Eastern European Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations

Other Voices

T. Watson

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781137404268
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: International Business
• Index: Business

The National Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations: Other Voices series is the first to offer an authentic world-wide view of the history of public relations. It features six books, five of which cover continental and regional groups. This second book in the series focuses on Eastern Europe.

1

Introduction

Tom Watson

Abstract: The commonality of political, social and economic systems in the nations of Eastern Europe until 1989 implies that there were shared or very similar experiences in the national development of public relations (PR). The breakdown of the Soviet bloc was followed in many nations by introduction of Western-style (or modern) PR practices. However, this book demonstrates different phenomena and interpretations as to when PR commenced or became identified as a defined practice. Some nations identify the arrival of PR as 1989 to 1991, whereas others tell of PR and PR-like practices for centuries and decades before, including the post-World War II era of communist or socialist management.

Keywords: democracy; economic propaganda; proto PR; public relations; propaganda; transition

Watson, Tom, ed. Eastern European Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations: Other Voices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. DOI: 10.1057/9781137404268.0004.

The commonality of political, social and economic systems would imply that there were shared or very similar experiences in the national development of public relations. This is evidenced in most chapters by the introduction of Western-style (or modern) PR practices at the beginning of the 1990s. Only Slovenia was immune to the arrival of international PR agencies, mainly owned by US organizations, as it was the smallest of nine nations in this volume.

However, these phenomena are interpreted differently. In the cases of Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine, the introduction of modern PR around 1990 is seen as the beginning of the national history. Ryszard Ławniczak, who has proposed the transitional model for PR in Eastern Europe (Ławniczak, Rydzak and Trębecki, 2003), commented that ‘the history of modern PR started with a transition from a centrally planned to a market economy and the shift from socialist democracy to a pluralist political system that began in the early 1990s’ (p. 259). In Russia, PR ‘has been actively been developing ... only in the last 30 years’, while ‘Bulgaria discovered PR after the changes to democracy in 1989’. In Croatia, PR ‘started to distinguish itself as a separate profession’ (from marketing and advertising) after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1990–1991 and Ukraine identifies its independence year of 1991 as the start of PR as an identifiable communication practice.

Although the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania also identify 1989 to 1991 as the time when Western PR was introduced, along with agencies, their chapters have identified a much longer history of antecedents and proto PR in the form of commercial publicity, economic propaganda and promotional activity in support of exports. The Romanian antecedents go back to the early 19th century for commercial, governmental and intellectual communication. The Bata shoe company of Czechoslovakia, after World War I, was innovative in both internal and external communication and, through the advocacy of its management, informed other commercial organizations. These chapters, and that of Slovenia, show that PR-like communication was widely applied before the introduction of regime propaganda and media controls after World War II. These regimes also used one-way PR to support the marketing and sales of exports to Western markets from the 1960s onwards, but disdained PR within their borders, referring to it in Czechoslovakia as ‘economic propaganda’. The term ‘public relations’ was also evident in Hungary from the 1960s, although considered as a ‘capitalist tool’. Denisa Hejlová, however, comments that ‘despite public relations being an English word, it has been used in professional practice since the 1960s’ and so indicates that concepts of PR were well known before the avalanche of Western PR practice in the final decade of the 20th century.

After the fall of the Communist and Tito regimes, the Western form of PR became ubiquitous in Central and Eastern Europe, with the exception of Slovenia where innovative practitioners introduced a managerial/strategic approach. The evidence from these chapters is that, after the initial period of governmental and democratic reform in the early 1990s when political communication was the main service introduced, PR has been conceived and operationalized as a form of promotional communication that was typically offered by agencies from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany (in that order). In Russia, it has a more governmental emphasis but in other countries PR is undertaken in forms that are internationally recognizable.

The historiographic interpretation, as noted earlier, has been in two clusters: those which see PR starting at similar point around 1990, and those which identify antecedents and prior experience. There is some use of periodization, mainly by timeline (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia). Thematic approaches, with emphases on education and institutionalization of PR, are used in other countries. Only the chapter on Poland has a specific historiographic model (transitional public relations) used to interpret national PR development.

