By Cheryl Wong and Annabelle Lee

Different strokes for different folks – even in this globalised world.

At a time where ‘globalisation’ has almost become a byword for change, it seems easy to argue that the landscape of Public Relations, colloquially known as PR, has been turned on its head in recent years. Improvements in transportation have brought business hubs closer to each other than ever. And the burgeoning presence of the internet and social media has opened up vast, borderless playing fields. In which companies use increasingly homogeneous strategies to jostle for the same global audience.

Or so it seems.





Although globalisation standardises many facets of modern society, long-standing cultural differences in separate countries still remain key considerations when it comes to international business. And this is especially so in a consumer-oriented industry like PR.

Rifts of this nature can be best exemplified in the polarising philosophies between companies in Singapore and Australia.

In Singapore their approaches are usually driven by growth in the branding and product sales where consumers’ practical needs are met. They also adopt the 360-degree approach – a method where they are more than just advertising but also including events, strategizing and even tackling the social media platforms as well. This is so as to take into considerations all the available platforms and cross breed them to come up with relevant solutions to ensure that the whole event succeeds.

Mr Adrian Heng, General Manager of Havas Worldwide Siren shared that even though changes are constant especially in the PR industry, he recognizes the basis of cultural differences between Singapore and other countries and considers the options he can or cannot work with.

An example he gave was cars roadshows in Singapore usually have girls dressed skimpily to model along with the cars and it is deemed as a norm here whereas in countries where conservativeness is highly observed, such approach can land someone in jail.

“Being a successful PR person means more than having good writing skills or being able to communicate effectively, it is all about having a wide perspective, understanding and being able look at things differently,” said Mr Heng.

.But in Australia, things are slightly different. Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) shared that they recognized that the very basis of a success comes from human decisions. Thus, they prioritized that and circle all their work around fulfilling the emotional needs of  people such as providing aid for the homeless and giving back to the society. Here in Down Under, they focus more on Ethos, Pathos, Logos. According to Mr Julian Kenny, National Education Officer of PRIA, the future of Public Relations in Australia will always have the same foundation no matter how technology advances.

Referring to a case study, a PR Agency created a robot arm to help spread the message of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) which is a rare and fatal muscle degenerative disease. Despite having no budget for paid media, PR helped to drive the campaign forward. It succeeded due to having a real victim to face the campaign, thus reaching out to human emotions. This brought it to a level higher than just meeting the practical needs. On top of that, the campaigners petitioned for people’s signature in support for the sufferers who cannot sign on their own, engaging their consumers in their campaign.

“PR is long hours and hard work and there are lots of commitment involved. Forget the word life-balance because it has to be the same thing.  You have to do it all together. In terms of finding employees, personality and hard work is what I look out for,” said Julian when enquired about getting into the industry doing good PR.

PR is highly versatile and ever-changing. Although it may differ slightly between Australia and Singapore, one thing that remains would be to get the message across to the people. Regardless of the techniques and platforms, it is all about meeting the needs of the consumers be it practically, emotionally or even psychologically and packaging it in a way where it effective and appealing to them.

“What we learnt here in Sydney just made PR much more interesting and challenging,” said Rachel Chua, 18, a Mass Communication student from Republic Polytechnic who visited the city on a PR study trip. “But that does not stop me from wanting to do PR because I want to better the future.”

Headline	PR Strategies: A Tale of Two Cities
Module	Sydney School Overseas Trip - Republican Post
Type	Hard News
Summary	As part of a school overseas trip, 24 students from the Diploma in Mass Communication went on a 6 days trip to Sydney to learn and understand the similarities and differences of Public Relations in both Singapore and Australia. As such, along with a coursemate, we’ve written an article on a cross-national comparison between the Public Relations sector of Singapore and Australia. We included our experience with Mr Adrian Heng, General Manager of Havas Worldwide Siren and Mr Julian Kenny, National Education Officer of PRIA (Public Relations Institute of Australia) to provide different perspectives from the professionals to support the article.