Pre-conference workshop to teach 'Leveraging Public Relations'.

• Author: Roberts, Wayne
• Position: MARKETING edge

Banks are ideally suited to practice strategic public relations. Yet few financial services institutions take full advantage of such a low-cost program.

A workshop entitled, "Leveraging Public Relationsto Achieve Sustainable Business Growth," will be presented prior to the start of this year's ABA Marketing Conference, Sept. 14-16, in Denver, Colo. The session will be presented by Wayne Roberts, senior vice president and general manager of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, a strategic communications firm, with U.S. headquarters in New York. One of the four markets that the company specializes in is financial services.

The 4.5-hour workshop will start at 8 a.m. and conclude at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14. The session will explain how to research and plan a strategic public relation program as well as how to measure and evaluate results. The lessons are relevant to local and regional as well as national banks.

One workshop feature will be the inclusion of a panel discussion of print and broadcast reporters. The panel will talk about such things as:

* How to make your bank the "go-to" bank in the local market.

* How to localize national trends (example: localizing the nation al mortgage problem). How to encourage your local TV station to pick your bank as the "local example."

* How to make your bank a key local media source. (Media outlets are usually on very tight deadlines since they are filing stories everyday so they are looking for a dependable resource to call on at a moment's notice.)

* How to write news releases that the local media will use.

* How to provide local media outlets with what they are looking for. Learn how you can develop a strategy to get your message to the right people at the right time.

The session will also cover topics such as aligning your public relations program with your bank's overall marketing strategies and objectives, and integrating public relations with other communications disciplines such as advertising, promotions, special events and sponsorships.

How do you prepare for and manage potential crisis situations? The workshop will answer this question. It will also discuss executive media training.

The workshop fee is $195 for ABA members ($275, nonmembers).

Below is a sample of some of the concurrent sessions that will be presented during the conference.

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