Ada Torres

SHE MAY STILL BE REMEMBERED by audiences as an anchorwoman at WAPA TV, but that was a lifetime ago for Ada Torres Toro. In less than a decade, Torres has cemented a solid reputation as a top notch public relations expert on the island.

Torres’ company, Full Circle Communications, handles big-name corporate accounts such as Heineken, Méndez & Co., the Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest, Johnnie Walker and Master Card. But it was not
an easy transition, particularly at a time when journalists making such a move were regarded as sellouts.

The former journalist’s public relations venture began as Torres Toro
Group in February 2004, a month after she left her post as communications director at the Puerto Rico Energy and Power Authority (PREPA). She changed her company’s name last year to Full Circle because she no longer felt the need to tie the company to her name as a public figure.

“I think the work that we do is really that of a team and it surpasses
my public persona by far,” she comments. “There’s a staff here that I cannot work without. I think [the company] was less centralized and more global, so I decided to change its name and profile in terms of corporate look, etc. But our customer base and team remain the same. And the company’s structure is the same.”

From the Bottom Up

Full Circle Communications offers a wide range of public relations
services such as crisis management, community relations plans, design and execution of media plans, media monitoring and evaluation reports, event planning, media trainings and image consulting services.

Other clients in Full Circle’s roster include EduK Group, which gathers technical higher education schools Instituto de Banca y Comercio, National College, Ponce Paramedical College and the Florida Technical College, Legal Credit Solutions, the Puerto Rico Air Show and the Puerto Rico Association of Beer Importers.

During the firm’s early days, Torres had two clients: non-profit
organization ASPIRA and the Puerto Rican Coalition to Reduce
Teenage Drinking. The rest, she says, have come by reference
from customers and suppliers. Two years ago, Full Circle competed
successfully against four other public relations agencies to land the Master Card account. Retaining customers, says Torres, is the hard part and she puts a lot of effort into that.

“Clients know that they can find me 24 hours a day. I don’t have a set schedule or weekends for my clients,” she notes. “Whenever I have to do something for them, I’ll do it. I also establish a relationship based on trust. They know that when I give them a recommendation, it is a well thought out, well-researched one. And I have a great team that supports me in that area.”

In Times of Crisis

One of her former clients was the Caribbean Petroleum Corporation,
which made news around the globe on Oct. 23 when a large fire destroyed 11 of its tanks. Torres had dropped the account
two years before the incident but she left a crisis management plan for them.

“It was a by-the-numbers flowchart with all the necessary information, underscoring the importance of having this in mind,
and that it was circulated among the key people. Clearly, this was not done,” she says. “When you have a high, high, high risk client that is not advisable, you have to decide whether you want to continue with that client or not. The effect of accepting an account like this, as this case showed, is that it is a boomerang that ends up blowing up on you, and the public’s perception is that you are a bad advisor, as it unfortunately and unfairly happened in this case with the person who took over. I can tell you that it was not her fault.”

Crisis management appears to have gained more importance now, as recent cases such as Toyota’s massive vehicle recall and British Petroleum’s handling of the Gulf Coast oil spill have showed. But according to Torres, crisis management has always been important. She cites the 1982 Tylenol poisoning case, which is now regarded as a textbook case of a well-managed public relations case. However, if that same situation happened today, she says, Tylenol would not have been able to follow the same plan it had back then. They would need to add a spinoff to deal with social networks

“Look at what has happened with BP. There is an account on Twitter called ‘At British Petroleum’ and it is not theirs. It is someone satirizing them with their name,” Torres points out. “The fact that people are not held captive by the media or those who manage it anymore and are free to have direct communication, is an element that most companies still don’t know how to deal with because the scope is so big. Most companies don’t know how to do it within the context of what crisis management is today.”

According to Torres, social networks are an essential component of any public relations plan today. She advises clients to have a webpage with links to Facebook and Twitter.

“There are many clients that open pages and do nothing with them,” she says. “It is not enough to jump into the technological bandwagon. You have to understand what it is about. It is about constant exchanges. You have to have a person constantly working on those pages, making them come alive and keeping them active so they invite people to visit them.”

Experience Counts

In addition to her anchor years at WAPA and directing PREPA’s
communications office, Torres’ extensive media experience
encompasses stints as a reporter at Spanish news wire service EFE, TV reporter and anchor on WJPX (Channel 24) and editor of women’s magazine Imagen. She also hosted a TV show called “Prensa Libre,” on the Ana G. Méndez University System’s Channel 40. Torres completed a bachelor’s in communications from Sacred Heart University in 1987. Currently, she writes a column in local newspaper El Nuevo Día.

“I think it is fundamental for my clients to know that I can speak with authority on how the media works because I have worked on each one of them,” she says. “I am not doing this from a theoretical point of view. I advise my clients within that knowledge framework.”

Now that Full Circle has hit its stride, Torres is expanding the
company’s offerings with a new educational division that offers
training seminars on subjects like public speaking, managing the
press in certain situations and crisis management. Torres also
contemplates extending the company’s services outside of Puerto
Rico to markets such as the Dominican Republic.

Once the company gets to that level, Torres would like to take on other projects, like writing a book. At least now, she feels she has more control of her personal life, devoting time to her son Sergio, 19, and travel, one of her favorite activities.

“As you reach goals in life and learn things, you see that life
is not 100 percent about work,” Torres reflects. “Sometimes it
may seem like it, but it’s not. You learn to work to live, not live
for work and achieve that balance.”■