By Tori Wittenbrock
Intern
GREEN BAY – First established in 1992, as Leonard and Finco Communications, Inc. with a strong focus on media relations, Leonard and Finco Public Relations, Inc., as it’s now known, was a joint effort by two former WBAY-TV coworkers – Charlie Leonard and Susan Finco, hence the name.
Finco took the reins as sole owner in 1998, when Leonard retired, and the firm began to blossom.
Today, she said the small but mighty team consists of public relation (PR) professionals that hold more than 100 years of combined experience in public and community relations, internal and external communications, marketing and the media, management, community engagement and outreach, as well as branding, reputation and crisis management. Finco said the main focus of the firm is to tell a client’s story. “Our mission is to provide clients with strategic PR and marketing expertise in an ethical manner by listening to their needs and generating creative ideas that achieve quality results,” she said. Reminiscing about the past, looking toward the future
Finco said in celebration of Leonard and Finco’s 30th anniversary, the firm has taken to its social media platforms to share and memorialize its history.
“Through the years, we’ve had a number of different logos, so those have been fun to go through and see how design trends have changed,” she said. “We’re also reaching out to thank our clients – we wouldn’t be successful without them.”
“You have to be more strategic than ever before to successfully convey messages to targeted customers, clients or stakeholders,” she said. “The multitude of communication channels/platforms can make that challenging, but that’s also where we can bring value to our customers, since this is something we do every single day.”
Expectations for quick responses, Finco said, have also been a change in the team’s approach. She said because of recent advancements in instant communication, immediate reactions are often required, and the firm does not have the luxury of taking multiple days to decide how to approach a problem.
“If a crisis hits, you have to be almost instantaneous in your response,” Finco said. “Quick and logical thinking is a required skill set.”
Yet another big change in the company’s history came in the mid-1990s.
Finco said the company changed their name from “Leonard and Finco Communications” to “Leonard and Finco Public Relations,” mainly because society began to change the meaning of the word “communications” to refer to phone, internet and television streaming services.
“When we started getting calls from people looking for wireless phone service, we knew it was time to change the name,” she said.
Casting a large net
What started as a local niche has quickly grown to be one of the state’s largest PR firms, representing global, national, regional and local clients in a variety of industries – ranging from large companies and corporations to nonprofit organizations and small businesses.
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