CIPRA Winner, Professional Services, Marketing Professional Services in Moscow, The PBN Company, Moscow

April 1993

Public relations agencies traditionally market their own businesses so poorly that the professional services category of this award has been dominated by law firms and accounting concerns, but The PBN Co., a fast-growing public affairs firm headquartered in San Francisco, has created a marketing campaign that promoted the agency as efficiently as it would have promoted any client.

PBN opened a branch office in Moscow, Russia, in April 1991, and found itself faced with several challenges. The firm needed to over come the logistical and technical obstacles of conducting business in the then-Soviet Union, understand and adapt to the Russian mentality, solicit government accreditation, recruit local professional and support staff and attract new business while serving existing clients. Target audiences included local government officials in the U.S. and Russia, including the Russian Consulate in San Francisco and officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Our strategy required that we demonstrate an ability to develop an industry that had never existed in Moscow before and to do so at the same level of professionalism provided by our domestic operations," says president Peter Necarsulmer. "We asked an executive from our U.S. operations to spearhead our efforts there as the only fulltime American expatriate at the firm."

The promotional campaign in Russia included advertising, direct mail, public speaking engagements in front of academic and business audiences, the development of a database of Russian and foreign businesses, participation in local business and Embassy groups, work with key Russian and international media, and the commissioning of the first scientific public opinion research of expats living in Moscow.

"PBN Moscow is a clear financial success," says Necarsulmer. "We received official government accreditation in 1992 as the single western public relations firm operating in Russia and the CIS."

The agency's client base has expanded from the Radisson Slavjanskaya Hotel, the Moscow Kremlin Cup Tennis Championship and project work for Chevron, to include Pepsi-Cola International, Conoco, Gulf-Canada, Carlson/Mosintour, American Express, the Russian National Orchestra and others.

The office has grown from one full-time American to nine-full time employees, seven of whom are Russian, as well as a network of 25 local professional consultants who work for the company on a project basis.