Boutique practice · 01
Public Relations.Earned media, not vendor noise.
Public relations is the earned-media half of the practice — strategy, outreach, training, and the kind of crisis communications work that earns its keep when the room gets hot. Burkett & Associates runs PR as one integrated engagement alongside communications and brand, not as a third vendor.
Deliverables
What you actually get.
What ships during a PR engagement is concrete, not atmospheric. The deliverables below are the ones that show up in the first month — the work a senior team carries through every retainer.
Earned-media strategy
Target outlet research, beat mapping, and a story bank built around the moments you actually want covered. Strategy sets the narrative before any pitch lands.
Media relations outreach
Senior practitioners running the day-to-day with reporters and editors. Direct contact, no junior intermediary, no blast lists.
Press release drafting
Release-grade prose that reads in the room it lands in: launches, partnerships, hires, milestones, and quiet moves that earn the headline.
Media training & spokesperson prep
One-on-one interview preparation for executives who prefer to handle their own press. Talking points, anticipated-question sets, and live repping.
Crisis communications support
A standby posture with a written playbook, statement templates, and a senior contact who answers the phone when a story breaks overnight.
Coverage measurement & reporting
Placement quality, share of voice, message adoption, and brand lift — reported against the metrics the work was scoped to move.
Ideal Client
Leaders whose brands and stories move together.
The boutique shape fits hardest when the client is a founder, operator, or executive whose visibility has to land in step with their positioning — not as a separate piece of work. PR runs in this practice as the half that earns the room, while communications speaks the message and brand strategy sets the frame.
That posture suits founders launching, corporations preparing for a moment (a fundraise, a rebrand, an executive change), and entertainment clients whose work and brand are inseparable from the story. It is the wrong fit for clients who want a placements-only hit and a monthly tally — that is the work we refer out, by design.
Engagement Shape
Senior-led, run end to end.
How a retainer is shaped. Three numbers tell the structure; the paragraphs below tell the rhythm of the work.
- Retainer length
- 6 months, rolling
- Working cadence
- Weekly sync + async daily
- Who drafts the work
- Senior, end to end
A senior-led retainer runs differently than a media-only handoff. Every PR engagement is staffed by people who can carry a story from positioning to placement without passing it through a junior coordinator along the way.
We start with a short positioning brief and a target outlet map. From there the work runs on a weekly senior sync with daily async through a shared channel — releases, talking points, and pitches move the same day they are drafted, not after a multilayer review process. Crisis playbooks are written in the first two weeks, not after the first bad headline.
The same partner who scopes the work is the partner running the outreach, drafting the materials, and answering the phone when a story breaks. That is the through-line Burkett & Associates is built on, and the shape of every PR retainer we run.
Month one
- Week 1Positioning brief; target outlet and beat map locked.
- Week 2Story bank assembled; first release shipped.
- Week 3Senior outreach opens; media training on tape.
- Week 4Crisis playbook in hand; first placements logged.
Month three
- Month 3Share of voice and message adoption trending.
- Month 3Editorial relationships compounding in the room.
- Month 3Brand lift and earned-media reporting shipped.
- Month 3Quarterly review of retainer scope against outcomes.
Direct line
Send a short note. Shane reads every one.
A two- or three-line email with your company, the moment you are weighing, and what you would like a partner to handle is enough to start. Or fill the short consultation form below and Shane will follow up within two business days.
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Tell us about the engagement.
Five fields, two minutes. We only use this to follow up — no newsletters, no list rentals.