What is the biggest difference between NBS Communications and Stanton Communications?
It is hard to identify any striking distinctions in terms of daily work or the institutional culture. Both NBS and Stanton are very open, agile and professional organizations.
NBS Communications’ Patryk Slodzinski visited the Stanton team this week on a professional exchange program with PR World Alliance to learn more about the way public relations works in the U.S. Patryk felt “enlightened” to experience the daily work we do and shared his insights on the differences between PR in Poland and the United States.
Welcome on board Patryk! Tell us a bit about yourself, how long have you been in a PR field?
I started with NBS last April and it’s my first PR gig, so I am still a rookie PR professional. My background is in political science, in terms of education and professional experience. I’ve had internships with the UN and Polish Foreign Ministry while I was getting my degree. After grad school, I was eyeing some of the EU institutions, specifically European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) before I decided what I wanted to do.
But before that materialized, Anna Krajewska, the founder of NBS, organized a presentation at my grad school in Warsaw. I attended, became interested in the organization and here I am.
How does your normal daily work life look like at NBS? What are your responsibilities?
My main area of interest is public affairs (PA), so whenever there is a project that includes that component, I get involved. Our PA team is very compact, so we share many of the responsibilities. What I do evolves with every project.
One of my more stable responsibilities is our newsletter, Weekly Snapshot on Poland, where we cover the most important political, economic and legislative developments in the country and distribute it to our clients and other decision makers. Every week, Filip, the head of our PA department, and I bounce ideas off each other around stories that could be interesting and then report on them and spice them up with our insight.
What is the biggest difference between NBS Communications and Stanton Communications?
Based on my first impressions, I would say that the Stanton team is younger. However, it is hard to identify any striking distinctions in terms of daily work or the institutional culture. Both NBS and Stanton are very open, agile and professional organizations.
Our histories differ a bit. NBS used to be predominantly an IR and financial PR enterprise, while Stanton is a more universal agency, covering various industries. However, NBS is constantly evolving and venturing into different areas of PR so those differences might be reduced in the future.
How are PR practices different in the United States compared to Poland?
My first impression of the two markets was that they should be different, since the U.S. market is more developed. For example, while Stanton Communications was established in 1989, the public relations industry did not develop in Poland until the early nineties. Fun fact: NBS can be considered one of the founding fathers of the industry, since it is the oldest PR agency in Poland, dating back to 1990.
The market in Poland is also considerably smaller. Trade groups estimate the total fee income of 20 major PR firms to be between $47.5– $58 million. That would place Poland’s entire PR sector as sixth in O’Dwyer’s US PR firm ranking. Nevertheless, the Polish industry’s growth rate is robust, outpacing overall economic growth at 7.45–12 percent.
However, during my time at Stanton, and previously Feintuch (the other agency in the PRWA network that was generous enough to host me during this trip) I’ve realized that the daily mechanics of the job are often very similar.
What is your favorite part of the job?
I would say that learning new things about an industry that is new to me is the best part of the job. However, I am very results-oriented, and I also enjoy helping the client reach their objectives.
What was your favorite part of the trip?
I love coming to the U.S. Every time I come, I’m amazed at how seemingly similar but often fundamentally different some things can be.
It was a bit different this time around and I enjoyed it more because it was very informative and – not to exaggerate – enlightening thanks to my time at both agencies. I also enjoyed the daily routine, going to work and getting an idea of how everyday lifeis.
Nevertheless, I can’t wait to fly out to Florida to defrost myself.
About NBS
NBS Communications is one of the oldest public relations agencies in Poland, specializing in corporate and financial sectors, as well as investor relations, capital market transactions and mergers and acquisitions. For more information about the agency, visit http://www.nbs.pl/en/ and https://twitter.com/NBS_Warsaw.
Curious for more insights into public relations on a global scale? Learn about PR in the Middle East and PR in Germany.
