Making the most of every PR opportunity

Off tomorrow to an event that we've devised called Learn to Sail. Essentially, we've gathered a group of motoring journalists together with very different sailing experiences and we're going to teach them to sail, or hone their existing sailing skills. But not with just any teachers, with our own Volvo Team for Life Olympic sailors.

And here's the rub. Anecdotally, you hear of all sorts of PR teams retrenching in these difficult economic times and going back to basics. Some are doing the absolute bare minimum just to survive. This must be a very unpleasant place to find yourself, and it must be very difficult not to know which way to turn to continue generating coverage and building relationships.

But over the fence, some PRs might find that their Marketing Departments who, let's be honest, always have considerably bigger budgets than PR ever will, will still be building brand alliances and sponsorship relationships that can be leveraged. These linked PR and Marketing events need not be expensive or overly-elaborate but they can show a very different side to a company than what's been seen previously. And at a time when most people are wondering how they're going to do what they want to do with less and less resources, at least it shows that the company is still keen to foster new relationships and spread their PR wings further.

And that, to mind, has to be a good thing.