Russian companies often designate specific senior managers of public relations, and spend tens of millions of rubles every year on PR-support.
But if ordinary companies are willing to pay for something to say about them, the Russian state-owned companies and agencies often spend even more money out of them to silence.

Strange market

Unlike Western countries, where public-relations support for the company in whole or its individual elements are exposed to a public tender, Russia is a closed culture of external communications. State-owned companies and the more departments are fully integrated internal public relations structure, often under the control of the management directly. Tender under the slogan of "improving the reputation" in Russia is inconceivable.

However, this does not mean that the Russian communication agencies do not have a piece of the pie. According to a survey (ICCO, spring 2015) of the 53 largest in the Russian PR-agencies, 42% are involved in the execution of orders for government agencies and departments, a further 2% is accompanied by activities Political parties. It is the third largest customer for PR-companies, after the traditionally active IT- and telekomkompany, as well as in consumer goods. The total market for these services is estimated (by the end of 2014) to 39 billion rubles. - This is a significant value comparable, for example, the mobile advertising market.

Under Russian law, the domestic government agencies must engage external PR according to the law on public procurement (FL-44, FL-223 and FL-94), as well as any other services. However, government agencies seldom use outsourced to address the immediate and the more urgent PR-tasks, so communications companies from this market gets no strategy and tactics, and "technique" - the organization and holding of events, press tours, souvenir production (who are not nice get on New year's proprietary postcard from "Rosneft" or a scarf from the "Gazprom"?), market research, advertising, preparation of media collections. According to the market data, PR-agencies provide their customers with high rather ordinary services: communication research and analytics, digital-tommunikatsii, corporate communications, crisis communications, external communications and GR, PR-support of marketing, b2c / b2b, branding and promotion of the territories. In the study, Akos noted that respondents are reluctant to share information about the intricacies of the job. "Services for which the smallest number of agencies provide information, - a political communication", - says the study.

It is difficult to find an agency that would be to paint the detail in your portfolio to achieve in the field of gospiara, although such is. Especially succeeded in this matter the company "Mikhailov & Partners", which was created by the now general director of ITAR-TASS Sergey Mikhailov, modestly announces "the presence of work experience in the public sector", its customers meanwhile are "Sberbank Capital" Gazprombank "Alrosa" "Gazprom" and the other is not the private giants. The customer base of another communication agency iMARS - «Rosneft", "RusHydro", "Sibur", "Rosatom", "Rossetti" and EXIAR.

Speaking about the difference in working with private companies and the public sector, the presidentommunikatsionnoy group iMARS Vladimir Stupnikov notes that above all it is the different approaches to the development of the technical project and the execution of contracts. "If the state-owned companies and authorities the terms of reference is formed solely by the internal customer (the press service, specialized departments, and so on. D.) In the framework of their competences, in the private sector, often before the tender is made thorough analysis and expert meetings with the leading players in the communication the market for new trends, tools and communication trends, "- he explains. In addition, during the implementation phase of the project a special client will always listen to your partner and to adjust either your communication plan, or your budget, and therefore - and the concluded contract. "Public customers do not have such an opportunity, guided by strict state contract, according to which the derogation from the terms of reference face" execution ", - says Vladimir criminal.

HQ Communications Agency representative objects: in his opinion, public relations of OJSC "Bryansk toOS "is not significantly different from the PR, for example, VTB. "Any organization pursues certain goals and carries out operations. The state is also inherently an organization, so the methods and channels of communication are the same. The only difference is in the amount of information and the error value to the brand - says the expert. This nuance is still there. For example, to sell the company's release of a little-known "Vedomosti", "Bryansk Ear" newspaper will be more difficult than the exclusive information about the Savings Bank. Information about the activities of state-owned famine and the government is practically insatiable, so spending a lot of money to promote their messages in the media sense. "The main difficulty - to provide the desired rate of reaction without loss of quality and the most infopovoda. Now it is not only the business understands the value of time and efficiency, so the public sector actively uses all corporate developments of recent years - it's not just new media, but also to work with big data and mobile technologies ", - noted in the HQ Communications.

Error resident
Error Price for private companies and government agencies are quite different. "Officials are enough to make one wrong statement to derail the market, while the bright, even shocking statements of business representative can only be cited as one of the possible points of view", - says Janina Kaznadeeva, Managing Director of "Mikhailov & Partners". If the press to discredit a small company trading in Badami, is - quite working case for the majority of PR-agencies are ready to restore the tarnished reputation. One domestic PR-agency recently engaged in the improvement of Herbalife's image in Russia. However, if an invalid statement allows himself a high official - a disaster for its news service and, incidentally, for the media, too. In this case, a typical gospiar begins in the "manual mode" - calls to the requirements to remove the article, even if journalists are all written confirmation, including dictaphone voice recording careless official. Private company features such media pressure, of course, does not matter.

