Odysseus: Discovering New Horizons at International Level...

A big hello to you awesome PR peeps...

This week I've completed my 25^th day interning at Odysseus… & I've got some more days to go as they've assigned me on a new project.. Basically today I will dedicate my 4^th post on International Public Relations.

Working as a Public Relations professional involves doing much more than draft press releases and build relationships with key media representatives. As a PR professional, you must also be familiar with the attitudes and concerns of consumers, employees, public interest groups, and the community in order to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships.

While some companies keep the function of PR entirely at a national level, others like Odysseus opt to work offshore.

“There is no upper limit to what individuals are capable of doing with their minds. There is no age limit that bars them from beginning. There is no obstacle that cannot be overcome if they persist and believe” — H.G. Wells

This quote by H.G Wells clearly suits in Odysseus way of operation. While at Odysseus they were already working for well-known international clients like Emirates, Porsche, Radisson Plaza and amongst others... 

We are now targeting a new European market - Russia.

International PR is full of challenges in terms of differences in languages, laws and cultures. It can therefore be difficult yet interesting for a PR person to create or maintain a reputation with the public of other nations. It is easy to carry this out when dealing within our own nation and culture, however, when dealing with a foreign audience – it is vital that cross-cultural differences are recognized.

Odysseus has perfectly understood that a good relationship and a good understanding of the culture of the targeted nation is vital. As a business, it is your responsibility to go according to the targeted nation's style of living and culture if you want to succeed.

 What was done?

Odysseus therefore research on the Russian market - their cultures, their way of living, their interests and so on before deciding to create a website in Russian to promote the agency.

It is important to highlight that the international PR jungle is a vast and varied one. There are traps where you least expect them but there are guides to get you through and they are certainly worth investing in.

My personal experience

Working for Odysseus has been a real asset for me both in terms of personal and professional development. I had the chance of working at national and international level. I realized that when you work in an agency, Odysseus for example, you get to know that PR is not only about writing media releases, newsletters, doing media clippings and so on... But you get a real insight of how it works in a PR agency, what is really PR and what it takes to work in this field.