Overall, there is no evidence of an Eastern European approach to PR which is rooted in the cultural, political and social norms of Central and Eastern Europe. Since the changes of 1989 to 1991, PR has been undertaken in a Western form that was strongly influenced by (mainly) US agencies and their clients who surged into the region. There are, of course, national variations with Russia’s emphasis on governmental relations being the most apparent. However, the international agencies and their increasingly successful national competitors mainly use technical delivery methods, notably media relations, that would be included in most International PR campaign strategies. Adela Rogojinaru summarizes this overview appropriately in her chapter: ‘Romanian PR represents a process of imitation of Western values, practices and doctrine’. This purview could be applied to most nations in the region.

Reference

Ławniczak, R., Rydzak, W., and Trębecki, J.(2003) ‘Public Relations in an Economy in Transition and Society in Transition: The Case of Poland’, in K. Sriramesh and D. Verčič (eds) Global Public Relations Handbook (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

2

Bulgaria

Dessislava Boshnakova

Abstract: Public relations (PR) practices in Bulgaria commenced around 1989 and developed quickly with strong American influence, although a national style has evolved. Bulgarian PR practitioners have shown themselves to be increasingly competitive in Europe and in international competitions. The institutionalization of PR has been supported by development of professional bodies, education and a limited amount of research and publishing. Research has found that PR practices have been mainly technical and implementational rather than strategic. There is strong association of PR as being equivalent to publicity, possibly as a result of its simultaneous introduction and development alongside Western-style advertising.

Keywords: advertising; American influence; Bulgaria; education; institutionalization; publicity

Watson, Tom, ed. Eastern European Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations: Other Voices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. DOI: 10.1057/9781137404268.0005.

Founded in 681, Bulgaria is one of the oldest states in Europe, located in the Balkans. A predominantly Slavic-speaking and Orthodox Christian country, Bulgaria was the birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet, which was created towards the end of the 9th century. After World War II, Bulgaria became a Communist state. The collapse of the Communist system in 1989 marked a turning point for the country’s development. Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007.

Entry of PR

For Bulgarians the most common name for public relations is vrazki s obshtestvenostta, the literal translation of the term. The English term ‘public relations’ is also widely used, especially in the short version of ‘PR’. The Bulgarian translation of the term is mostly used in government institutions, and the English term predominates in the private business sector.

Bulgaria discovered PR after the changes to democracy in 1989. The Bulgarian media sociologist Todor Petev noted this trend:

In Western societies public relations emerged and developed to meet the needs of business corporations and their customers, whereas in the young democracies of Eastern Europe it appeared as a necessary means of reorganization and stabilization of social interactions and relations in a period of total crisis. (cited in Bentele et al., 2002, p. 32)

PR appeared in Bulgaria almost simultaneously with the development of the advertising sector and is one of the reasons there are still difficulties in describing the differences between the two promotional communication practices. The first PR specialists in Bulgaria started work in the field of politics. The newly established political parties in the 1990s needed spokespersons, media relations and event organizers. These early PR practitioners came from journalism which led to another perception problem: the impression that PR and media relations were synonymous.

Another development in Bulgaria was the know-how that global companies brought. With the democratization of the economy many international communication agencies entered the economy. In addition to their products, they brought methods of doing business in which PR had an established role and duties. That influenced Bulgarian practice in two ways: First, the global companies trained their staff in PR practices and, second, international communication networks opened their national operations up to new knowledge and business models.

