Helix PR has recently become one of the founding members of the newly formed Singapore branch of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), a global association representing Public Relations (PR) professionals.
In doing so we’ve become one of a handful of agencies from the maritime and insurance PR sectors to sign up to this body whose purpose is to raise professional standards of public relations around the world.
PRCA is based in London and has offices in Dubai and the fact that it has now decided to open in Singapore is good news for communications professionals across our region.
It also makes sense for Helix PR to join as we are among the first agencies in the region to specialise in shipping, insurance, trade, offshore oil and gas communications, having set up in Singapore in 2006.
We took the step because we totally support the work of PRCA and believe its presence here in Singapore is much needed. It will be highly valued as it extends into the communications community in the Lion City.
But we also joined because we believe that it is good news for the buyers, the companies which purchase our services in our specialist sectors. They must be assured of our utmost good faith and professionalism when we represent them.
In our experience, shipping and to a lesser extent, insurance communications professionals have worked in a kind of vacuum, away from the mainstream ideas that the wider world of communications and now marketing encompass.
In particular, the shipping industry continues to suffer from a serious lack of understanding over what an outside communications and marketing agency can and should do for them.
At the most basic level there is confusion over the difference between the creation of an effective marketing and communications campaign and merely hiring an agency to get your name or company mentioned in the business or trade and technical media.
At a time when specialist maritime and insurance B2B media is facing its greatest challenges, the need for clarity over what constitutes genuine marketing and communications as opposed to ‘media placement’ has never been more important.
That is why there is a need for organisations such as PRCA.
It exists to raise standards in PR and communications providing members with industry data facilitating the sharing of communications best practise and creating network opportunities.
All PRCA members are bound by a professional charter and codes of conduct, and benefit from training courses. The PRCA also works for the greater benefit of the PR industry, sharing best practice and lobbying on the industry’s behalf.
Helix PR welcomes PRCA to Singapore and the Asia region and believes the association will help the region’s PR sector as well as the specialist industries we serve.
