Sylvia Davis was born, and resides in Blacksburg, Virginia.

She attended Virginia Tech and

graduated with a degree in hotel and restaurant management. From there, she graduated from the
University of North Texas with a masters degree in journalism with a focus on public relations.
Sylvia Davis gave this interview to Addie Graves on Feb. 16, 2016 for a media writing
assignment.

(Edited for Content)

Have you always wanted to pursue public relations?

No, I thought I was going to be an apparel design major. I was accepted to the College of Human
Resources at Virginia Tech, and received a full scholarship to Clemson for a Textile Science
degree. I also got into the University of Virginia, but since I wanted apparel design, Tech was the
only school where that curriculum was offered. During the summer of high school to college, I
worked at Blacksburg Country Club and fell in love with food service and catering. On the first
day of school I ended up going to the deans office and changing my major. The dean said
nobody had ever asked to change their major on the first day of school; I actually ended up
graduating with a hotel restaurant degree with a business minor. I worked in that industry for a
couple of years, and then the first recession hit back in the early 90s. I was located in Texas, and
it was hit very hard by the recession. I was unemployed and I decided to go back and take classes
at the University of North Texas; I did some career counseling classes and they started to point
me in the direction of public relations. The University of North Texas had a graduate program
there for public relations and it was accredited, so I ended up getting a masters in journalism
there with a focus in public relations.

What was your first job in public relations?

I moved back home after I graduated with my masters degree to find a job. I worked here in
Blacksburg for a short period of time for a local magazine called Art Beat Magazine. It covered
New River Valley area events. However, the real job came when I moved to Tallahassee, Florida
to work for The Zimmerman Agency. I felt that this job was a good match, and they thought that
this job was a good match as well. They were a hospitality-focused PR agency. I could take the
four years of college that I had with my hospitality based background, and also take my new
career in public relations and combine the two. It actually helped me a whole lot because my
direct reports knew that I understood their business, versus just a regular account person going,
Oh, lets write a press release. I understood the finer points, so it was a good match.

Did you have a minor?

At Virginia Tech back in 1989 if you had a hospitality degree, you basically had a business
minor. For my masters degree, we picked an area of focus. You can pick to go true journalism,
or if you want to sell your soul to the devil, youd be in public relations. True journalists
sometimes snub their nose at PR people, so be it.

Which companies have you worked for?

For my first degree, I worked for Hyatt Hotels Corporation; I spent a couple of years there. I
worked in Dallas, Texas after that for a small, privately owned restaurant group called Newport
Investments; I was working for them when I got laid off. After graduate schoolstarting my
career in public relationsI worked for the Zimmerman Agency in Tallahassee, Florida, and then I
applied for a job in Atlanta for a small boutique public relations group that focused on technology
called Crescent Communications. They evolved, and were bought by Ketchum Public Relations,
because Ketchum was trying to build their technology wing. I became a Ketchum employee for
several years. After 9/11, the agency went into a downturn. The whole economy was really bad in
Atlanta, and as a result there were 81 drop-cuts out of that agency; I was one of them. It may have
been a blessing in disguise, because when I was let go, one of my clients was so upset at the
agency because I was the key person on her account that she actually asked me to get a tax ID
number and start my own business.

What is your business called?

Its called Bow Wow Marketing and Public Relations. It started off as kind of a joke, because I
figured that I didnt really need a name for my company. I figured I was just going to put the tax
ID information and my social security number down on a form, but then there was a section that
needed to be completed with a company name. At the time, I had a puppy and I said, Oh, Bow
Wow. Everyone liked the name, and it made people laugh, so Bow Wow stuck.

What clients have you had?

Nokia was a very nice and long relationship, and they were probably my biggest client over the
years. Ive had Singular Wireless and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation as clients. Ive
done PR for Websters Pictorial Dictionary, and Ive been on contract for BMC Software; Ive
also been on contract for Unisys, which is another software company. A lot of my clients were
spinoffs from Nokia. I had Trexta, and they made phone cases. You would never think of Trexta,
but youd see their product on the shelf and think, Oh, thats really cool.

I heard that you worked for Wholly Guacamole, is that true?

Yes, Wholly Guacamole was one of those Nokia, spinoff relationships. A Nokia Mobile Phones
contact called me out of the blue one day my daughter had actually been born weeks prior and
she said that she knew of this cool project that Id be perfect for; I had helped her during the
Nokia years launch something very quirky. Product awareness for the guacamole had gone down
in the market place, and on top of that, someone had copied their box. They originally had the
box with the hole in it, and that was their product distinguisher. So this confused people, and the
consumers didnt know which product to buy. As a result, they had lost 50 percent market share
in a very short period of time once their competitors packaging came out. We were on a 4-month
contract to rebrand and re-launch. That 4-month project turned into a 6-year relationship because
I stayed on then afterwards as the PR director. My contract ended just about 5 years ago. The
company was being sold, and Hormel was about to buy them. Consequently, they needed to bring
all the work in-house. I was the only remote employee, so we ended our relationship about 6
months after that. It was a nice relationship, and I do get free guacamole for life.

