PR In The Eternal City

This summer, while studying abroad at Temple Rome I found a small cafe in the heart of the city. Everyday I watched countless Roman businessmen and women trickle in and out of the café at lunchtime. After seeing these professionals day after day, I began to wonder: what is modern public relations like in the eternal city?

I learned that one of Rome’s biggest public relations firms is called Barabino & Partners. This agency is defined as a corporate public relations firm and dominates the Italian public relations market. Like many Italian PR firms, most of Barabino & Partners’ earnings come from work in Public Affairs.

Interestingly, Barabino & Partners as well as most other Italian public relations firms are basically unconcerned with social media. This is interesting because social media has come to define public relations in the United States and basically determines the success of all major and small businesses, brands and companies. Lack of social media may be due to Italy’s seriously unpredictable and problematic wifi connection.

Also, in the United States, public relations specialists are often associated with having an extremely busy schedule and an almost workaholic attitude. However, life is a little more slow-paced for the Italian PR professional. For example, most start their day in the late morning and take a lunch break daily. As many know, in America, PR specialists rarely sleep in on the weekends let alone workdays and while you could catch many Roman PR specialists leisurely drinking cappuccino on their lunch break most Philadelphia PR pros survive on a diet of to-go espresso.

Like Barabino & Partners, many Roman PR firms have numerous international clients and therefore, are always looking to hire international employees. Thus, if you happen to be an Italian-speaking PR student who would enjoy work in a slower-paced corporate environment, Rome is the city for you.

Do you think Italian PR sounds more enjoyable due to its laid back environment? Do you think this laid back environment changes the type of students studying Public Relations in Rome and Italy compared to Philadelphia and the United States? 

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Emily Charles