Untitled Sermon (2)

July 2, 2020

How Faith Informs Our Daily Work By A. Larry Ross, Agency Founder & CEO

A. Larry Ross Communications (ALRC) operates at the intersection of faith and culture, enabling our Christian beliefs and values to drive and dictate the work that we do for each of our clients, regardless of whether they are faith-based, secular or a crossover combination of the two.

My wife Autumn and I co-founded this Agency in 1994 when we took what she called, “a bungee jump for God.” Amid all the uncertainties that come with starting one’s own company, our faith and assurance of God being our Lord and Leader on whom we could always depend was what carried us through those early beginnings and continues to sustain and streamline the firm to this day.

Throughout the last 26 years as a company, we have grown in our understanding of how the faith on which our Agency was founded can inform our daily work as we seek to serve our communications partner clients in an uplifting, Christ-like manner.

Continually honing our approach and transitioning from a faith-informed to a biblically-based work ethic throughout the Agency’s history has resulted in best-practices drawn from the wisdom found in Scripture as the ideal benchmark for everything we do.

The following values and corresponding scriptural references act as the benchmark of excellence to which we refer when approaching client relationships, media interactions and internal team operations:

· A standard of work that is outstanding and passionate (Colossians 3:23-24);

· A standard of relationships with both clients and media that are modeled and guided by a servant’s attitude (Mark 12:31);

· A standard of collective professional expertise that strands with our years of experience, wisdom and discernment (Matthew 18:20);

· A creative passion we embrace and model on a daily basis (James 1:17);

· A creative brain trust we gratefully share with our client partners (Proverbs 2:6);

· A creative solution presented to our clients with the highest level of integrity, honesty and commitment (Colossians 1:16).

We have found that including the whole counsel of God in our approach to work and account service has helped our team create a higher-level impact for our clients than would have otherwise been possible. Every other standard of excellence or industry best-practices is fallible and prone to change according to the finite features of this world. Neither human intellect, the economy, the stock market, nor even, as we’ve experienced in 2020, the ability to gather together as groups provide a stable groundwork on which to build.

While ALRC is a for-profit company, our business has been built on the Bible and dedicated to biblical principles – both figuratively and literally ever since its humble beginnings when my wife and I stepped out in faith.

Before the Agency moved into its current offices in 2006, the team members at the time met at the construction site for a prayer of dedication. Each employee placed a plastic-wrapped Bible open to their favorite passage(s) of Scripture in the dirt before the concrete floor was poured, symbolic of the fact our company was indeed founded on God’s Word.

When we preemptively stand on the solid rock of God and His Word, which are unchanging, there is a sense of steadiness and an absolute standard from which we can always keep moving forward, regardless of circumstances, shifting public opinion or changes in culture.

June 25, 2020

Creating a Mission Statement That Speaks to the Heart of Your Company by A. Larry Ross, Agency Founder and CEO

While a meaningful mission statement is crucial for streamlining foundational company values and unifying principles among leadership and employees, it can also serve as the catalyst that will either compel a potential client to utilize your expertise or deter them from engaging with your services.

Further, a mission statement provides a one-stop snapshot that communicates to potential customers or consumers what your company does, or can do for them, in 30 seconds or less.

Throughout our 26 years as a company, the A. Larry Ross Communications (ALRC) mission statement has evolved considerably to speak to the ever-changing felt needs of affinity faith audiences. Although our core values, beliefs and message have not modified significantly since the Agency was founded in 1994, the way we present those elements has gradually shifted.

As the firm has grown and reached previous goals and objectives, our new business culture reflects the evolving marketplace and adaptations to technological developments in communications, including social media that have made everyone a publisher. Codifying your company’s values into a mission statement that is reassessed every so often is key to staying relevant to both current and potential clients.

A few months ago here on the blog, we talked about the “secret sauce” for developing a brand story. Is there a similarly special formula for creating a powerful mission statement that conveys your distinctives to consumers in a compelling way? We think so.

To demonstrate, let’s take a look at the initial ALRC mission statement juxtaposed against the current 2020 version:

Original ALRC Mission Statement created upon the Agency’s founding in 1994:

ALRC effectively operates between ministries and media to engage the public in matters of spirituality, faith and values. ALRC helps organizations with a Christian foundation increase their impact with thoughtful positioning of their stories in the context of traditional news values.

Current ALRC Mission Statement (Revised in 2020):

A. Larry Ross Communications (ALRC) assists leaders in increasing their influence and serves faith-based and humanitarian organizations in effectively and creatively communicating their unique story and message.