From commemorative ogovorok the recent past - the statement by the Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov on May 29, 2015 that the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation agreed on the optimal rate of the ruble. "With regard to monetary policy, the perfect understanding we have now with the Central Bank that there are certain levels that need to be guided ... the decisions taken by the Central Bank on the replenishment of foreign exchange reserves, thereby shows that he, too, will maintain approximately the levels which are now developed ", - the minister said at the time, apparently, will not take journalists in the hall. The statement was immediately interpreted as an agreement between the government and the Central Bank of the course level that nullifies all previous assurances of "free floating" ruble. The news caused a wave of indignation in the press services of all involved in the application departments, reflected on the stock exchange and even forced the Finance Ministry to correct the statement and send the "right" quote the minister - said a source close to the agency.

At that price, the error is not surprising that the majority of state-owned companies generally try to be as non-publicbubbled. Very reluctant to work with the press Gazprombank: respond to one request out of ten, rarely organizes briefings, and its CEO not every bank reporter saw in his eyes. On the other hand, Gazprombank least publishes statements and has a transparent scheme of ownership, but the question of who is the owner of "Surgutneftegaz" - the mystery of the number one in the Russian oil industry. No one has ever seen the statements of investment company "Nafta Moscow" weighty owns stakes in major Russian companies. Requests, press releases and briefings for such companies do not exist in principle. With offices is still more complex: on the one hand, due to their opening of the next integer especially for this created Open Government, on the other - accidentally "leaked" to the newspaper document marked "for official use" may cause a big scandal and even dismissal involved in the incident official. A measure of openness here shall be verified very precisely.

The reputation of any agency or government agencies - this is not only the honor of a single minister or the manager, it's always a little bit and SanchezIt is the government itself. If the media write about disgruntled depositors of the Savings Bank or the determination to ruin the vice-premier source of long investments in the economy, it's kind of reputation and the threat to the state. To learn how to cope with recent similar challenges, can be judged by the example of the press-service of the Bank of Russia. In 2013, as head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Elvira Nabiullina has come, replacing Sergei Ignatyev post on her fragile shoulders simple task of creating a mega-regulator has been entrusted. Ignatieff, who headed the central bank for more than 10 years and received the journalists affectionate nickname "Grandpa" for this problem is not addressed. That there is a fact that by his own admission Gref retained passbooks Sberbank only for Ignatieff, who "leads the club passbooks defenders." Nabiullina easily operates with the concepts of shorts and longs, and Bitcoin blokcheynov passbook and is unlikely to have.

This led the Bank of Russia needed a spokesman for a match, and he was found - in September 2013, the press service headed by Anna Granik, former head of the news service, "Primeand "(the structure of the" RIA Novosti ") and" one of the most famous Russian journalists in the banking sector '(quote from the news of the appointment of banki.ru portal). At the end of 2014 and Nabiullina, and Granik faced with an unprecedented challenge: the deepening structural crisis of the economy against the backdrop of closed foreign markets led to the need to let the ruble float freely ahead of time, which, in turn, caused the ruble collapse and endanger the liquidity banking sector. But worst of all had ordinary citizens - many abandoned foreign travel and goods, greatly cut costs. On the brink of survival were currency mortgage holders, payments on loans that exceeded their income. The situation in December last year was terrible: currency mortgage holders picketed the building of the Central Bank, banks have demanded repayment of debt at all costs, and the central bank are at a loss. As a result, public discontent was growing, that has hurt the image Nabiullina. The network has a huge number of unpleasant jokes about the Central Bank and was launched a lot of damaging regulatorBlogging, for example, the famous "Kurilka TseBe" on Twitter.

Press service of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the purpose of which was not part of the PR, and even more so - the anti-crisis public relations, could not control the situation. (By the way, with network Hammami quickly and easily coped Ministry of Labor, launching a blog about the "ministerial cat.") In the end, Anna Granik this summer was transferred to the honorary post of Deputy Head of the Service for the Protection of the rights of consumers of financial services and minority shareholders, and changed its Marina Ryklin, to whose merits in profsoobschestve carry the highest popularity rating Shoigu. (In 1991-2004, she served as the head of the press service of Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.) The problem Ryklin, as you might guess, enters the popularization of the individual in society, Elvira Nabiullina, and so far everything is going well. That there is only one correct and timely filed the news that Nabiullina was the "central bankers Year" by Euromoney.

