 Over the years, Jay Rockey (center) has welcomed many WSU interns and
hired many graduates. Simmi Singh '00 (right) interned with the Rockey
Company and until recently was an account executive with Rockey Hill
& Knowlton. Christiaan brown '98 is vice president and director of
the technology practice at RH&K. Photo by Robert Hubner.
Rockey comes from a day when methodology was defined by the fax
machine and the press release, says West. The PR toolbox is a lot
bigger today.
Singh's methods, for example, lean toward online
communication-blogs and so forth.
Discussing a recent client, "Christian [Brown '98] and I were
brainstorming about what to do about a situation without bringing
further negative publicity," says Singh. "We're talking about a
client working in blogspace, generating content online." They
decided to ask Jay's advice.
"He'll tell you straight out, 'I don't understand anything you
do,'" she says.
However, "He brought a perspective to our thinking that was so
dead on. That's what PR is, you have to have a relationship-with
your client and the media."
Erika Schmidt, who is with the Frause Group and is president of
the Puget Sound PRSA, bemoans another current PR trend in defining
what Rockey is not. "A lot of firms out there now, the principal is
the spokesperson for the company," she says. "That just blows my
mind. I'm here to advise, to get my client out there, not
myself."
Schmidt describes the Rockey style as "more calculating and
cautious, less promotional, more behind the scene."
In spite of nearly universal name recognition and a client list
that runs through the Pacific Northwest alphabet, from Airborne
Express through Weyerhaeuser, Rockey himself rarely shows up in the
press. In this age of Google, it's unnerving to go looking for
someone who you know permeates a civic and business culture, and he
just isn't there.
I mentioned this to Rockey. "That's my job," he said,
smiling.
Rockey et al. helped lead Alaska through three governors in
promoting tourism and economic development. They've advised the
City of Bellevue on growth initiatives and Daishowa America on
community relations. They led the effort to rebrand Egghead from a
brick-and-mortar operation to e-commerce and helped Evergreen
Healthcare win a voter levy for emergency facilities. They've
advised Hancock Timber, King Broadcasting, Microsoft, Riverpark
Square in Spokane, Sealaska Corporation, the Mariners, Boeing, and
United Airlines. The list goes on.
But one of the jobs that makes Rockey proudest is the
Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. Rockey's firm was the public relations
agency of record for Alyeska for seven years, through permitting,
design, and construction on the pipeline.
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