Part of EPR's PR Firms Directory — founder Q&A series. Related agency features: Valerie Christopherson (GRC) · Workhouse PR · Lobeline Communications.
Originally published July 2020. Updated July 2026.
In our continued discussions with leaders in the industry, we feature an exclusive Q&A with Jim James, Founder and Managing Director, EASTWEST Public Relations.
At the age of 18 I was selected to go on Operation Raleigh to Australia, from the UK. I worked many hours selling toys, but I wasn't going to reach my goal quickly enough. As a result, I decided to jump out of a plane for sponsorship. I created the narrative of a young man going to Australia to build water pipelines for aboriginals in the desert and undertake conservation of wild horses in the outback.
What I learned from gathering sponsors and the media coverage was that I could get to my goal more quickly through public relations than by working by the hour.
At the age of 28 in 1995 I set up EASTWEST Public Relations. The industry, and Asia, have changed in 25 years. What has remained the same is the need to add value with every communication for clients. Clients still need external counsel to help them articulate and distribute information in a creative and compelling fashion. The key role of the public relations counsel is to take an independent middle view of the client's business — someone in between what the client would say about themselves and what the audience, or the journalists, would say about them.
The second thing I've learned by setting up multiple offices is that the motivation of people in all these countries is the same. PR people all over the world are essentially individuals who like to help others — it's a very giving industry.
The third point: the price differential between these markets has vanished. In 1995 Asia was a relatively low-cost market for PR, but now Asian cities — Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City — are comparable to or more expensive than western capitals.
In my experience the most creative people I've met are not determined by nationality but by their worldview and their desire to challenge convention. I've been fortunate to work with brilliant young public relations people all over the world. The key characteristic they all share is that they want to tell a story that differentiates the company from the competition. Certain nationalities are more attuned to challenging convention and to free thinking, but the human mind isn't limited by geography — only by inspiration and aspiration.
In my view, the PR industry has a mixed review. At EASTWEST PR we consider COVID to offer clients the opportunity to build a PR narrative based on: Compassion, Optimism, Values, Information, Digital.
The reason the industry has a mixed review is that some companies are still communicating with traditional messaging, but with a varnish of health and safety related messaging. Fundamentally, companies will need to address the new paradigm where health and safety are the central messages, not additional messages in corporate communications.
Public relations agencies and counsellors need to be at the vanguard of educating clients, to realign to the new narrative of what I call PR in viral times. I don't think we are doing this enough.
In 2015 the interest in "public relations," as shown by terms searched on Google, was eclipsed by the interest in "digital communications." Print has suffered a massive decline, as we all know — however, there will always be a need for communications. The opportunity lies in adapting to the new mediums of communication, and to a new era where self-generated content can be as prevalent as content created by an "official news outlet." Influencers may not be authorities in terms of official recognition, but can be authorities in terms of the tribe that follows them; they have de facto influence, not de jure authority.
The opportunity for the industry is to help clients understand this new paradigm and capitalise upon it. We can play the role we always have — helping clients to structure their messaging and manage its distribution across earned and owned channels of media.
Finally, when I went to Asia we managed PR locally, but this is perhaps the greatest opportunity of all: the world is now flat. PR agencies can operate freely on a global stage — and that has to be very exciting for us all.
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