Joining me this week’s episode is Tatevik Simonyan, the co-founder and director of communications and international relations at SPRING PR company in Armenia. I first met Tatevik when I was looking to expand the ethics cases outside of the US.
Tatevik discusses
- How to best counsel your client when they want to respond unethically to an unethical competitor
- How to react calmly and ethically in highly emotional crises
- Should PR create a global code of ethics for influencer marketing?
- What companies should know about PR in Armenia
Tell us about yourself and your career
I’m super excited to join you today from Yerevan, Armenia, and to share all the expertise we have here. I am an entrepreneur and PR professional with 18 years of experience in communication. I remember when I was super young, I was dreaming, “Oh my God, when I will have 10 plus years of expertise,” and now I’m very happy that I can share some insights with you.
I started my career as a communication professional in an investment management company. Then I moved on to manage the marketing department for the French company’s Armenian branch. And early in 2009, together with my two partners, I founded SPRING PR. And it’s a 100% woman owned business.
In the early years of SPRING (Strategic PR Initiative Group), we often remarked that PR in Armenia needed its own PR. Today, I’m truly proud to say that we are recognized for our commitment to ethical communications. And through all our activities and our reputation, we have not only set standards for our industry, but have also educated the business community, which is very valuable for us.
Besides SPRING PR, I’m the founder of the Doing Digital International Forum, one of the largest tech events in the region. It unites leaders from various sectors and aims to explore the latest trends in digital transformation across diverse fields.
For the past three years, I have served as a global advisory board member at the World Communication Forum Association, Davos. I’m very, very proud to be a part of the largest global networks, such as the Public Relations Society of America and International PR Association. This is very important for me as a professional because I’m super connected with various communicators from all over the globe, and it’s very important to support my lifelong learning and to get experiences and point of views from various parts of the world. So, it’s very, very, very important for me. And because of that, now I know you, so I’m looking forward to having this discussion.
Some folks may not say that’s a good thing, but I’m really glad I had a chance to meet you. What is the most difficult ethical challenge you’ve confronted in your career?
I have had various difficult ethical challenges, but today I want to share with you a situation I faced when the CEO of our partner company was in a very highly-emotional state and made a decision to combat a fake attack on their company by using the same tactics..
The client’s internal team suggested building fake accounts and using those to disseminate their message. This is fundamentally against our agency’s commitment to ethical communication. It’s a huge dilemma. Should we compromise our principles for keeping the client happy or stand firm in our values?
While we could have simply refused the task for being unethical, we understood that not all competitors were committed to following the same ethical standards. But you became responsible, forever, for what you have tamed, as Saint-Exupéry states.
We had a frank and open discussion with our client explaining why the proposed tactics were not only unethical, but could also damage their reputation. Our decision was not to just reject unethical communication and practices, but to educate our client on the importance of social responsibility and long-term reputation management. Because when they are decision-making processes, there can be some very emotional situations. But you need to have very frank and open discussions. And we had that, explaining why the proposed tactics were unethical. It was a challenging conversation. But fortunately, the client appreciated our honesty and refused that idea.
We always worked for trust, transparency, honesty, and fair communication, and this is what we call for – being ethical. I strongly believe that both trust and ethics are the guiding principles that define the PR profession and make a difference. As communicators, we have the responsibility of protecting not only our partners, clients, and their reputation, but also, we are protecting our profession’s reputation.
Another important challenge is that PR professionals face numerous ethical dilemmas, especially in crisis situations. I don’t know how you are aware about our region, but Armenia, we had such situations. We had COVID-19 pandemic, as all of the world, but we also had the war. This requires speedy decision-making and under really extreme uncertainty.
And during such times, ethical codes become invaluable guides because they provide clarity and serve as a compass. In bad situations, you can even be very emotional as a professional. But you should ensure that your actions align with the core values and principles even in the most turbulent times.
For instance, we had to carefully consider how to communicate sensitive information to the public, ensuring accuracy without causing unnecessary panic of this threat.
I have about seven questions to follow up, but I’ll only ask a few of them. Let’s start, actually, with what you were talking about, the crisis situations and the war. How are you helping your 100 employees? They have real security concerns and they’re dealing with mental health issues and challenges.
We are a mid or small PR agency, but we work with various clients, and each of those clients has more than 1,000 employees. You just need to come and to understand that in bad situations, you need to have several options. You have several scenarios of how to communicate this, or that, or that.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we wrote an article and published it about how to act in crisis situations. It was both for businesses, both for the employees, and both for our staff, because you are super emotional during those times, and you need to keep calm to observe and to see the bigger picture.
