Invention in PR is an approach to public relations developed by Adam Ritchie. It uses PR to create products and services that are newsworthy from the start.

Book

“Invention in PR” is a handbook of what's possible: a behind-the-scenes look inside breakthrough campaigns from the pro who engineered them, and a guide for creating your own. It’s available now from Routledge in full-color illustrated paperback and Kindle editions, and from Tantor Audio in audiobook format.

Press:

“Adam Ritchie's 'Invention in PR' gives you a jump-start to stimulating creativity and coming up with inventive activations that make audiences care.”
-PRWeek Editorial Director Steve Barrett
“By putting invention at the top of PR's to-do list, Adam Ritchie has fundamentally flipped the industry's charge.”
-PRovoke Senior Reporter Diana Marszalek
“This book is not like other PR books because Adam Ritchie is a realist, and his ideas about PR are unconventional and evolutionary.”
-PR News Editor Seth Arenstein
“In example after award-winning example, Adam Ritchie offers a fresh perspective on creative PR work, where communicators are in the driver's seat.”
-PR Daily Editor Ted Kitterman
“This book is filled with wonderful examples of true creativity and ingenuity which truly define PR success in the modern era.”
-Bulldog Reporter Editor Richard Carufel
“Once you read this book, it is impossible to think about PR in the same way ever again.”
-The Drum Managing Director of Events Lynn Lester

Content Marketing World

Syracuse University

PRSA International Conference

Speaking Tour

“Invention in PR” began as a single session at a conference, and grew to a tour of more than 50 universities and conferences, reaching more than 2,000 members of the PR community.

The talks challenged aspiring and experienced PR professionals to go beyond promoting what they’re handed and invent newsworthy offerings from the ground up. It showed them award-winning case studies where an entrepreneurial approach to public relations carried new product concepts all the way though sell-in, packaging and launch.

With every communications discipline claiming to be in the storytelling business, it taught attendees the difference between storytelling and authorship.

The objective was to cultivate a generation of rule breakers who would create new communication vehicles and construct campaigns across industries. The goal was to reshape perceptions and the practice of PR from its past as an organization’s mouthpiece to its future as an organization’s creative engine.

How did we do?

After the tour, every surveyed professor said it changed the way their students saw PR, and more than half said they observed a direct impact on their students' subsequent work.

Those sessions became the starting point for the book, and the effort continues.

Speaking tour feedback:

“A master class in creative PR...awe inspiring.” (PRSA national board director)
“My favorite speaker event all year.” (Penn State attendee)
“Literally changing the way I think.” (Brigham Young University attendee)
“One of the best presentations I've ever seen.” (DePaul University professor)
“Absolutely brilliant.” (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications professor)
“This approach to problem solving was so creative, it changed the way I approach new ideas.” (Content Marketing World attendee)
“Going in, I was pretty excited to be validated in my creative talents. Spoiler alert: I was not validated — in the best way.” (PRSA International Conference attendee)
“Made me think about things in a new way that pushes me, and the profession, forward.” (IABC World Conference attendee)
“A no holds barred approach to building campaigns that encourages professionals of all stages of experience to be more daring, more creative and more inventive in their approach to PR.” (Museum of Public Relations founder)

Speaking tour press coverage: