Tina Kozak is the CEO of Detroit-based Franco. She's the first woman and only the third person to hold the CEO position in firm's 62 year history. Her career highlights span a variety of areas from client service and industry innovation to organizational culture and empowering women. As Franco’s CEO, she leads the company in its values, culture and strategic vision. One of metro Detroit’s most respected crisis communications strategists, Tina counsels a range of clients in communications strategy, change management and community relations. Tina challenges clients to think differently about communications and seeks to influence organizational performance, not just tell stories.

About the Hosts

Abbie Fink is president of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. Her marketing communications background includes skills in media relations, digital communications, social media strategies, special event management, crisis communications, community relations, issues management, and marketing promotions for both the private and public sectors, including such industries as healthcare, financial services, professional services, government affairs and tribal affairs, as well as not-for-profit organizations.

Dr. Adrian McIntyre is a cultural anthropologist, media personality, speaker, and strategic communications consultant for PR agencies and marketing firms. He's lived in over 30 countries and spent more than a decade in the Middle East and Africa as a researcher, journalist, communications adviser, media spokesperson, and storytelling consultant. He earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright scholar and National Science Foundation fellow. Adrian helps agency leaders strengthen their positioning, sharpen their messaging, boost their visibility, and win new clients by replacing impersonal, intrusive and ineffective marketing tactics with authentic human conversations.

PRGN Presents is brought to you by Public Relations Global Network, the world’s local public relations agency. Our executive producer is Adrian McIntyre. The show is produced by the team at Speed of Story, a B2B communications firm in Phoenix, AZ.

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From the Public Relations Global Network, this is PRGN Presents. I’m Adrian McIntyre.

And I’m Abbie Fink, President of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. With public relations leaders embedded into the fabric of the communities we serve, clients hire our agencies for the local knowledge, expertise and connections in markets spanning six continents across the world.

Our guests on this biweekly podcast series are all members of the Public Relations Global Network. They will discuss such topics as workplace culture, creative compensation and succession planning, the importance of sustainability and environmental, social and governance programs, crisis communications, and outside of the box thinking for growing your business.

For more information about PRGN and our members, please visit prgn.com and now let’s meet our guest for this episode.

Tina Kozak 00:1:00

Hi, I'm Tina Kozak, CEO of Franco, based in Detroit. We've been around since the 60s and have evolved into an integrated communications firm, focuses heavily on strategy, invested in some industries like automotive mobility, professional service, healthcare, and nonprofit. And my day-to-day, aside from running the business side of the business, is really strategic communications, a lot of strategy development, and crisis and reputation management for clients.

Abbie Fink 00:1:32

So anyone in the PR industry over the last handful of weeks has probably read some articles that has once again declared that public relations is dead. Irony in that statement, as you just told us, your agency's been around since the 60s. So clearly, we have survived significant times where this statement has been made. I couldn't disagree more in the fact that I think PR and the brand management is so much more important and maybe even more so as we, you know, look into the new year with all the different things that are impacting us, technology, the global issues and such. I mean, it's not dead. In fact, it might be stronger than ever. And, you know, what are you seeing in the work that you've been doing?

Tina Kozak 00:2:20

Abbie Fink 00:3:45

And we're not dead yet.

Tina Kozak 00:3:47

No.

Abbie Fink 00:3:48

So the, you know, and I think the, you know, we've been seeing similar in conversations and, you know, media relations and earned media has always been our sweet spot. It's been a, we've built our agency on that structure, incorporating the other elements of communications and strategy for obvious reasons. But as you mentioned, the large language models and what AI is doing to the work that we're doing has made what we're doing even more significant and more important. Presents certainly plenty of opportunities, but there are some risks involved and some threats that can exist as well in this environment. So thinking about brand reputation and what organizations need to be considering, what are you advising? What are the types of things in that strategic role that you're playing that we need to be sharing with our clients as it relates to that? You know, there are opportunities always will have the counter, which is potential threats as well.

Tina Kozak 00:4:51

Sure. Well, just like, you know, always, I mean, for the 60 years that Franco's been in business, you know, it's got to be careful and thoughtful. And I think this time around, the technology is playing such a different role that trust and authenticity and ethics are important. Out of our control to some extent. So we have to be really mindful about making

Tina Kozak 00:5:18

sure that we're paying attention. You know, in the past, there's the brand and the media.

