Q. Communiqué PR just came up on an anniversary, its fourth. The two of you are sisters and began the agency together. Please share a little personal history about your respective backgrounds and what prompted your starting the agency.

Jennifer: I started in PR in 1991 with a boutique agency where I worked in a variety of positions. Then I went to work for Waggener Edstrom in business development, and I loved it. I have a lot of respect for Waggener and learned a great deal while I was there. But when two of our grandparents died within a couple months in 2003, it made me realize life is not long. It was an impetus to develop a business plan and move on to pursue exactly what I wanted. Colleen was a huge support in this, and brought so much wisdom and perspective to building the business plan and founding Communiqué PR. I could not have started this company without her.

Colleen: Before I helped bring Communiqué PR into being, I worked on the product side with RealNetworks, where as part of my role, I was focused on influencing audiences through grassroots methods, specifically, the Mac community. However, I realized I wasn’t pursuing something I felt passionate about. When our grandparents died, it seemed important to take a risk and pursue something I was passionate about, but not just for me. I have two young children and I wanted to be able to demonstrate to them the work I do is something I feel passion for.

Q. Your website refers to your agency as a 'boutique' agency. What exactly does that mean and who and what is Communiqué PR’s primary focus?

Boutique literally means small shop, and that describes Communiqué PR. As a smaller PR firm, we provide benefits and differences in service from big firms. There’s less overhead, so costs are lower, and clients are ensured they will be able to work with the leaders of the firm, securing our strategic counsel in addition to our team’s tactical support. The smallness of the firm means that clients receive personal care, and they know the people on their team. Also, if one of their team members is unavailable, they know they can call anyone in the firm for assistance.

Q. I was interested to read the blog on your site – especially the YouTube video featuring Texas State Senator Kirk Watson displaying his ignorance on Hardball about the presidential candidate he was endorsing. It made me wonder how much coaching is involved with your clients so that nothing of the sort ever happens with them.

Coaching varies from client to client. The interesting thing is, spokespersons can believe they are really well prepared to do an interview because they’ve done so many in the past and know the ropes. It’s easy to forget to prepare for a specific interview. In advance of each interview, we try to educate and prepare our clients about the particular publication, with its point of view and the type of questions the journalist will likely ask. Then we try to talk with our client five to ten minutes before the actual interview, to help prepare him or her to be successful as we recognize you can not rely on the written materials alone. Clients have busy schedules and sometimes a few extra minutes verbally preparing with them can go a long way to a successful interview.

Q. This seems as if it might be a crucial year or so for those of us in the PR profession. I’m thinking of the economic downturn as well as a new administration’s advent. What changes if any do you predict for the PR industry?

We don’t think it will be business as usual however economic downturns can have a positive side. It forces clients to take a hard look at their PR dollars and if unhappy with the results, they seek out those firms who are performing above par. A economic downturn tends to force PR people to improve, which is always healthy for the industry.

We have heard from a few larger companies who were currently partnering with big multi-national agencies, but are now considering boutique agencies, such as ours, because the overhead and costs are lower and they believe their PR dollars will go farther.

There has also been an increase in the number of freelancers contacting us for work, which we believe is a direct impact of the current economic changes.

In terms of a presidential election year – because media is so focused on the presidential race and candidates, there is perhaps less attention paid to mainstream business stories. It hasn’t affected us as much because many of our clients are focused on technology. However, we anticipate this could change as technology writers also cover business. We are still early in the election year.

Q. Do you think the PR people behind the candidates tend to get assigned responsibility for the candidates’ sometimes questionable behavior? And if so, should they be?

PR Professionals always need to think of the impact of their advice and how their client will be perceived, based on what they do, and they always need to advocate for the right or ethical action. But in the instance of, say, Governor Spitzer’s behavior and subsequent resignation that is not something a PR professional could or should be held responsible for. It’s the messaging of the behavior a PR adviser shares accountability for.

Q. What are some of the best practices you see being used in PR today? Are these best practices different from those of 15 to 20 years ago?

Media relations is definitely very different now from 15 to 20 years ago. That was before the Internet and ready access to information. We used a physical clipping service 20 years ago. Time frames were longer. I think we had longer to digest information before we had to respond, and now lightning-quick responses are expected. It doesn’t always leave enough time to provide a thoughtful response.

So a best practice is to step back and give some time to a response. It’s also important to take time to think strategically about how a particular story fits into a long term narrative for a client.

Building consensus with stakeholders is a best practice and is important to remember. There can be a tendency to forget to obtain buy in on a strategy from others in the organization, but it’s important to socialize plans with a broad array of people.

Also, really understanding an organization’s business objectives, its target audiences and what it wants to achieve, and doing work based on that is also a best practice. There might be an aspect of what a client does that seems newsworthy, but if it doesn’t sustain their business, it’s a bad use of their resources.

Q. Communiqué PR was recently named one of Washington’s 'Best Places to Work' by Washington CEO Magazine. What makes your shop such a great place to work?

There are a number of reasons, but it starts with the people. We have an amazing team, and everyone on it shares a commitment to delivering service excellence to our clients. The team gives 110 percent to our clients. Results matter to everyone. But we also try to have balance and have some fun together, and connecting informally helps this.

Colleen and I try to be open about sharing information about the agency, including information about revenue and expenses, and the transparency gives a feeling of inclusion rather than exclusion – we’re in this together. The people here all know that what they are doing makes a difference and that helping client businesses be successful also helps Communiqué PR be successful. Team members also share in the financial rewards through bonuses.

Each fall we have a goal setting meeting offsite, and we set financial goals as well as other goals. We work as a team to do this. And we also look at our goals from the prior year to see how well they worked out. We are all working toward a common vision.

Q. Where would you like to see Communiqué PR in 10 years?

The most important thing for us is delivering great results, and that’s what we will continue doing. Growth is important, of course, but it’s more important to innovate, evolve, and create excellence for our clients and to tell their compelling stories. This is what we are most passionate about.