“A country without a memory is a country of madmen.” – George Santayana

How far a profession has come is a telling factor about a country’s growth and development. Are our professionals leaving in droves; have they kept abreast of international best practices standards or are they still stuck using the same old, tired methods? Sometimes if we look back at history and dig deep enough into our collective memories it can help to light the way forward. Communications is a fairly young industry in Jamaica and we sought to go back to some of its early beginnings to see just how far it has come – or not. We spoke with the mellow-voiced Keith Brown, co-founder of ‘Heineken Star Time’ and one of Jamaica’s first communications professionals.

Keith was one of the first Jamaicans to gain membership in the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC); was the founding President of the Public Relations Society of Jamaica (PRSJ) and was also a member of the Public Relations Society of America. Keith broke his eye-tooth in communication via journalism and was one of the first young journalists to get a scholarship at the Thomson Foundation in Cardiff, Wales in 1964. After he left the journalism, he along with Alva Ramsay, had the responsibility for press relations for the British Empire & Commonwealth Games in 1966. This was the first time that the games were being held outside of the white Commonwealth countries.

After this gig, his entree in corporate communication took a strange route as he got the job of public relations manager at Alpart after he accompanied a friend to that company for a job interview. Sitting in the lobby waiting on his friend to complete his mission, as fate would have it the personnel manager was someone he knew who asked him to place an article and photo in the newspaper. This was done by Keith and he was later offered the job. The year was 1968 and the rest (the next 21 years to be exact) as they say was Keith’s history.

The bauxite industry was the cradle of public relations and communications in Jamaica as it was an area of business that was heavily invested in by the multi-national bauxite companies who understood the importance of public relations to their business success, Keith says. Desnoes and Geddes and the Kingston and St. Andrew Council (KSAC) were also organizations where the profession was practiced. While at Alpart he developed and implemented major community development programmes in St. Elizabeth and South Manchester in addition to his civic involvement because the industry was a ‘disruptive’ business that often displaced people and property.

“The profession has shown considerable growth from early days when bauxite companies sewed seeds of corporate involvement and implemented outstanding community programmes. Today the field has expanded , many consultancies exist, most major corporate bodies have programmes, CARIMAC, NCU and other institutions of higher learning offer formal training, but there is need for a far deeper corporate understanding of the importance of PR and communications. We just have to look at PR’s use and impact internationally (for example, the Obama for Presidency campaign)and the impact of social media, to see that we have a far way to go in understanding and making optimum use of public relations,” says Keith.

“In examining what I consider to be the major challenges facing public relations in Jamaica I was quite intrigued to find that my thoughts coincided with those expressed in a recent interview by Jeff Julin, Chairman of the Public Relations of Society of America. There is no question that many people think public relations is simply publicity and spin and this is definitely a challenge to individual professionals and the profession as a whole. And I am using the term “professional” advisedly, as there are far too many individuals in Jamaica passing themselves off as PR “professionals” who have had no exposure to and training in what the profession is all about other than the “peaches and cream” aspect.

Public relations is an overarching communications discipline that focuses on helping organizations develop strong relationships with stakeholders. When done well, it helps organizations grow, prosper and contribute to the communities in which they operate.” It is an indispensable component and in fact, a driving force in successful marketing, branding, reputation management, corporate social responsibility, public affairs, communications, employee relations, investor relations, stakeholder relations. It touches every sector.”

“The increasing use of public relations as a weapon in the corporate armoury has been largely based on how, as a communication tool, PR delivers credibility through third party advocacy for corporations. Many international corporations and brands such as Starbucks, Red Bull, The Body Shop, eBay and Amazon, to name a few, owe a significant part of their communication success to public relations strategies.

We also have to look at the rising popularity of the Internet at the expense of print and broadcast media and how this is affecting the delivery of public relations information.”

“I am of the view that our professional associations, both the PRSJ and our IABC Chapter do not speak out enough on public relations credibility and advocacy issues. We are part of an extremely important profession and we need to educate some of our corporate and political leaders, media practitioners and our society in general about professional public relations.”We need a very aggressive advocacy effort that promotes ethical, effective public relations by responding to various high-profile challenges and programmes. “

Keith is currently an adjunct lecturer CARIMAC (Summer PR Course) and the University of Technology (music marketing) as well as a member Early Childhood Commission. In 1988 he was recognized with the Order of Distinction.

Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson, (MBA, ABC) is a Business Communications Consultant with ROCommunications Jamaica, specialising in business communications and financial publications. She can be contacted at: yvonne@rocommunications.com. Visit her website at www.rocommunications.com and post your comments.