Tina Kozak 00:5:25

And today, there's just so much that can sort of manipulate that story and what's out there. So we're really working with clients to make sure that the monitoring is sound, that you're, you know, you're not just putting something out there and kind of letting it fly, that you're, you know, carefully following conversations and narratives about your brand. And we're seeing more sort of bot interruptions or bot attacks on brands that the technology is enabling. So that's something that we're really cautioning and making sure that clients are prepared for that, along with what we've seen in the last 10 or 15 years is just information moves at the speed of light, keyboard warriors, conversations take on a life of their own in the comment section. But this is just an additional element where, you know, the narrative, the brand story can kind of go sideways.

Abbie Fink 00:6:21

Yeah, I was talking with, did a training with a client recently and our media training has started to incorporate what the role of AI is and how as an agency we're using it, how we believe you as the client need to. And one of the conversations that we were having talked a little bit about, you know, my hope is that we learned some very valuable lessons from the introduction of social media into our strategy. And we didn't pay attention close attention to how it was going to be. It was fun. It was shiny. It was new. It was exciting. We could talk to, you know, our customers in a way we hadn't been able to. Yay, amazing. And then all of the stuff that happened and all the not so great things that were part of what social brought to the table. Still believe in it, still think it's a valuable strategy, but we were playing catch up and how to be smart about it. And I think if we are smart, we took those lessons and said, all right, we need to be smarter about how we're incorporating, how we are actively incorporating AI into our strategy, but also recognizing it's there. It's doing it, whether we take a role in it or not, and managing that in a different way. And I think that's where, at least from our perspective, we've really made that shift in how we're thinking about it, how we're using it, and recognizing that what we do is what is driving the success of AI's incorporation into brand management.

Tina Kozak 00:7:56

Yeah, absolutely. And trust. I think, you know, discernment, excuse me, discernment, becomes so much more important. I mean, it's always been something, but the responsibility as a consumer of news or as a consumer of a brand, the ability to discern, is this real? Where is this coming from? Sort of what is the root of this is just increasingly important. And for the brand to stay true and authentic to their brand story and sort of the human side of that brand story and not let the technology take it away and make it a commodity of words. So I think that the human element is so important. The discernment is so important. And that's where we can really help clients make sure that they're striking that balance and sort of not letting it run away in some ways, like you suggested, you know, with social, or we didn't see those pitfalls immediately and didn't prepare for them.

Adrian McIntyre 00:9:05

Tina, there's been such a proliferation of new acronyms, AIO, GEO, L-M-N-O-PEO, E-I-E-I-O. One of the things that I have observed over the years is that PR firms have been comfortable leaving some of the technical execution to SEO firms. And the idea was, look, we're going to handle your earned media. And we meant kind of prestige media because blogs are media and have been since the 90s. Podcasts are media. Newsletters are media. The convergence of digital channels makes some of those distinctions almost irrelevant now. So two things are happening. And this is my question. On the one hand, we've got the fragmentation of all media. Audiences are smaller and more niche, and they're more spread out. People are consuming even the traditional media. As Abbie's fond of saying, they're not watching CNN on CNN. They're watching clips of Anderson Cooper on TikTok or Instagram. So the distribution channels for the same sources are now all social. Like there is no not social media anymore. And at the same time, you reference what I am now calling the machine layer, the GEO or AI optimized search that's increasingly important. So your firm... Grounded in tradition has been rapidly, we've talked about this before, the three of us even talked about this in Nairobi, has been moving rapidly towards being able to execute on some of these new things. On the one hand, it's a whole new set of disciplines, but at the same time, you're bringing that classic attention to the message and the audience and the brand reputation and all the rest. How are you navigating? This is a very broad question. How are you navigating all of that?

Yeah, well, so I said, you know, integrated. And for us, like we're an integrated firm. For us, that means that we are very specialized in those different areas of paid, earned, shared, owned. Like Abbie and like so many of the PRGN members, we are really rooted in PR. That's where we were founded. Relationships and, you know, media relations was really the beginning of that. But we have built a very, very strong digital backbone to the agency. And I think a brand that can find a partner that helps them, really owns the reputation, is responsible for that reputation, the brand narrative in all of its forms and in all of the places where we might put it and where it might show up.

A partner that can do that, I think, is invaluable to a brand today. So you started out asking, I think, about SEO agencies and do brands kind of farm that out to more of a technical developer? And we have this very, very strong digital backbone at Franco, but we don't do it all. And so strong partnerships with the developers and working hand in hand to be able to deliver those kinds of things to clients. So shifting into, we and I wrestled with my team about AIO, GIO, what are we calling it? We're launching products and services. What are we calling these things? I came back from Nairobi. I'm like, guys, everybody's saying GEO. And they're like, we're, Tina, you know, we're calling it AIO. So we have launched AI enablement services. And, you know, some of them are audits and some of them are strategies, not to tell clients what tools to use. I mean, there are some of that there, but really why you would use these, what are you trying to do? You know, what are the different touch points? And we're bringing in strategic partners, very, very technical partners for components of that.