When you’re having to make those ethical decisions and you’re emotional, you don’t always think the best, at least I don’t. How do you counsel people to act when they’re in that heightened emotional state?
For this, we have crisis situation statements and strategy. There are some unknown unknown situations, some known unknowns, like the crisis itself. But for each client, let’s say, if it’s a strategic communication we do for them, we always have the anti-crisis strategy and the crisis team. When you have this group, let’s say crisis decision-making group, including CEOs, including, I don’t know, lawyers, if you need, so we have various standards, how to solve this, that if you’re dealing with this kind of crisis or that kind of crisis.
The main thing that helps us to calm down are the written down and already prepared scenarios when you can sit and discuss. And also, it’s very important to discuss lessons learned.
Perhaps the most valuable is the willingness to work hard and often remain behind the scenes as a professional. One of the most important questions we discuss with clients before starting a partnership, we discuss, “So, we are a strategic communication firm, so we need to have a strategy.” And we always need to have a crisis intervention and crisis situation strategy too, because you never know where the crisis comes and how it comes. It’s never knock at the door and say, “Just wait 10 minutes, or nine days, or you can come in.” So, you need to be prepared, and it’s really very, very important for this.
Going back to fake accounts – are fake accounts a significant challenge in Armenia?
I think yes, it’s a very common thing, especially during some political crisis situations. When we write a strategy for business, we do a PESTLE analysis, and we bring to the table the political, economic, and other things that can harm and can bring their challenges to the business. In recent years, not only here in Armenia, but I know that all over the globe has witnessed the spread of fake news, hate speech, and an alarming rise in propaganda, especially fueled by armed conflicts in various parts of the globe.
So, while the advancement of technology and social media platforms have certainly brought about numerous positive changes, they have also opened the space for the dissemination of fake news, hate speech, and propaganda, and making these disruptive forms of communication really accessible to a worldwide audience.
You are sitting here in Armenia, but this fake news could be spread all around the world about a business which is acting there or not. So, this is very accessible, and even though leading media and social networks have taken on the role of fact checking, this is not always sufficient.
Another critical issue is context sensitivity. Even if we conduct communications ethically and take socially responsible actions, in a politically polarized climate, any economic or cultural news can be manipulated for political gain. So, this means that while we strive to be ethical, others, they are not upholding the same standards. So, it’s a real, real hard challenge. But we understand that for all this, we have only one medicine. It’s transparency, it’s ethical communication. Of course, it’s hard. Of course, sometimes we even lost clients.
We always choose the client. We always think, “Who will be our partner?” Because we understand that if they do not share our values, they do not share our visions, so they are, let’s say, unethical, so it could harm us.
Of course, in this kind of communication, you can make lots of money, lots of money. Especially, Armenian market is a very small one. Of course, we collaborate with international organizations, with international huge agencies. We do some nice great projects with international top 10 PR agencies. But it’s really, really a huge challenge.
Another significant ethical challenge is the rise of influencer marketing. Fake news and unethical communications sometimes come from them. They often blend roles as they are not marketing specialists, PR, or they mix also. They do marketing, PR, journalism, but without any formal ethical guidelines to govern their conduct.
When collaborating with influencers, we must rely on their personal ethics and standards. And I always, on each professional summit, or forum, or any networking meeting, I say and I raise a rhetorical question here about whether we, as a communication professional, should take the lead in bringing this topic to the table, working collaboratively, for example, with them and establishing ethical regulations within this here.
They are often a huge part of your strategy and your outreach plan and your actions. But you are doing a huge work when you are choosing influencers, when you are understanding, especially if this is the first time. There are some publications, you can do media analyses, understand the reputation, and you can see some campaigns, et cetera, et cetera. But for local influencers, for example, or, let’s say, regional ones who are covering the region, I have lots of problems.
I remember that it was, I think, in 2019, and this was a really good year for business before pandemic, before the world gets crazy. We had a great event with one of the biggest brands. I remember their communication team from Japan, they asked us to send the influencer list for approval, and we sent them microinfluencers who don’t have so many followers.
At that time, it was not so much trendy. So in 2019, in our market and globally, you needed to have numbers, numbers, numbers. But we said that if you want ethical communication, if you want targeted communication, so that we need are their reputation and their influence. How big is their influence, not only in quantity but in quality?
As communication professionals, we should advocate for and work with platforms, medias, individuals, companies, brands that are committed to ethical comms.
