Companies today “have mountains of data available to them, across every aspect of their business,” Corey duBrowa said. “But they don’t always have the resources or the expertise to extract insights from this data.”
His firm Burson — for which the agencies BCW and Hill & Knowlton recently merged and where duBrowa is now global CEO — is using cognitive and generative AI to uncover insights from that data, he said. Those insights “can help us not only advise our clients on how they can act, but also on how to best communicate those actions.”
Cognitive AI defines insights from the data, while generative AI takes those insights and tests and refines the messages, he said. “It’s a blend of art and science that’s helping give our clients more precision insights about action or inaction, messages that make sense or don’t make sense… so that each organization feels more confident about the messages that they’re communicating.”
duBrowa was the guest on July 25 for Strategies & Tactics Live PRSA’s monthly livestream series on LinkedIn. John Elsasser, editor-in-chief of PRSA’s award-winning publication Strategies & Tactics and host of S&T Live, asked him how Burson is helping its clients navigate economic, social and political challenges while also building and maintaining their reputations.
“There are some major, transformative pressures at play right now for our clients,” duBrowa said. Adding to that volatility is the volume and velocity of information coming at clients today. Being able to build, maintain or enhance reputation in that environment becomes especially difficult. But CEOs “are determining not just how to navigate these waters, but also how to transform their organizations at the same time.”
Given all of these challenges, “PR and communications have never had a more critical moment” to support and create impact for businesses, duBrowa said. “How reputation is built, survives and thrives in these environments is what we’re focused on, and the kind of counsel we’re giving.”
How Burson reflects Harold Burson’s legacy
Harold Burson, co-founder of Burson-Marsteller, predecessor to the agency now known simply as Burson, passed away in 2020, at age 98.
“Harold was, in my estimation, a one-of-a-kind, truly inspirational leader,” duBrowa said. “Even though Harold is not with us anymore, his spirit lives on — certainly in teaching and all the received lessons that his cohorts, the people that he worked alongside and taught, have been able to carry forward.”
The principles that Harold Burson stood for “are as relevant now as back when he was coming into the office every day to counsel clients, even toward the end of his life,” duBrowa said. “If Harold were here, I think what would resonate for him would be this idea of reputation. It was something that he was doing maybe without even being that conscious of it, throughout the decades that he led communications.”
A large part of carrying on Harold Burson’s legacy “is cultivating a team that embodies what was important to Harold: keeping clients at the center of the business, being high performers who are never satisfied with the status quo, constantly reinventing, being curious, striving to improve, and most of all, helping our clients be successful.”
Watch a replay of the session with duBrowa here.
