10 Questions with Tom Adkinson
Vice President / Director of Communications
BOHAN Advertising | Marketing

Tom Adkinson Tell us your career path.

My father told me not to follow him into journalism, so I dutifully got a journalism degree from the University of Tennessee and found my first job at The Knoxville News-Sentinel.
 
Good fortune then took me to Southern Living Magazine as a travel editor for six years, and I then returned to daily journalism at The Birmingham News. More good fortune carried me into public relations, and I spent 22 years at what now is Gaylord Entertainment Company. (Most people know it for Opryland and the Grand Ole Opry.) That ended in 2001, and I slid into the agency world at BOHAN Advertising | Marketing in Nashville.
 
What is your organization?

BOHAN is a full-service advertising, marketing and PR agency. World headquarters are in Nashville, and we have a new office in Knoxville. The agency opened in 1990 and still works with its first client, the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism. Tourism marketing is at the core of the agency.

You work with firms all over the nation. What trends do you see in PR and tourism?
 
(1) I see smart clients who work to provide great value to their customers. That doesn’t just mean discounted prices. It means memorable experiences that are worth the expenditure. That’s what value is.
 
(2) I see clients working diligently to maintain relationships with their customers. Social media are just one example of that effort.
 
What is the most challenging aspect of your work?
 
My main work is in media relations, and the biggest challenge is maintaining relationships in an employment landscape that seems to morph daily. Related to that is the expanding universe of online publications and blogs. It’s very difficult to ascertain whether an online writer actually is writing for anyone other than himself, his mother and his girlfriend.
 
Name the one common mistake you see CVBs make when it comes to PR?
 
Far too many organizations, CVBs among them, do not understand what public relations truly is. (PR transcends publicity to encompass effective communication touching all groups important to an organization.) They do not see its value to the organization’s success and therefore assign it to someone who is not qualified or experienced.

"I realized early on the value of having tourism contacts all over the Southeast. Answers to questions are only a phone call away."
If there is one, what is a typical day like?

As with many people in the tourism industry, seldom is one day like another. That’s a major appeal of tourism and public relations. The repeated task, however, is identifying stories, angles and ideas that genuinely appeal to media that reach my clients’ audiences.

How do you measure success?

Success comes when a journalist I respect says, “Thank you for your help. You understand what I do and what I need.”

What is the one piece of advice you’d give people just starting out in their careers?
 
My one piece of advice is to be a voracious reader. A PR person who doesn’t understand his community, his nation and his clients’ industries isn’t much of a PR person.

You joined STS one year after its inception. Why did you join STS?
 
Opryland was a founding member of STS, and I was thrown in the fray to help with many STS projects and reconnecting me with people I knew from my newspaper and magazine days. That proved contagious, and I’ve benefitted from the friendships and connections ever since. I realized early on the value of having tourism contacts all over the Southeast. Answers to questions are only a phone call away.
 
Name 3 CDs you would not want to part with?
 
Jimmy Buffett’s “Tuesdays, Thursday, Saturdays” for some party music and some personal reflection; Willie Nelson’s “The Troublemaker” for some religion; and “Crawfish Caravan” by my Nashville buddy Les Kerr because it’s so much fun knowing the guy who wrote the songs. (The treasure on “Crawfish Caravan” is a song about the Camellia Grill in New Orleans, the best place anywhere to get a good breakfast or to sober up – or both.)

What would people be surprised to learn about you?
 
For as much as I talk, I enjoy the solitude found wading a trout stream or paddling a canoe by myself while chasing the wily bream.

You may reach Tom Adkinson at tadkinson@bohanideas.com

For more information on BOHAN: http://bohanideas.com.