It’s perhaps ironic that while the business of public relations often aligns itself with the new, the creative and the state-of the-art, some of the most highly regarded, successful agencies serving the market today are themselves long established.
That’s the case with DDR Public Relations, a full-service PR/marketing firm celebrating 35 years in business this year and offering a comprehensive list of services including PR (earned media), branding, social media and digital marketing, crisis communications, graphic design, website development and management, e-marketing and special events.
The agency was established in 1989 in New York City by Dawn Dankner-Rosen, a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, who had started her public relations career at a boutique firm in Manhattan, Peter Martin Associates, a week after graduating and where she worked her way up the PR ladder. Prior to “going it alone,” Dankner-Rosen had been director of public relations for Foot Locker and 10 other retail brands at the Kinney Shoe Corp. In what might be regarded as an early break, Foot Locker actually helped her start her business by retaining her to work on one of their shoe divisions as her first PR account.
Public relations today, she said, has morphed into a completely different industry from what it was when she first started. She puts this down chiefly to technology. “We have so many more tools available today,” she explained. “When I started, generating media coverage and placements was most often done by pitching editors and producers over the phone, taking editors out to lunch or visiting their offices.” She recalled how she would frequently deliver photographs and press releases herself to TV and radio stations and magazine offices. While she lamented the demise of print media – and how many great journalists have had to leave the profession – she is quick to acknowledge that digital media has opened up a whole new world with an infinite amount of information, offering news in real time.
She is also upbeat about influencers, which is not always a given with many traditional public relations professionals.
“Influencer endorsements have become as important as media endorsements,” she said, “especially for some of my fashion clients. The power of earned media can never be underestimated.”
These days, her clients include both small and large companies across a wide range of industries, such as health care, fashion, professional and consumer services, education, real estate and nonprofits, and she is proud that most of them have been with her firm for a decade or longer. To name but four, DDR has been the agency of record for the Sunshine Children’s Home for 10 years, Access Nursing for 15 years, JP McHale Pest Management for almost 20 years and Prudential Financial for 28 years. “The list goes on,” she said.
As for taking on new clients, “yes, absolutely,” she added, “I always enjoy taking on a new client.”
One new project she is particularly excited about is launching a new fashion brand for the 18 to 34 year-old market, featuring clothing and apparel that is all pink “and seeing them grow from the point at which we start to track all the results.”
For more, visit ddrpr.com.