For influencers, in the United States, the FTC has clear guidelines in terms of disclosing if you’re paid or provided products for free, what are the rules in Armenia?
We don’t have these kinds of regulations, but it’s very interesting. And now we are discussing in the community, in our network, how we should bring this to the table and to discuss this regarding if you are getting payments, if you are doing this not for free, et cetera. This is a very new thing for us. This is bad situation.
We need to bring them to the, let’s say, legal field. And I see the processes, and it’s very, very important for us as communicators. And we do, let’s say, our job and take some actions to discuss this, to bring this to the table and to discuss this because it’s very, very important. We had lots of cases when we are working with influencer, we have a contract with them, or maybe they don’t want to have even contract. “No, no, I will post a story.” We say, “No, we don’t want you to post a story. For you, it’s only posting a story. For us, it’s storytelling, it’s reputation management.”
Aside from hiring SPRING PR, what should American businesses that are looking to do a communications campaign in Armenia know?
We are a very small market, but very interesting and emerging one, especially now after all this political situation. For example, we have the American Chamber here in Armenia and SPRING PR decided to join this chamber because we see that there is an interest from American companies to come to Armenia to do some research, to understand the economic climate, et cetera. And vice versa, Armenian organizations going out of our borders. For example, we have a client who get a bid from one of the Miami huge construction companies, and they are exporting doors and windows to those.
What they need to know when talking about communications and the level of services we can provide, is that we are a part of the global community. We follow all the international standards, and we are very open to learn.
I was in New York last year in May, and I understand that we had lots of things to bring to the table, even like our expertise, because when you don’t know, “Where is Armenia? What can we do there?” It’s, “Oh, you can do there a great business.”
Digital transformation is very active here in Armenia. Some say small countries need to be more developed. But we have digital transformation and digital activity, FinTech, and start-ups. If they want to do business here, we have great food great wine, and great hospitality, if some American company wants this scenario, to bring the office to Armenia and to work from here. And we have, for example, ServiceTitan here. So, we have Microsoft and this kind of organization, but we need more and more.
I can say that especially for us at SPRING PR, after the COVID pandemic and during the COVID pandemic, lots of Armenian organizations started to think other way and go out of the border. So, this brings some great opportunities for us to research to find good partners in the USA, in Europe, in Africa, in other countries.
What is the best piece of ethics advice you ever received?
The advice I always share with my students when I was teaching, was from my mentor. He said, “Do not harm. And first is do not harm,” like the Hippocrates.
Do not harm not only the society in which you live, the organization you work for, it’s also very important, and the profession you represent. So, this is the paramount principle and primum non nocere, as in Latin.
My mother was a doctor. So, each time she says, “I don’t understand what you do,” I says, “Mum, it’s the same thing.”
Do no harm.
Is there anything else you wanted to highlight?
As communicators, we hold the key to rebuilding trust and promoting ethical communications. And as we often emphasize in public relations, the stress is on relations.
And in relations, the ultimate game changer is trust. So, we must confront the challenges of the digital world, of course, while also championing transparency and fact checking. I want to say, for example, it was earlier this year when Facebook launched its fact checking here in Armenia with one of the very high-level media outlets here. So, we are very happy with this, and this is very important, fact checking, and responsible storytelling, and responsible engagement. By taking these steps, we can re-establish trust in our collaborating institutions, and thus laying the groundwork for a more ethical and responsible communication landscape.
So being responsible, it’s very important. And I do love the PR definition by PRSA where it says it’s a strategic communication, PR. So yes, it’s a strategic, because of that SPRING, strategic PR, and it’s a process. It’s build the relations with organizations, et cetera, et cetera. But I always love to mix the PR definition of PRSA and the International PR Association. And I want to add that the last PR definition by International PR Association, it’s located in London, was given in Yerevan because we were hosting their Global World Awards. It was the 10th anniversary of SPRING PR, and we are hosting the global community of PR professionals here in Yerevan, and we were discussing with them how to give this new definition. And we added true, trusted, and ethical communication methods. It’s very important. You cannot be strategic if you are not using trusted and ethical communication methods.
Listen to the full interview, with bonus content, here:
- How to best counsel your client when they want to respond unethically to an unethical competitor – Tatevik Simonyan - October 28, 2024
- Why it’s important to know many codes of ethics – Erin Kennedy - September 9, 2024
- The Importance of Really Small Things – Capt. Barbara Bell, USN (ret) - May 28, 2024
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