The next chapter for S&A Communications

This year marks the beginning of two new chapters in my career. After 35 years, our founder will be taking a step back and turning the business over to my partner and me. This has been in the works for years but reality is now setting in. I’ve treated this company like my own for more than a decade, both fiscally and emotionally. Our founder, Ron Smith, APR, has taught me to look to the future and, in good times and bad, never be afraid to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Working with clients in a variety of industries around the country and helping them exceed their corporate goals and objectives is gratifying. But I have also worked to play a significant role in the advancement of our industry and our agency. I’ve chaired industry associations and a number of other boards, but as I venture into the next phase of ownership, I’ve embarked upon the task of taking our agency beyond our current footprint.

I’ve been developing relationships with agency owners throughout the country and Canada for many years through Counselors Academy, a section of the Public Relations Society of America made up of more than 300 thought leaders in our industry who help shape the future of public relations. Through my involvement with this group, I learned of the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) and how PR networks can exponentially expand reach and expertise.

I was invited to pitch S&A as the North Carolina agency in late 2016 and, after thoughtful consideration, I traveled to the bi-annual PRGN meeting in Dallas in April 2017 to present to the full membership. As good fortune would have it, we were accepted.

Clients across six continents depend on the combined resources of the network to deliver targeted public relations campaigns in markets around the world. With revenues of more than $110 million U.S., PRGN is one of the world’s largest international public relations networks. PRGN harnesses the resources of 50 independent public relations firms and more than 900 communications professionals to connect international companies and organizations with individual and culturally diverse markets globally.

This not only offers S&A access to deep industry expertise across all verticals, it allows us to be a Southeast extension of 49 other U.S. and international agencies. We’re looking forward to working with our partners to develop business in our region, and to contributing expertise and resources to campaigns around the world.

I fully expect both of these new chapters to be successful, but I’m most excited about being able to be flexible and nimble enough to compete with the largest multinational agencies. By having hundreds of professionals in every vertical to build our client teams around, we have the ability to provide the highest level of public relations and marketing consultation for our current and future clients.