Hanser takes his PR experience worldwide as Pinnacle Worldwide president
Midlands Business Journal, Omaha, Neb., July 12, 2004
By Andy Williams
As the newly elected president of Pinnacle Worldwide Inc., Omaha public relations executive Ronald C. Hanser has the world of PR literally at his fingertips.
“Hire us, and you get access to the world,” said Hanser, who will remain president of Hanser & Associates which is headquartered in Des Moines and has an office in Omaha, “but you don’t have to pay for the world unless you decide to use it.”
Pinnacle Worldwide, headquartered in Minneapolis, is an international corporation of independently owned PR firms with 52 offices and more than 1,200 employees in 28 countries. Hanser & Associates became a partner firm in the invitation-only corporation in 1999, and Hanser has been a member of its board of directors since then.
“Everyone who is a partner owns and runs a successful business, so that brings the need for unique leadership skills in a global network,” said Hanser, who will begin his two-year term in September. “I am honored my peers would select me to provide that.”
Hanser said the power of Pinnacle over its 28-year history has been its simple concept. To be eligible for Pinnacle, a firm has to have been in business at least five years and has to do more than $500,000 worth of business in U.S. revenue. The corporation provides worldwide resources, with local points of contact being senior owner-operators of firms.
One of Pinnacle’s leading clients, Swiss-based Roche Pharmaceuticals, began using Hanser’s services five years ago in Omaha. Five Pinnacle affiliates around the U.S. were brought on to the account two years later and now promote Roche products in the top 100 markets in the country.
Hanser, who represents the Omaha by Design project, also tapped into Pinnacle affiliate firms around the U.S. which had done community visioning and design work to bring the best practices of community input and involvement and outward communication for urban planning projects.
“Pinnacle provides access to a global network,” Hanser said of the corporation with 26 offices in North America, 18 in Europe, five in Latin America, and three in the Asian Pacific. “National and global companies get a resource that is an increasingly efficient way to deliver their message around the world.”
After 30 years as a corporate PR executive for such companies as Farm Credit System, Principal Financial Group and the Iowa Health System, Hanser with his wife, Bonnie, co-founded their firm in 1996. Bonnie Hanser had a background in business, nonprofit organizations and philanthropy.
In recent years, the 10-employee firm has moved into consumer products and retail to net annual revenue of more than $1 million and become the only nationally ranked, independent PR firm based in the Midlands.
“People say to us, “You don’t specialize” — that’s our business plan,” Hanser said of the firm that has won more than 30 international, national and local awards, including the Public Relations Society of America’s Bronze Anvil. “We specialize in PR and that’s all we do, but we serve many different industries.”
Three years ago Hanser formed an alliance with Omaha-based advertising agency Redstone Communications, which has such clients as Verizon, Cox and Nebraska Furniture Mart. The two firms share offices in Des Moines and Omaha.
“Some clients we were serving needed advertising services, and that takes a very different skill set than PR,” Hanser said, “so instead of trying to figure out how to do advertising, we went through a search process for a suitable partner.
“It’s very unusual, if not impossible for an agency to provide service at a world-class level in both advertising and PR. This has been a great way for us to remain purely a PR firm.”
Along with expanding its client base and entering new industries, two future growth areas for Hanser & Associates include media spokesman training for companies, and helping corporations move into new markets.
Hanser conducts about 100 spokesperson training sessions every year to help executives learn how the media works, how to develop the company’s message and deliver it through print, television and radio interviews.
“It’s very hands-on,” said Hanser. “We get them in a room and help them get their message down and practice it. We record them on video, play it back and help them critique how they did.”
Hanser works with clients such as Andersen Corp. subsidiary EMCO. When EMCO opened a large manufacturing facility on the East coast, Hanser’s staff helped its executives land on local boards, employees get involved with local charities and host a job fair at which all 400 employees were hired.
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© 2004 Midlands Business Journal. All Rights Reserved.