Help Granik last December could attracted to outsource PR-agency, but due to the slowness of the machine procurement it was impossible to do. "Using state-owned companiesand authorities of course, in some cases suggests the occurrence of crises. However, a feature of state contracts - strict adherence to technical requirements, prescribed in the tender documentation. No derogation can not be, otherwise it will be considered a violation of the existing contract, which spells out all conditions. As a rule, gostenderah rare contracts for emergency intervention in the complex PR-situation ", - said Vladimir criminal. If PR professionals in time to intervene in the situation, the Central Bank's image certainly managed to not only maintain but also to improve.

The probability of occurrence of negative assessments is always, therefore, work in crisis mode - it is an integral part of the PR-cooperation with state institutions, said Janina Kaznadeeva. "At the start of crisis management prepared a risk map, which can be adjusted in the course of implementation of the proposed strategy to the customer. As you know, there's nothing like carefully prepared impromptu ", - says she is fine workmanship.

Piarschto star

Sometimes the press secretaries are the real stars. Early last year, the host of "But" on Channel Mikhail Leontiev was appointed press secretary - director of the department of information and advertising "Rosneft". For eighteen months the press secretary's largest oil company, and he has become a popular newsmaker: not skupyaschegosya Mikhail Vladimirovich expression journalists literally "cast in granite." Leontiev official comments using the following expressions: "Bandera lobby", "control shot in the body," "continual lies on the little things and in general", "plans psychedelic", "if I ripped off your coat, took the purse and gave the face, it is not called the arrest of the property. "

In terms of public relations, "Rosneft" figurative speech her press secretary is positive: the majority of the population of Russia close its eyes and impressed by the style of speech. But a month ago, Mr. Leontiev still made annoying PR mistake by joining the correspondence argument with another giant - "LUKOIL". Prior to that, the opponents were Leontievmost of the concepts of common nouns and generalized: the Saudi oil industry, OPEC as a whole, Americans and Ukrainians. In August Leontiev publicly questioned the victory of "Lukoil" in the competition for the East Taimyr mine. Resources of this site is 4.5 million tons of oil, 9.3 billion cubic meters. meters of gas and 0.5 million tons of condensate. According to Leontief, "Rosneft" is confident that this competition was held with violations, in particular, were not opened the second envelope with the stated amounts of payments for the land. "We have no claim to the procedure", - he said at the time Leontiev and added that the technical and economic indicators of "Rosneft" were much better deals "Lukoil".

"Lukoil" with stormy accusations press secretary of "Rosneft" has not agreed and issued a press release. "Common messages are offensive in form and in content pointless character" - so they determined the statement Leontiev. In turn, Vice-President of "Rosneft" skirmish continued and called information noise around competition at the East Taimyr mine "registered company"against "Rosneft", "Custom campaign that is now in the press, it is clear: it begins, as usual, with the Interactive garbage dumps. We will not spend money on the purchase of black PR and some anonymous writers. We can all openly explain and openly present our arguments, and most importantly - to dispel such nonsense, misinformation and those insinuations that afford our opponents on this particular dispute addressed to "Rosneft", which, in our opinion, undermines the image of the company, and harms our business reputation, and in general, even in terms of the country is unacceptable, "- said Leontiev. As a result, the discussion gradually moved from web pages in the courts, where oil giants have to understand the merits.

However, spokesmen often very responsible organizations allow trivial tactical errors. Surprisingly, some of the press-service agencies and state-owned companies set themselves unusual problem (for example, educational or ethical-moral), which often prevents them to perform real - implementation of information policy, and nodderzhanie image of power. No less prevents the press services and attempt to establish a good relationship with some specific media or journalists who, for example, like leadership or are former colleagues of the PR man. As a result, "offended" the media will not hesitate to take revenge, and that could damage the image.

Often, government agencies recognize the media on a "three agencies and three newspapers" ( "Interfax", "RIA Novosti", TASS, RBC, "Vedomosti" and "Kommersant"), for the rest of the media in this case, to obtain first-hand information becomes almost impossible , which again makes it difficult for most departments in operational dissemination of reliable information. There are state-owned company, which, by contrast, like to work only with "foreigners» (Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times) or TV, it is again difficult to implement informpolitiki. The big problem occurs when the press secretaries of state structures can not be promptly and accurately explain the actions of the organization. This often happens because of the lack of special education and trainingpress officer. In this case, journalists are free to interpret the actions of departments and state-owned companies from third-party experts say that re-creates the image risks.

In the coming years the state press services have become more responsible, because of the scale of the crisis in the economy of the budgets for professional PR-technologists are cut. In a difficult economic situation, state contracts in the field of PR-communications are beginning to attract the attention of even the communications market players who have never had in its portfolio of state orders. The market is unpredictable.