The updated Agency mission statement is shorter with fewer sentences and words. That is because succinctness is vital in the current communications environment, considering attention spans today are short and consumers want to obtain the information for which they are searching as quickly as possible.

Secondly, it immediately establishes what services the Agency provides: “assists leaders in increasing their influence...and faith-based and humanitarian organizations in effectively and creatively communicating their unique story and message.” A mission statement must quickly and concisely communicate who a company is and what needs it can fill for its audience, similar to defining taglines for comprehensive ad campaigns. This is aptly illustrated in the two differentiating slogans used by The Home Depot and Lowe’s to distinguish each other in the highly competitive and often overwhelming (for customers) home improvement industry.

Using the mantra, “You Can Do It, We Can Help,” The Home Depot caters to the enterprising “do-it-yourself” weekend warrior homeowner by staffing stores with qualified part-time contractors who can encourage, equip and empower them to handle a project on their own.

Similar market research revealed that the primary Lowe’s customer was a single parent or unmarried woman for whom the thought of tackling a repair or upgrade project is daunting. As such, the company wanted to convey the message they are community-based and customer-focused through their original catch-phrase, “Let’s Build Something Together,” (which has since been changed to, “Never Stop Improving.”)

The direct and brief nature of these statements ensures that the retail giants’ primary audiences immediately grasp what services they provide to improve their world one project at a time.

Thirdly, our new mission statement more directly conveys who our audience is and what we can do for them. A mission statement needs to communicate two messages, including “who” your company is and “what” it can do for your customers.

There are many PR agencies and firms available that can provide representation. The ALRC mission statement is intended to set us apart from other agencies in the industry by stating who we represent, “faith-based and humanitarian organizations,” and what services we provide, “effectively and creatively communicating their story.” Without reinforcing our identification with leaders and ministries operating at the intersection of faith and culture through an organic shared framework of belief that informs our work, potential clients visiting our website would have no compelling reason to recognize our values-added approach to help them meet their communications objectives.

As you seek to create a clear and holistic mission statement that will speak to your clients, consider how to make it succinct, direct and specific. A good mission statement not only summarizes who your company is and what it provides, but it also creates inspiration through messaging wordsmithery that leaves consumers with something on which to ruminate as they continue to research which service-provider they want to engage.

A powerful mission statement that resonates with the leaders and organizations you serve will enable you and your team to go beyond merely transactional agency-client/company-customer relationships to develop transformative long-term relational communications partnerships, based on trust and shared values, priorities and purpose.

By A. Larry Ross, founder & CEO of A. Larry Ross Communications as part of the June, “a word from our founder,” blog series.

June 18, 2020

Branding Your Company After COVID-19 by A. Larry Ross, Agency Founder and CEO

Without a doubt, in one way or another, every living human being on the planet has been impacted by the disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many individuals have been forced to re-evaluate their priorities about what is important in life, and how normal busyness and distractions caused by everything from technology to media and chasing the “shiny objects” they thought would make them happy have led to disappointment in their exchange for things of lasting value, including family, relationships and spiritual development.

Now as our nation collectively considers how to open up and come out of the quarantine imposed by COVID-19, most corporations and businesses (both large and small) as well as churches, ministries and non-profits alike have begun considering – and many are actively planning – how they will effectively emerge from this pandemic and step into an unpredictable new “normal.” It will likely be true that after companies return to the office things will never be the same. Thankfully, as a result of what we have experienced and how we have changed – they will likely be better.

Due to recent major market shifts caused by the coronavirus outbreak, former methods and metrics distinguishing an entity’s unique value proposition, brand promise or marketing distinctive from its competitors may no longer be affordable or otherwise feasible, due to safety or other concerns. With these restrictions in mind, how can you seek to reestablish and differentiate your brand identity moving forward into a future yet unknown?

Every marketplace, ministry and/or non-profit leader knows their business, regardless of whether they provide products or services for God, the Common Good or merely to generate profitable revenue. An owner of a plumbing company, for instance, could easily tell you that they provide quality plumbing services. Likewise, a pastor can communicate that his church exists to provide a transformative message of hope, backstopped by meeting spiritual and physical assistance and support to both congregants and the community. The “what” behind one’s work is generally very clear. However, another factor beyond the “what” not often as apparent in driving individuals to engage with a given brand is the “why.”