As sort of the brand steward and the partner with our client brands, we are leading that and bringing in, you know, the very, very technical specialists, as it makes sense. But again, you know, protecting that brand sort of at the highest level, keeping it human, keeping it trustworthy, keeping it authentic, and being on the defense for what might happen in those instances where we haven't tried to put something somewhere, but, you know, it's going, it's there, it's taking on a life of its own and listening and adapting and straightening things out with our core audiences. Maybe it's shifting the strategy and going to channels where true audiences are and, you know, maybe they aren't as filled with sort of the bots. And we're not suggesting to clients to go away from opposition, right? Like healthy opposition and discussion is good. But, you know, at some times, some channels in some instances are just not worth it anymore because they're just full of hallucinations and bats.

And bad actors and AI-generated awful content. And I'm not going to name any names, but their initials are X … but moving right along.

Yeah, well, and you know, what I hear in this and what resonates for me always is, Our role with our clients as a trusted advisor, a trusted counselor, that hasn't changed. We might be analyzing significantly more data and more places for this data to live than we might have had five years ago, 10 years ago. But our responsibility to our clients is to understand that and bring them the best information that we can. You know, I love what you said that, you know, we're not running away from conflict or opposition or crisis. We have to learn how to manage within it. These are the things that now present us, making the role as advisor and counselor, I think, even more significant. There is the strategy and the tactical implementation of what we are advising, but there is this very high-level conversation that happens, should happen, that gives the clients that we support and our teams this back-and-forth dialogue about what's important, What is driving our brand this year, this quarter, whatever, managing it within a timeframe? What are the risks? What are the opportunities? What do we need to be aware of?

And here are the tools and opportunities that exist for us to be the best that we can be within that environment. And so for me, that strategy is such an important component of not just the brand strategy, right, but the business goals. What are we trying to accomplish as an organization? How do what we do support that? And why, as we've said since the dawn of time, your communications team needs to be at the table because we are helping you at ground level make significant decisions for the better of your organization.

Yeah, it's funny, Abbie, as you say that, I think about, you know, what you said at the beginning, too, about, you know, kind of PR is dead. And again and again, we've heard that. And we've been around a long time, as I said. And there's this great photo of our founder, Tony Franco. He's not with us anymore. He's not with the business. And he passed away some years ago. But he was like an original PR guy, right? Founded the business in 1964. Very like Mad Men-esque, like just kind of a cool guy and very much like always in it, was like networking with all the people in the city. And there's this great photo of him in this trench coat with the sunglasses. And he's like standing out on the baseball field with a client that we had at the time. It was Domino's Pizza, which is, you know, turned into a global brand. And he's there with the CEO of Domino's. And he's there with like the Detroit Tigers. And he was there to protect their brand, right? Like he's there. There's high stakes for the brand. They've got this, you know, high stakes opportunity. and he's there and he's buttoned up and he's in person and he's like, he's the brand partner. And we're doing the same thing. And, you know, sometimes we're standing out in person with the client still, and we're, you know, kind of filling that role. And sometimes we are looking ahead.

What's coming and what do our partners need to be thinking about and where do we sit or stand to protect them but the role is the same and it's knowing the client knowing the opportunities knowing the risks and kind of getting in there at the ground level whatever the ground level is to make sure that they're prepared so you know it's like the fundamentals haven't changed

in terms of what we do and why we do it. I mean, the how of it has become complicated. And, you know, I would argue more complicated with each passing minute. And I think what happens for, you know, these brands and these leaders is the inclination is to back off of these opportunities. Like, I don't know if I want to be out there. I don't know if I want to, you know, I don't know if I want to host this community meeting. Maybe we'll just kind of do this quietly behind the scenes. Tina, there's so much risk for being out there today. You know, it could just go sideways. It's going to be all over the place. And I think being forthcoming, you know, being proactive is more important than ever if you're prepared.

Because again, there are so many places where that sort of opposition can pop up and go wrong. So getting it right, doing the right thing, you know, thinking empathetically from a leader standpoint, from a brand standpoint, you know, what do I need to tell the people that matter? And where do I need to say it? Where do I need to put these messages? What do I need to be prepared for? You know, despite the threats and the noise and just kind of being prepared for it.

Thanks for listening to this episode of PRGN Presents, brought to you by the Public Relations Global Network.

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