Stone Ward Reorganizes and Expands PR, Rutherford Named Director of Public Communications, Scisson Assumes Of Counsel Role
10.03.07
LITTLE ROCK, AR (October 3, 2007) — Stone Ward has established a new business unit within its agency, combining the public relations and public affairs practices and adding a digital PR practice. Blake Rutherford, who has served as Director of Public Affairs, has been named to manage it, assuming the new title of Director of Public Communications, according to Stone Ward President Millie Ward.
Brenda Scisson, 33-year public relations veteran and Stone Ward’s Director of Public Relations for the past five and one-half years, assumes an Of Counsel role with the agency and will provide PR support to selected clients while growing her consultancy. Ward said the repositioning is in response to the dramatic changes in methodologies that communications professionals are successfully using to connect with their target audiences. This, combined with the exploding number of communications channels and the resulting instantaneous availability of information has changed the PR landscape and the tools needed to help companies navigate it.
“Traditional forms of communications, while still appropriate some of the time, are quickly being outpaced by the effective use of digital public relations tools, guerilla marketing and grassroots communications. Our new business unit gives us the ability to provide a broad range of marketing communications services managed and delivered by talented PR professionals and supported by our creative services and interactive technologies specialists in Little Rock and Chicago,” Ward said.
The new business unit, which has been branded LINK, will combine public relations and public affairs into a hybrid practice that offers word-of-mouth public relations, media publicity, media relations and training, blog analysis and PR, brand and product marketing communications, event planning and management, public affairs, reputation management, advocacy management, crisis communications and management, community relations, internal branding and employee engagement strategy, planning and execution. The unit will also provide LINK measurement dashboard planning and execution that will enable Stone Ward clients to measure return-on-investment of its public relations budgets.
“I am pleased to assume the role of Director of Public Communications for Stone Ward,” Rutherford said. “In my year with Stone Ward I have had the opportunity to build our public affairs practice and to talk with many of our clients about their expanding public relations needs. The establishment of LINK and a hybrid PR group squarely positions Stone Ward to respond to the current consumer controlled media environment that is driving companies and brands to rethink how they communicate to and with their target audiences," Rutherford said.
Rutherford added that today’s consumers are active in not only consuming media, but also in creating it. He cited the millions of videos uploaded to sites like You Tube and viewed by millions, the rapid growth in the number of consumer and business blogs and the explosion of on-line communities like Facebook as reasons why influencers are shifting and public relations professionals have to create new strategies that respond to these changes. In addition Rutherford said that as consumers demand more transparency and social consciousness from companies with which they do business, the demand for innovative PR strategies to respond to those demands are the order of the day. “Consumers today are harder to reach and much more difficult to win over. If they cannot relate to a brand, a personality or a corporate image they choose something or someone else. No corporation or product can survive today unless they can successfully create direct links between their consumers, their shareholders, their employees, interested media and other key publics. It is our job to help our clients create and strengthen those links,” Ward concluded.
Rutherford joined Stone Ward in September, 2006, and since then has been active in new business development, public affairs and marketing consulting. Prior to joining Stone Ward he was an attorney at Wright Lindsey & Jennings LLP. He served on the Central High School 50th Anniversary Commemorative Commission and was recently honored by Arkansas Business for his achievements as one of 40 Arkansas business leaders under the age of 40. Rutherford is also the founder and community leader for the growing Movies in the Park series held in Riverfront Park during the summer months.
Scisson is considered one of Arkansas’s preeminent public relations practitioners, having provided PR support to some of Arkansas’s largest corporations and institutions throughout her career.
“To be able to continue to draw on Brenda’s counsel and to have Blake’s smart and savvy leadership for our new LINK practice is the best of both worlds,” Ward said. “We are continuing to build our agency arsenal with specialty practices that we see emerging as a necessary part of today’s marketing plans. The new Public Communications group is a great adjunct to our video/film production company, our employee engagement practice and our interactive creative technologies group. With the graying of communications practices, a continued eye on service innovation is important to our continued ability to compete successfully as a strong regional independent agency.”
Stone Ward is considered one of the region’s most creative full-service advertising agencies. With capitalized billings in the $50 million range, the agency has offices in the River Market District of downtown Little Rock and in downtown Chicago. The agency was founded by Ward and Larry Stone, agency CEO and Executive Creative Director, in 1984.