By Richard Edelman

The first chapter of our firm begins when my dad, Dan Edelman, moved to Chicago to accept the position of public relations director for the Toni Company (now a Gillette division) in 1949. His first assignment: to create a PR campaign for Toni Home Permanent kits, promoted in advertising by identical twins asking the question, "Which Twin has the Toni?" The first-ever product media tour, taking 12 sets of identical twins around the country, achieved unprecedented success. From there Dan had the insight and confidence to leave Toni and open his own shop on October 1, 1952.

From the outset, Edelman defined marketing public relations. New product launches and brand-building were the backbone of our company, supporting clients including Sara Lee, Paper Mate and ReaLemon. In the early 1960's he started hiring celebrity spokespeople. Actor Vincent Price promoted The California Wine Institute.

From brand communications, we extended our expertise to corporate reputation and trade associations, setting standards for the direct marketing industry by creating the first ever "do not call list" with the Mail Preference Service. We re-launched the 3M Overhead Projector, one of the PR industry's first Business-to-Business campaigns, for which we were awarded our first PRSA Silver Anvil.

By the mid-1970's, with our reputation as "the" marketing public relations agency firmly established, we diversified into health, public affairs, technology, and crisis management. We began representing countries such as Finland, Turkey, and Yugoslavia, and leading companies such as Roche, Nestle, Dow Chemical, S.C. Johnson, and Mobil. Our practices expansion paralleled our rapid geographical growth, with office openings in New York (1960), Los Angeles (1965), London (1967) and Washington (1969), and later continued to reach across Europe and into Canada, Latin America and Asia.

We were known as a firm of "big ideas," ideas that raised the bar and would later become staples of the industry.

• Created the first free consumer help-line with the Butterball Turkey Talk-line in 1981
• Invented litigation PR with the CBS "60 Minutes" versus General Westmoreland lawsuit in 1982
• Introduced Interferon (Schering-Plough) the first biotech product launch in 1983  
• Established the gold standard in Rx to OTC switches with Advil in 1984
• Created environmental PR with Dolphin-Safe Tuna for StarKist in 1991
• Became one of the first multinational PR firms to bring modern public relations to China in 1992, launching western products for M&M Mars, P&G and KFC
• Became the first PR firm on the web in 1995
• Invented online crisis management for west coast juice producer Odwalla in 1996
• Conceived the first corporate citizenship program in Brazil for Grupo Pao de Acucar,
  the largest supermarket chain in the country, in 1999
• United seven competitor pharmaceutical companies to offer a prescription drug savings card, Together Rx, to seniors without coverage in 2002

In the 1990's we started to expand into other communications disciplines to provide clients with a comprehensive pr-centric approach to communications. We acquired Blue, an issues advertising firm; established a dedicated in-house research firm called StrategyOne; set-up our interactive services division; created BioScience Communications to provide medical education and publishing services; and expanded into Management Consulting and Corporate Social Responsibility with the acquisition of First&42nd. More recently, to integrate clients into entertainment - movies, TV, properties and video games - we have partnered with the former COO of Creative Artists, the world's leading talent agency, and hired a key executive from the United Talent Agency.

In October, 2002, we marked our 50th anniversary by introducing a new approach to communications, called the Relationship Imperative.

The Relationship Imperative recognizes that communications is fundamentally changing. With the growth of the Internet, new technology, the proliferation of the media and explosion of blogs, information and news have become increasingly democratized. I am convinced the future of business is not about selling. It is about building and sustaining relationships with multiple stakeholders through dialogue, credible sources and relevant experiences. We engage traditional critics like NGOs because they bring a devoted constituency to each issue. We build brands from the bottom up by activating today's most credible spokespeople - the average person, friends and family, and regular employees - as well as recognized experts. We identify and engage catalysts, 'average' people who have become authoritative sources of information on any given subject. We measure the depth of impression and strength of stakeholder relationships, not just the advertising criteria of message frequency and recall.

Through all we have done, my father's personal style--his ethics, values and honesty-- have formed the bedrock on which our global employee Vision, Mission and Values program is raised and thrives. His inherent leadership attributes set the highest standards in personal conduct and professional accomplishment throughout our industry.

It seems to me a sad irony that, as companies look to differentiate their brands and corporate reputations, the firms they can turn to are increasingly homogenous in both their culture and how they operate. Their primary driver is 15% or more profit margin. Edelman is the only global PR firm that can go about business differently. We are more willing to break conventions. We believe our independent thinking means we bring greater originality, conviction and passion, and therefore better solutions for our clients.

We are confident in the future of the firm, in our business and our role. We are emboldened by our entrepreneurial legacy and excited by the opportunity to continue to lead innovation in communications.

Please feel free to contact me directly at richard.edelman@edelman.com.