR market has recently survived a growth explosion. Now, following general economic stabilization, a balance between demand and supply seems to be found. The PR market is constantly growing as Russian business tends to be more open to the media and the media starts respecting business. About 10 years ago, a career in PR was enormously popular, especially in the practice of political consulting. Now the fashion has gone but there are a lot of people who were educated in PR following the wave of popularity. It’s a common thought that Russian PR is mostly about media-relations and sponsoring, and things such as social-oriented projects are a lot less popular. Still, research held among Russian PR managers discovered a growth of internal communications, crisis communications, government relations, and reputation management. Ten Russian companies reached the top 200 of America’s Reputation Institute ranking this year and hopefully it’s just a beginning.