Getting down to business with Amy Binder

When Amy Binder founded her agency nearly 20 years ago, public relations was viewed by many as a soft discipline. It’s not so much that it was hard to measure PR’s impact and effectiveness, it was more that clients didn’t expect that from their PR partners. Binder sought to change that perception.

“It has got to start with: what is the business problem we are trying to solve?” says Binder, who spoke to us from her mid-town Manhattan home. As the CEO of RF|Binder, an integrated strategic communications and consulting firm serving Fortune 500 clients, emerging businesses and not-for-profit institutions, Binder and her team tackle client challenges with a business lens and a multidisciplinary approach incorporating PR, data analytics, marketing, digital and creative.

Her agency revenues grew 5% last year, an impressive performance given the challenges facing PR firms during the pandemic.

Binder started her career in PR at Ruder Finn, founded by her father, David Finn, in the late 1940s, and she was a partner there for more than three decades before founding RF|Binder.

Identifying brand purpose

The pandemic and other crises of the past year have showcased the importance of purpose-driven communication and the communicator’s role in effecting meaningful change.