Episode 49: How Do You Prove Your ROI?, with Renee Wilson

Renee Wilson is the president of the PR Council, the professional trade association for agencies practicing public relations, within the world of marketing and communications. The PR Council has 110+ members representing more than 11,000 employees in the US. PR Council advocates for and advances the business of communications firms by building the market and the value of firms as strategic business partners. Previously, Renee spent 11 years at MSLGROUP most recently as a member of the global board of directors; and the firm’s Chief Client Officer, responsible for liaison with senior clients and the agency’s international client engagement program, which she created. She is also the former President of MSLGROUP in North America. Renee was president of the 2014 PR jury for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and served on one other Cannes Jury in 2011. Renee spent four years living and working in London for another international PR consultancy. During this time she managed the EMEA communications for brands within Kellogg's and Johnson & Johnson. Renee is a regularly featured speaker at various international conferences and most recently presented at the United Nations International Women's Day Conference, SxSw Social Good Hub, 2015, ColorComm and espnW 2015. A Cannes lion award winner herself, Renee’s teams have won more than 25 awards for exceptional, breakthrough work. A long-standing proponent for diversity, she sits on the Advisory Board for the Young Women's Leadership Schools of NYC and is a member of the NY Women in Communications. She has guest lectured on international communications at NYU and Baruch.   “The credibility that comes with an output from a public relations campaign -- how do you put the value on that?” - Renee Wilson What you’ll learn about in this episode: What the PR Council does Why “PR” won’t be called “Public Relations” in a few years Why PR people have to be at the table to identify business problems Why PR and social are one in the same Why agencies have to look to the future Why digital storytelling is going to be so crucial going forward Why there’s no cheat sheet for lifelong learning What measurement looks like in PR today and why proving ROI is challenging Why agencies do more project based work than AOR work these days (and why you need to make sure your project is long enough) Ways to contact Renee: Website: prcouncil.net Email: rwilson@prcouncil.net Twitter: @ReneeW