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'R' Word Spurs Rise of PR as Companies Trim Advertising; TransMedia Group Sees Business Upsurge 'Recession' Related
1/22/2008
While the economy is
stumbling, the PR business is rumbling along briskly at one of Florida's
largest PR firms, TransMedia Group. http://www.transmediagroup.com.
"PR firms tend to be recession proof as they typically get a bigger
slice of the marketing pie when ad budgets are slashed during economic
downturns," said TransMedia Group's founder and CEO, Thomas J. Madden.
Getting a message out through PR is a lot more cost effective than
advertising," he added.
Ad agencies that own PR firms or have a strong PR division are better
off during a downturn because when the ad side reduces, the PR side gains,
keeping the firm healthy and balanced as it sails through a slowdown, he
said.
Madden cited TransMedia Group's recent upsurge in business as proof
that companies are turning more to PR while sales revenues dip, credit is
tight and fear levels rise.
The multi-lingual firm was just retained by the Government of Brazil to
promote an expansion of Brazilian franchise companies into the U.S. and
tomorrow is sending a platoon of publicists out to Los Angeles to do
publicity for America's Premier Rhythmic Gymnastics Event, LA Lights
Rhythmic Gymnastics Tournament of Champions, Jan. 24-27, featuring
Olympians from the 2004 Olympic Games and competitors from 14 countries.
"It helps to be multi-lingual and global in perspective," said Madden
about the firm he started 25 years ago when he left NBC where he was Vice
President, Assistant to the President, then Fred Silverman. Operating out
of a building it owns in downtown Boca Raton, TransMedia Group has offices
in New York and London.
Among companies and web-based businesses who've recently joined the
firm's eclectic client roster is Morgan Stanley Senior VP Gary Owens and
Composer Lawrence Hurwit, who wrote the Florida Welcome Song, behind which
there is a groundswell movement to make it the Official State Song.
"When the economy slacks off, you also want to be sure you're
diversified as much as possible," said Madden, the author of SPIN MAN and
other books and articles about PR. When the dot.com bubble burst some years
ago, those firms that had mostly high-tech clients crashed right along with
their computer and Internet clients, he said.
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