1. Could you please introduce yourself.
My name is Gurova Valentina Aleksandrovna, I’m the head of the “PR-Alliance” agency.
2. How did you become an independent PR-unit? How did you become the first person in the PR agency: because of its establishment or as a result of a job promotion? What do you think is more interesting?
I started working in PR-field in 1999, when this kind of activity was just picking up momentum in Russia. At that time the most demanded PR-direction was politics.
In the early 2000s, I got an idea to open my own agency with a slightly different direction – my interests were in such spheres as social activities, charity, culture, art, and of course, show business. Let’s say, I noted that there was a certain vacuum in this area so I decided to go in for this niche.
That way the “PR-Alliance” company was founded in 2002.
As for now my team develops PR programs both for individuals and organizations, including large industrial and investment companies.
3. Is it possible to study the profession of a PR-specialist? Or it should be a kind of a calling? Please tell us your experience.
From my point of view, it is more about vocation. In the PR-field you need to have a good head for business, developed intuition and an impeccable sense of taste. There is no university where you can study such things.
4. Please tell us more about your specialization? What or whom do you promote? Why in this way? What successes did you have?
We organize PR-support for public people, projects, companies – for everyone and everything that does not contradict our principles, moral norms and the legislation of the Russian Federation. The range of our scope is quite wide.
We promote professional photo models and artists as well as mentalists and politicians.
A striking example of our PR-team work is the performance of Natalia Pereverzeva (the Beauty of Russia-2011) at the Miss Earth competition, when her fiery speech caused a strong public response. Then the whole world started talking about Russia. And I, being Natalya’s agent, got phone calls day and night from journalists from all over the world. All of them wanted to interview her.
5. Can you remember your unsuccessful PR-case? What experience have you got from it?
We had a case when our client was eager to develop a PR-company
simultaneously in two directions: politics and show business. Many projects did not match each other as a concept, and some of them wholly contracted each other.
As a politician, the client promoted timeless values, patriotism and abstemious lifestyle. At the same time as a star of a glamorous TV show he updated Instagram with pictures that showed him as a party person and a spender. As a result, we managed to tame his ardour and convince the client to give up such a “double” life.
6. How do you choose employees for your company? What is more beneficial: personal qualities (what sort of?) or professional (experience or education, what is more important)?
Our company is a team of professionals who have been working in the PR- field for years and have accumulated considerable experience in marketing, advertising and design.
In addition to high professionalism we demand special personal characteristics as we have to work with people and good communication skills are a vital necessity for each specialist. Perhaps this is why there is always a creative and friendly atmosphere in our company. We grow together, gain experience, celebrate victories and overcome difficulties.
7. How do you answer questions such as “what do you do?” for example, of strangers, relatives or friends. Do you answer honestly and give a mini-lecture “What PR is” or in another way?
Today it is just enough to say that you are a PR-specialist, there is no need to explain this term. Usually, the next response to my answer is questions about a specific area and famous clients. However, 10 years ago I really had to explain what kind of job I had.
8. Please define PR as short as possible three times:
PR is informational support that opens the way for professional growth of specialists from different fields, development of organizations and companies, and the solution of specific problems and tasks.
PR is a powerful weapon on the information battlefield.
PR is the directed action of the information stream of the required characteristic.
9. Could you please recommend books (business and fiction), movies and probably TV shows, that influenced your development as a PR-professional?
As my career began with political PR, I’ll give an example from this very area – the movie “Wag the Dog” by Barry Levinson made a deep impression on me. This is practically a chrestomathy on how to conduct PR properly.
10. Who is the perfect PR-expert in your opinion? (It can be a composite character of certain qualities or you can name real persons from Russia and abroad. It can be people beyond the world of PR, for example, Vladimir Putin or Steve Jobs).
I am always pleasantly surprised by Apple PR companies. They create excitement regarding its next new product so skillfully: slight modifications in devices are presented to us as a breakthrough of the century and technical revolution at least once a year. My hat’s off to Apple!
11. What gives you a feeling of pleasure at work? Haven’t you lost interest and taste for this business? Is it your favorite kind of work?
Like any other specialist in any business, most of all I like to see results of my work, for example a publication in a magazine with our client or a video that is broadcasted on all TV channels.
Well, and of course, to hear from the client a simple “Thank you!” with a joyful smile – this gives me a feeling of inspiration!
12. Would you like your children to follow in your professional footsteps?
I haven’t thought about this issue yet, because everything is changing so rapidly – in the PR business, in Russia. They will make up their mind themselves. In any case, I’m fine with that.
13. What would you wish for future PR-specialists, and separately for the PR-maestros?
I want to wish rising stars of the PR business healthy impudence and ability to find something really special in their client: smartness, kindness, interest. First you need to fall in love with the client yourself, and only then make the whole world lose its heart to him/her!
I’d like to give PR-dinosaurs an imaginative surfboard so that they can maneuver on the waves of ever-changing fashion, public sentiment and new technologies.