Overview

The Stevens Group is pleased to present the podcast series that salutes the masters of public relations and revels in their observations, insights and advice to PR professionals.  This series is part of the ongoing partnership between The Stevens Group and CommPRO to bring to PR, digital/interactive and marketing communications agencies the wisdom of those who have reached the top of the PR profession. Today’s guest is Alan Taylor, founder of Alan Taylor Communications.  

About Our Guest

Alan has spent more than 45 years in the marketing/communications profession, half of those years as the founder of Alan Taylor Communications, the No. 1 ranked public relations agency in sports/leisure activities.His agency won numerous awards for various client activities for the programs the agency developed.  Through his leadership, the agency became known for its strategic problem solving.  While active in the agency through 2004, he managed a budget of more than $20,000,000 with a staff of 75 people. PR Week, named him one of the Top 100 Public Relations Executives of the 20th Century.Since selling the agency, Alan has worked with a number of clients in Florida.  He now concentrates his efforts in the marketing of the Club at Boca Pointe, a private residential community in which he lives and continues to serve on the Board of Governors.In sports marketing, he has handled major events and programs in golf, auto racing, baseball, basketball, boxing, tennis and other racquet sports. On the product side he has worked in the cosmetic, tobacco, toys/games, distilled spirits, footwear and fashion apparel industries as well as numerous programs for the United States Mint and USPS.Through the years of serving corporate clients, he has developed strong, credible relationships with some of the top brand-marketing executives in the country as well as with major media. Through his ties with the corporate world, he developed a keen sense on how to promote/market products and image. He developed communications strategies and tactical plans for product introductions in the financial services, consumer products and leisure industries, featuring some of the most well known, every day names.Mr. Taylor began his career as a sports writer in Miami and Los Angeles before entering the public relations profession in 1961.   He was an award-winning sports writer in Los Angeles.His first major public relations assignment was handing, with his wife, the promotion of the first Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston heavyweight championship in 1964 where Ali won the title in Miami Beach.Mr. Taylor has also been an associate professor at New York University, teaching event/sports publicity, and served initially on the Board of Advisors at Florida Atlantic University for its graduate program in sports management.In 2004, he sold the agency to a team of six partners.  He and his senior partner are owners of the Syracuse Crunch Hockey Team in the American Hockey League.