Eastwick’s 20^th anniversary this month really got me thinking about what’s next for our firm. Nothing like a significant milestone to make you reflect on years past…and look ahead to what’s next. We’ve seen many shifts in the PR industry over the past two decades, not to mention changes in Silicon Valley.

First, referring to it as the PR industry is sort of strange since what we do is so much more than what people think of when they talk about PR. At Eastwick, we’ve been struggling for years about what to call ourselves since we don’t fit into the standard issue PR firm box.

We’re a strategic communications consultancy that works very hard to develop breakthrough strategies tied to results generating programs and campaigns. Sometimes that means media relations…sometimes it’s grassroots social media campaigns. Almost always it includes helping our clients crystallize a compelling and differentiated position in their market, generating storylines that will resonate with target audiences, and concepting creative visual campaigns that break through the noise.

Recently, I attended PR Week’s Next conference. One of the things that became clear at Next is that what’s next for most markets is already here and happening right now. Silicon Valley seems to have grasped the changing dynamics in media and influence sooner than other markets. PR has moved beyond media relations to include, digital, social, mobile, and unmediated content development and distribution. Influencers now come in many different forms…not just media and analysts…and companies who get on board with that will see their communications programs net a huge impact on their businesses.

For example, two well-funded startups we’ve had the pleasure of working with, Violin Memory and NetBase, experienced great success this past year. Some of the campaign successes are evident in the amazing coverage and feature placements in top tier publications like Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek — plus SearchStorage, InformationWeek, and MediaPost, etc.

What you may not see are the dozens of influential people we worked with behind the scenes that provided perspective, connections and collaboration within these companies’ decision-making ecosystem. They were bloggers, consultants, customers, executives at partner companies that we engaged with through social channels and in person…yes, meeting people in the flesh still matters!

Our influencer strategies helped us achieve the broad visibility and credibility these companies needed to break through and rise to the top within their respective markets. So what do these companies have to do with Eastwick’s future plans? Looking at what they need in a strategic communications partner makes us rethink how we staff teams, the services we offer, the new skill sets we develop or hire, and how we partner with other communications disciplines.

Here are three key areas you can count on Eastwick to drive as the foundation for our next 20 years:

1. 1. In the past, we’ve shied away from having “practice areas” because we tend to work collaboratively across the entire agency, not just within teams. However, we believe in building a critical mass of experts and expertise in specific market areas. You’ll see us organizing ourselves to foster that kind of collaboration. Working with clients in related industry spaces will help us maximize value in how we bring content and programs to market. It makes sense for us to create “practices” within the key areas we’ve focused on for years: enterprise and data center software and infrastructure, consumer entertainment and home office technology, digital media and social technologies and, most recently, clean tech. If your company falls within these categories, you’ve already experienced this expertise.
2. 2. I’ve been wrestling for years with the issue of timesheets. All agencies use them…good or bad…and I think mostly bad…timesheets are used to keep track of how much work an agency does on behalf of a client and dictates how much the client should be charged. I hate timesheets. And I’m on a mission to abolish them in my agency…or at last limit the focus and use of them as a way to measure the value we’re providing clients. Yes, it takes time to maintain your expertise in a client’s market, and develop their messaging and talk to media and other influencers on their behalf, to monitor conversations in social channels and respond or alert your clients to respond and engage…but tracking the time it takes to do those things puts limitations on creativity…and I want us to deliver value rather than “time spent.” Do I have the magic answer? Not yet. But I’m working on it and clients who work with Eastwick now and next year will start to hear more about how we’re going to shift our thinking.
3. 3. The third major shift Eastwick clients will notice is the incorporation of different skill sets into the agency beyond traditional PR. We’ll be adding more creative talent to our already brilliant creative services team. More digital expertise. More content development experts. 2011 marked the first year that Eastwick actually made media buys on behalf of our clients and you’ll start to see us build more expertise to span all three major areas of influence: earned media, owned media and paid media. Who better to help develop and define strategies here than the folks that are working deeply within your organization to craft the right message for the right audience?

The first 20 years of Eastwick has been amazing…here’s to 20 more!