It is no longer sufficient for a business or ministry to simply provide a product or service or to address a felt need. Audiences and consumers want to know why they should give your brand their time, money and attention instead of pursuing or supporting other available options. Especially in our current climate where consumers are just as uncertain about the future as product and service providers, it’s predictable that they will be more apt than ever to do their research before investing increasingly limited resources, especially for the more than 40 million individuals unemployed since the start of the pandemic. The best way to establish your “why” and truly speak to your audience is to develop your unique brand story.

In a previous blog, we divulged more components of the process that can serve as a template for guiding you toward the formation of your brand story. In addition to reviewing those suggested steps in the narrative creation process, I would highly encourage you to consider how COVID-19-related events and changes to the general and your vertical market landscapes might have altered your “why.”

Perhaps your film company previously made movies primarily to entertain audiences. But now, in light of everything that has been exacerbated by the pandemic, watching a movie is more than a fun escape for consumers. It can be a shared experience that unites couples and children through an inspiring story, which produces a starkly different positive effect on families than when they are primarily watching an incessant barrage of negative news events unfolding in real-time on their flatscreen televisions. One produces joy and connectedness; the other, anxiety and fear.

Those pastors who resisted live-streaming Sunday services as an option until COVID-19 forced them to pivot and provide “digital church” can no longer consider that audience as less committed or on the fringe. Rather, pastors need to continue to focus on the mission and message – not the methods. Further, recognize that in the new normal, “new wineskins” of technology provide additional transformative tools to communicate and connect, enabling the church to expand from being exclusively facility-centered to home-centered.

Or, maybe your ministry once operated on the basis of feeding and sheltering the homeless to ensure they are safe and do not go hungry; but now it may be more pertinent to include practical healthcare protections and PPE provision as part of your ministry outreach methods to help safeguard homeless individuals and other at-risk populations such as elderly congregants from the coronavirus.

Sometimes, brand stories need to change, and that’s okay. The key to a brand story that remains effective is adapting it to speak to the changing needs of your audience. As we move forward from COVID-19 and its many subsequent changes, you have an opportunity to self-identify and stand out.

So, as states and economies across our nation begin to open up, how will you share your brand story?

July 20, 2020

The Changing Public Relations Landscape; Adapting Communications for a Digital World By ALRC Founder and CEO, A. Larry Ross

“Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand;

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command.

Your old road is rapidly agin’;

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand;

For the times they are a-changin'...

“The line it is drawn,

The curse it is cast,

The slow one now

Will later be fast,

As the present now

Will later be past,

The order is rapidly fadin’;

And the first one now

Will later be last,

For the times they are a-changin.'”

“The Times They Are A Changin’”

Bob Dylan

As musical poet Bob Dylan prophesied in his iconic soundtrack of the 1960s, “The Times They Are A Changin,’” the public relations landscape has practically transformed since the industry’s formation shortly after World War I. Since then, technology has shifted every aspect of the field, from the proliferation of multiple media platforms, tools and resources to the way we relate to editors and producers and conduct business with clients.

Considering such rapid development of myriad changes across so many fronts is perhaps unprecedented in communications, so seeking to adapt to the ever-evolving market is essential to remaining relevant. When PR professionals embrace new innovations, they can more poignantly portray their client’s messages.

High Touch Vs. High Tech

In the first two decades since starting my career in the mid-1970s, the only way to disseminate clients’ messages to reporters was by physically mailing a press kit or news release (and later by sending a fax). Because of the labor-intensiveness and delivery time these methods required, news was reported hours or even days after it actually occurred. Additionally, focusing on press relations was paramount – building professional relationships by spending time together in-person, via phone conversations or through written correspondence.

While those avenues still remain, technology has since led to faster and more efficient communications. Thanks to social media and available online platforms, such as LinkedIn, today we can get to know reporters on a more personal level, including background on their schooling, families, coverage preferences and even the stories on which they are working. Further, we can deliver client news with the touch of a button - the moment it happens - by emailing, tweeting or DMing a reporter for whom it is in their wheelhouse.

The greater accessibility allowed through the digital revolution is no doubt beneficial, allowing us to connect with individuals from around the world at any time and secure connections that would not have otherwise been possible. However, effective PR professionals need to be disciplined to maintain balance, and never leverage the high tech to replace the value of remaining high touch with media gatekeepers.

Rather, it is still crucial to preserve, prioritize and integrate human connection, rather than merely replacing it with virtual communications and correspondence. By its very nature, PR is a relationship-oriented field, and no matter how technology progresses, the need to facilitate relational connections beyond the digital will never become obsolete.