What are you most proud of in your professional career?

Its really fun to pull out some of my old projects from Nokia, but I am most proud of how I have
maintained many of my business relationships. Once you start working, you realize the value of
somebody that youve known for so many years. Its not so much what youve done, its who you
know or whom you have touched. Ive done some pretty cool things. Ive worked with
celebrities; Ive travelled the world. The relationship part of my job, though, is what I am most
proud of. Its nice to look back and know that I havent burned bridges. If there was a weird
situation, I got through it.

Which celebrities have you worked with?

I have worked with Joe Theismann, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Niki Taylor and George Strait. Nokia
had deep pockets, so we got to do some really cool things. The thing with Jennifer Love Hewitt
was really nice because it was with Big Brothers Big Sisters; I got to manage a PSA with her, and
I wrote the script. One day we got to be on Rosie ODonnellthats so old sounding because
Rosie isnt even around anymoreand that was fun. I got to stay at a fancy hotel in New York
because thats where Jennifer wanted to go. The coolest person I worked with was probably Joe
Theismann.

Between agency and in-house public relations, which do you prefer?

Agency PR if you can focus on one client, and you love that client is really fun, but when
youre scattered amongst several accounts and you cant really dive in deep, its hard. Agency PR
can be diverse and fun because you get many different experiences. Corporate PR is great for
getting in deep and being really immersed in what youre doing. Looking back on my personal
career, Im happy with how I did things. I did agency first, and got a bazillion different
experiences with many different clients and was pulled into different brainstorms with different
clients. I would have to think B to C one day, and then B to B another day. If they needed help on
a team that I wasnt even working for, Id volunteer my help so that I could force myself to think
in a different way. I like corporate PR at this point in my career because Ive already been there,
done that. I bring a broader scope of knowledge to the client, and can say, OK, based on my
previous experiences this is what I would recommend we do. I think that if I were doing
corporate PR as a 20-something, I would be less enthused.

Mad Men is a drama that focuses on advertising and public relations in the 50s and 60s. If
you have seen Mad Men, how accurately does it portray the world of advertising and public
relations today?

I would say that in many ways there is still a vein of accuracy in Mad Men in the Agency world.
My agency in Tallahassee, Florida was very dysfunctional just like Mad Men. Similarly to Mad
Men, we had the drinking, and the inter-office relationships. When you needed to brainstorm a
pitch, youd go out and everybody would be at a table drinking, and having a good timeall of a
sudden our ideas come to the table. There is a lot of accuracy to Mad Men in the agency world
when I was working in the late 90s and early 2000s. There were a lot of women in the agency
world, but there was still that layer of old, male blood. It was changing, though, just like on Mad
Men when Joan comes in and things start to change. I would say there definitely is a vein of true
accuracy in that show.

As women, sometimes we tend to be overshadowed in the workplace by our male

counterparts; have you experienced sexism in the work place?
I found sexism to be more prominent when I was working in hospitality than in PR. In the
hospitality world, I had a very sexist, male boss who ended up getting in trouble with human
resources. I would say in the marketing and public relations workplace today there is a lot less,
but you will always find it to some degree. There will always be that one person who makes an
inappropriate comment. I feel like sometimes you have to prove yourself in the workplace as a
woman, and once you do you dont have to again.

As a mother, how do you balance work and raising your children?

I had a nanny for many years, but I would carve out time to focus on the kids. I had a nanny in
home so that I could always at least be near my kids. You have to carve out days to be a mother
and carve out days to work. You end up working nights, and you end up working weekends to
make up the hours and to get the work done. When youre your own boss, you can personalize
your schedule easier so it can work more in your favor. With PRmost of the timethere are highs
and lows, for example, you might be ramping up to a launch, or to a big event, and then you may
have a lull after that. So youve learned those ebbs and flows, and you can make it work.

With the emergence of social media, how has working in public relations changed?

When I first started, we didnt even have computers in our office. We would send out press
releases via fax or snail mail. Ive seen just the fact that you could email an editor a press release
was huge. Ive seen it all evolve.

Who has inspired or mentored you professionally?

I would say that many of the people I worked with at Nokia ended up being professional mentors
and inspiration. It was such an incredible team of creative people. We were pitching mobile
phones before mobile phones were even in peoples hands; it was a businesspersons product.
The first time I worked for a female who was younger than me was for my boss Megan
Matthews. I realized very quickly that she was brilliant. Megan knew 7 languages, and she was
just on fire. She was so incredibly smart, and she started at the company as an intern. Megans
ability to pitch and communicate was amazing. Today, she is at the Michael and Susan Dell
Foundation and what she is doing there is just phenomenal.

What qualities are essential for a successful public relations career?

Transparency, honesty, and timelinessbeing deadline driven, but also accurate.

What advice would you give to a college student who aspires to work in public relations?

My advice would be to get lots of different experiences, because in the end, that is what has
helped me the most.