PR CAREER IN VIETNAM NEEDS TO BE RECOGNIZED AND HONORED

Beside honoring excellent PR Agency activity, The 2nd ASEAN International PR Conference – APRC in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia had gathered the top professional PR practitioners and experts in the regions and the world to share perspectives, strategic vision to develop the communications in the new era.

ASEAN Public Relations Network – APRN is the network connecting experts, PR practitioners, PR Agency of South East Asia. APRN is also a member of The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management – an NPO based in Switzerland, representing 160,000 practitioners and academics around the world.

Since establishment, with its mission, APRN has hosted conferences, invited PR experts and organizations from ASEAN member countries to join, share knowledge, perspectives and present PR issues influencing the region. Via that, the organization helps to realize the goal of connecting, enhancing friendship and mutual understanding among ASEAN members, improving skills and strength from the best activities for regional communication activities.

The 2nd ASEAN International PR Conference in Malaysia witnessed the gathering of representatives from giant corporates and organizations such as Air Asia, Kuching Energy, Awareness ID, PR Newswire and other PR practitioners, experts and students from SEA countries, New Zealand and Australia. The conference focused on the growth of the PR industry in the region and how to strengthen its influence in communications practices nowadays.

Within the event, 9 speakers from Spain, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippine, New Zealand, Australia, and Vietnam have mentioned factors of thinking, vision, and strategy to grow the PR industry together. Standing out is the speech of Mr. Nutthaboon Pornrattanacharoen, Representative of Thai PR Association & Acting Chief of Mass Communication, Mahidol University International College, Thailand, about the development direction of PR in the digital era, how to survive, change and adapt in VUCA world. Ms. Fiona Cassidy, Former President of Public Relations Institute of New Zealand, shared her point of view about the leadership in communications via inspiring stories of the current leader of New Zealand. Ms. Audrey Progastama Petrinyn, Group Head Communications of AirAsia (Indonesia), shared about the experience, real-life perspectives from Air Asia’s crisis management case. From Vietnam, Mr. Bao Nguyen, Managing Director at Awareness id Strategic Public Relations, mentioned the human factor in communications strategy. Other speakers also had interesting sharing about the human factor, the influence that can make people taking action as well as other PR trends in the region and around the world.

This conference also honored excellent PR practitioner, agencies and projects with awards of Best PR Programme; Best PR Practitioners; Best PR Agencies; Best PR Campaign; Best Crisis Management; Best Print Media Company Supporting PR And Communication Industry; Best Online Media Company Supporting PR And Communication Industry; Best Government PR.

Selected from the top representative from nominated countries, representatives from Vietnam were chosen based on client consultation experience, creativities that meets the fast-pace-changing of the industry. Moreover, representatives from Vietnam also needed to meet many important criteria in-term of contribution to the development of the SEA region.

The three being honored representatives of Vietnam included Awareness id Strategic PR, PR Newswire Vietnam and Ms. Tam Phan - CEO of GoldenPen PR Agency. Awareness ID Strategic Public Relations was honored with the Diamond Award, the best PR Agency. Awareness Id is selected by the Board of Examiners based on the results of advising customers, innovation respond to rapid changes and challenges of the industry. The biggest appreciated change of Awareness ID is the focus into REPUTATION/FAME as the most effective approach for the PR industry in the digital era.

PR Newswire Vietnam is recognized as Best Online Media Company Supporting PR And Communication Industry with Diamond Award. The representative of PR Newswire Vietnam, Ms. Le Thi Mai Anh said: “We are honored when PR Newswire is acknowledged for its contributions in Asia and especially in Southeast Asia for the effort to help local and regional businesses accessing international markets, through activities of transmitting news, videos, multimedia content to brands and businesses. We are also delighted that our partners have the opportunity to be recognized by the international media and press for interesting, unique and equally compelling stories that resonate with their successes in the local market and thereby can expand business cooperation opportunities on a global scale.”

It is worth noting that for many years, the ASEAN region has always been ranked in the top of export turnover worldwide, especially for big markets such as the European Union, North America, and China. Therefore, reaching out to the world for every business is no longer impossible. Representatives from PR Newswire Vietnam also remarked that with the presence in many countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and now Vietnam, PR Newswire hopes to always accompany and work closely with businesses on this competitive but also promising business path.

Ms. Tam Phan, CEO of GoldenPen PR Agency, was honored as The Best PR Practitioner (Silver Award) shared, “Vietnam is an emerging, dynamic economy, attracting many investors in ASEAN. This has prompted Vietnam to become a great market for media consultants. However, for a long time, PR has been considered a marketing and advertising tool, not recognized as its own industry. "

“GoldenPen is proud to be the leading PR consultant for the insurance and direct sales industries in Vietnam. How can we do that? First of all, we have to be patient and understand our customers' problems. In addition, we understand the stakeholders, understand the environment and especially understand how to connect pieces into a comprehensive and accessible campaign with value creation model. For the insurance industry, since the values of life insurance are confirmed, we take advantage of our values to shape positive awareness about the industry. For the direct sales industry that is subjected to many prejudices, we begin by advising customers to build other practical values beyond the economic value that businesses can create. They are social values, human values, cultural values, "said Tam Phan.

The stories of Awareness ID, PR Newswire or GoldenPen are just a few of many stories of hundreds of PR agencies in Vietnam. One thing that is easy to see is that these PR Agencies always try to bring success to the client's project. They may think they are small, but in fact, let’s look at their efforts to overcome difficulties. Their abilities to change to adapt and change to success are always impressive. The fact that they were at playgrounds like the APRC implicitly affirms that the PR industry in Vietnam needs to be recognized and those who work in Public Relations should also be recognized and respected.