Education

Education in PR and advertising started simultaneously with the evolution of these communication practices. In March 1991, the Department of Mass Communication of the newly established first private university in Bulgaria, New Bulgarian University (NBU) in Sofia, opened its first three-year experimental course in PR as a separate specialty in which students graduated with the qualification title of ‘Public Relations Specialist’. It was five of the first group of NBU graduates who set up the first Bulgarian private PR agency, Prime Agency. In 1994–1995, the first 50 full-time and correspondence students started PR studies at Sofia University’s Faculty of Journalism & Mass Communication. In late 1995, UNESCO and Sofia University signed a contract for the foundation of the UNESCO Department of Communication and Public Relations which was headed by Associate Professor Todor Petev. PR has since then become a popular career choice. By 2014, there were more than 10 universities offering bachelor degrees in the PR and communication field.

Professional structure

In 1996, the first Bulgarian professional association, the Bulgarian Public Relations Society (BPRS), was founded. It is a voluntary non-profit organization whose members are practitioners and teachers in the field of PR, marketing, communication and advertising. BPRS adopted a Code of Professional Standards, derived from codes of other public relations organizations. Its initial chairperson was Todor Petev. The first annual award for PR best practices was held by BPRS in 2001. In 2005 BPRS became a member of the Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management and, in the following year, the first BPRS PR Festival was organized.

In 1998, the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) opened a branch in Bulgaria. Although Bulgaria is a small country, the national IPRA branch there has been very active. In 2002, Maria Gergova, managing director of United Partners, became an IPRA board member. In the next year, United Partners was the first Bulgarian agency to win an IPRA World Golden Award for its BGTeen.info corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign for Procter & Gamble. Gergova was elected as IPRA President for 2009, the first time in IPRA’s 50 year history that its president was a representative of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). At the same time Gergova was its youngest-ever president. IPRA activity remains still high and in 2013 the Bulgarian branch organized a CEE conference with the topic of ‘Unleashing the power of smart communications’.

In 2001, the Bulgarian Association of Public Relations Agencies (BAPRA) was established by four of the major agencies: APRA Porter Novelli, Janev&Janev, Marc Communications and United Partners. BAPRA’s membership has since grown to 17. In 2005, BAPRA joined the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO), the voice of public relations consultancies around the world. In 2010, BAPRA started its BAPRA Bright Awards. Every year an international judging committee evaluates the most successful Bulgarian PR campaigns.

In 2004, the M3 Communications Group became the first PR and marketing company in Bulgaria certified to the ISO 9001:2000 standard. Eight years later in 2012, its founder and CEO Maxim Behar became chairman of Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Czech Republic. In 2013, he was elected Chairman of the Board of World Communications Forum in Davos.

The Code of Ethics of PR specialists in Bulgaria was adopted in 2005. The code was developed jointly by the Bulgarian PR Society (BPRS), Bulgarian Association of PR Agencies (BAPRA), Association IMAGINES and members of IPRA in Bulgaria. In 2006, Apeiron Academy became an accredited CIPR Qualifications Centre for Bulgaria of the UK Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR, UK). Apeiron Academy started the Grapevine Award completion, which is the first specialized competition in Europe for creativity and professionalism among internal communication specialists. The competition started in 2009, and in 2013 opened its doors for entries from across Europe.

In 2007, All Channels Communication became the first Bulgarian PR agency awarded a SABRE award from the Holmes Report Group international competition. In 2010 three Bulgarian PR agencies, members of BAPRA, were nominated as finalists in the PR SABRE Awards competition. Those agencies were: APRA Porter Novelli, All Channels Communication and Intelday Solutions. Since then, Bulgarian agencies have been competing for this award each annually

The potential of the PR industry in Bulgaria can be measured by the extension of Bulgarian agencies abroad. In 2012, APRA Porter Novelli became the first Bulgarian agency to open offices in Republic of Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo.

As preparation for the First Summer School on ‘European Tendencies in Public Relations’, the Department of Mass Communication at New Bulgarian University organized the first empirical sociological surv...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  Introduction
• 2  Bulgaria
• 3  Croatia
• 4  The Czech Republic
• 5  Hungary
• 6  Poland
• 7  Romania
• 8  Russia
• 9  Slovenia
• 10  Ukraine
• Index