Ricochet Public Relations, Inc., which serves healthcare, technology and industrial clients, has opened a D.C. office. Banks Willis, a ten-year legislative and corporate communications veteran who spent six years at General Electric Company after serving as a staffer for former Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) on the Armed Services Committee, will head the new practice.
"Although there are many PR firms in Washington that promote themselves as media relations experts, we noticed an extraordinary gap in the marketplace," said Josh Silverman, CEO of Ricochet. "We're offering our clients a smarter, more effective approach to influencing public policy in Washington via strategic media relations."
Launched in 2000 in NYC, Ricochet has a full-time staff of 35 professionals. In its relatively short existence, Ricochet reports that has "made a name for itself by pioneering a new business model in the PR industry, one that has attracted some of America's largest companies. In a first for the global PR industry, new employees at Ricochet are placed in one of three practice areas - Technology, Health Care, or Industry - and are required to become experts in the fields in which they work through the Ricochet Publicist Certification Program™."
Once in the program, states Ricochet, "new publicists devote between four and six months to studying the trends, innovations, and issues relevant to that particular field. Publicists are tested through graded discussions, exams and papers before becoming certified to work for Ricochet clients. The DC office adds another dimension to the testing program that will include public policy, public affairs and government training. Additionally, Ricochet publicists are taught a unique approach to media relations that targets journalists not based on relationships or online databases, but rather through reading and studying the reporter's work prior to outreach."
"I joined this agency because they are changing the way PR is being done," said Willis who got her start in public policy as an intern in the South Carolina House of Representatives under now-Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). "When it comes to Washington, PR professionals must have an extraordinary depth of knowledge that spans government, business and interest groups while maintaining a deep understanding of D.C.'s unique media market. Our agency's testing program creates publicists that are optimized to successfully serve our clients from both a media and policy perspective."