Survival lessons from veterans who've seen it all
by CLAUDE SOLNIK

Years after the dot-com bust, firms offer varying success strategies no matter the situation.

GREAT NECK - In the tech boom of the early 1990s, Robin Frank sat on the sidelines watching while hype lifted small companies. She got calls from Internet startups looking for public relations, since buzz was often a key ingredient in those firms' business plan. But buzz, it turns out, proved to be the only business they had.

When it came to taking on these suddenly hot dot-com clients, "I declined because it wasn't my area of expertise," said Frank, owner of Robin Frank Public Relations in Great Neck. "I had my doubts about what PR could do for particular tech clients. I heard of a case of a tech startup paying a Manhattan agency $60,000 a month," says Frank, who still marvels at the amount. "Even the agency VP told me they would be hard-pressed to justify that kind of retainer. No wonder so many startups went under."

Today, Frank doesn't have any regrets. She finds the industry she services, health care and biotech, has heated up. But unlike the dot-coms, she believes: "Healthcare is recession-proof."

The bubble of the early 1990s - when Internet companies relied heavily on PR - has burst, and 9/11 has come and gone. Still, both have left PR firms to carve out their own survival strategies.

Many such as Frank have grown by focusing on niches in terms of industry and geography.

SPECIALIZING. WordHampton Public Relations in East Hampton has honed its expertise in restaurants, primarily on the East End while slowing its efforts to sign New York City clients. "We used to handle a handful of restaurants in Manhattan. But since 9/11, we haven't done too much in Manhattan," explains vice president Nicole Starr Castillo. "It's not necessarily in their budget to hire a PR person." Simply put, WordHampton, like many Long Island PR firms, has found success by knowing its core clientele.

DIVERSIFYING. Zimmerman Edelson, based in Great Neck, thinks it was shielded from the 9/11 and dot-com effect because of its diverse client roster. It represents industries from real estate to law firms and financial services, located as far as California.

"The message had to change for the first year or two after that. They had to let people know 'we're still here, we're still strong,'" says partner Ron Edelson of the days after 9/11.

PLAYING UP PR. Others insist that having clients in diverse industries can be a good survival and expansion strategy, as long as you specialize in PR itself. "We are the true boutique PR firm" is the way Todd Shapiro looks at his outfit, Todd Shapiro Associates. "We don't do advertising. We don't do marketing. We only do PR. We do all types of PR. Not every firm does that."

While various strategies can work, the Hicksville firm believes that to thrive, PR people need to work longer hours than ever, because there's now more media and a faster pace to technology.

Few industries have been changed so much by the cell phone as PR. "The lesson to survive in this industry? Your phone can't stop," Shapiro says. "You've got to work early in the morning until late at night. TV has changed in 10 years. Media has changed. There are more TV stations, more shows."

But even the nature of all this growth has changed. Shapiro points out that nowadays it's vital to be able to reach out to the large Spanish-speaking population on Long Island.

"We send out release in Spanish too," he says.

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