At the end of the day, it is easy to become enamored with emerging technology. But using a biblical metaphor, they are merely “new wineskins” for packaging and disseminating the message.

The Media’s Role

At one point in time, audiences relied on three news networks to become aware of current events, watch interviews or view political debates. While FOX, CNN and the big three television networks still maintain influence, less traditional broadcast mediums, including YouTube live and Instagram live, very often accrue more viewers than traditional television media.

Additionally, blogs and podcasts, which were not so long ago seen as less legitimate forms of media, now are among the most popular and influential means of sharing and learning information. Prior to the recent coronavirus lockdown, remote interviews via Zoom were not taken seriously, but are now considered equally legitimate, as entire network shows, including music specials and late night television, are all done remotely by individuals sheltering in place while working from home.

The rise of niche outlets has created a shift in the relationship between media and PR. The middle man hasn’t been removed, but instead has taken on a new role. Now, large traditional media are not the only options for communicating one’s message, although they are still critical for reaching certain audiences. While podcasts, personal blogs and other less traditional outlets may attract a smaller and more specific viewership, these audiences can generate even more impact for certain causes.

The old PR axiom, “The largest amount of people focused on the smallest point of agreement produces the greatest impact,” becomes more true as technology progresses, which has allowed mainstream and non-traditional media to take on new roles that in many ways help PR professionals to achieve optimal influence and results.

Intergenerational Audiences

While not specifically particular to communications, the PR industry is uniquely affected by the large intergenerational mixture in the modern workplace. At A. Larry Ross Communications, our leadership and team represent four generations – from Gen Z to Boomers. Those of us who have been in the field long enough remember how things used to be but are “digital immigrants,” understand and bring added value to more traditional, yet still effective approaches, such as creating in-person connections.

On the other hand, our Millennial and Gen Z colleagues are “digital natives” who entered the workforce with an existing understanding of the benefits of digital media. The result of having so many generations represented in the modern PR landscape is a more diverse understanding of communications overall. These different perspectives and combined experiences can create holistic messages that more accurately speak to different and diverse audiences.

In the context of what Bob Dylan opined years ago, “...as thepresent now willlater be past, the order israpidly fadin’...for thetimes they are a-changin,'” one of the exciting aspects of working in PR is its ever-changing nature. There are always innovative ideas cropping up that can be used to convey a client’s message and impact audiences.

The key to maximizing every new opportunity is to evolve with the technology landscape rather than attempting to function in spite of it. Recognizing the many benefits that have been introduced through the new media and technology, we can more effectively connect our message with those who need to hear it.

What small adaptations can you incorporate that could have a significant impact on your clients and their audiences?

By A. Larry Ross, founder & CEO of A. Larry Ross Communications as part of the June, “a word from our founder,” blog series.

November 15, 2017

Public Relations & Christian Witness

While thinking about how to describe PR to a faith-based client recently, I was reminded of how PR is truly a biblical concept. As Christians, we are to be witnesses for Christ – to make him known publicly. In essence, this is what PR professionals and publicists do for their clients.

If God had a social media profile…

Just as we who proclaim to follow Christ should reflect Him daily in words and actions, we also represent the other groups with whom we identify. Our behavior reflects on our employer, our family, our school, our church, our neighborhood, etc.. In guarding our words and actions for Christ we also reflect well on any other groups or organizations we represent.

The Bible additionally teaches that our attitude is as important as our actions. We should have a positive outlook that chooses to see the good and be thankful in difficult circumstances. Similarly, in PR, when challenges arise, we don’t try to “spin” the situation or paint black as white, but we look to emphasize the positives in any situation and see challenges as opportunities for growth.

Finally, as in sharing our faith with others, we don’t coerce or emotionally manipulate people to our way of thinking – we simply convey what we believe to be Truth, and let others make up their minds for themselves. In PR, we are not “selling” with less-than-truthful advertising, but imparting knowledge and information in a careful, gracious way. We pursue integrity in our communications and try not to skew our perspective.

While publicists and PR professionals tend to be mindful of how their words and actions reflect on their clients or employers, all too often in this social media age it seems Christians don’t take full notice of the impact their conversations or behaviors make online. It grieves me when I see a watching world equate that behavior with Christ and His Kingdom.

I encourage us all to think both biblically and like a PR professional in order to improve not only how we represent our faith, but also our families, employers and any other groups with whom we identify as we conduct ourselves before a world always on the lookout to judge and critique our behavior. In a way, we all are PR agents for Christ.

Tagged: public relations, ministry, church

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