Michael A. Burns & Associates was founded in 1989 with several guiding principals:

Clients would get more than their money's worth in great work. Credit and compensation would go to the associates who did the work and not just to the name on the door. And maybe everyone could have a little fun.

It would be a place where Dallas public relations professionals would want to be and where clients would want to stay. It would be a place where loyalty to clients, employees and vendors would never be betrayed. It would be a place where nice guys finish first.

Today we are a full-service public relations agency with core skills in planning and implementing communications programs that can be local, national or international in scope, but that have an aggressive media relations effort at their core.

We offer a broad range of creative services — from Web site development, to print and video production, to multi-media presentations and more. We also specialize in helping non-U.S. companies market their products and services in the United States.

The associates now number 20+. Clients are still getting more than their money's worth. The top public relations professionals in the city come to work with us every day; and most days, they have a little fun.

Meanwhile, we've grown to be one of the largest independent agency in North Texas.

What We Do Best

We get “ink” — targeted, message-delivering, media converge that supports a client’s brand or corporate strategy.

Our heritage is business-to-business communications, and our early growth was due to our ability to deliver coverage for clients with budgets that were below the radar of multi-national agencies. As we've grown, we've expanded our practice into consumer marketing, financial relations and public affairs. Concurrently, the clients and budgets we've been privileged to work with also have grown, but we've not abandoned our focus on delivering great results no matter what the size of the client or budget.

Today, we apply our media relations expertise for clients in technology, consumer products, retail, food, travel and tourism, energy, healthcare, banking and venture financing, among others. Along the way, we've added services that our clients have needed — crisis communications and planning, employee communications, media training, community relations and creative services.

We've always recognized that while the face of business is constantly changing — from company to company, customer to customer, employee to employee, investor to investor — the fundamentals of effective communications and how we deliver them remain the same.

How We Work

We take a results-oriented, rather than a process-based approach to public relations. Procedures are efficiently streamlined to ensure agency hours are minimized and client value is maximized for each assignment — delivered on time and on budget.

We do insist on starting with a plan. We work with our clients to develop one that clearly defines the situation, objectives, strategies, audiences, messages, tactics, timeline and budget. We clearly define the deliverables and mutually agree on how we will measure success. Then we go to work. We haven't branded our process, but we know that it works. That's why the majority of our clients have been with us for years.

Along the way, we provide the usual reports and updates; conference reports to record meetings or discussions involving the three “Ds” — dollars, decisions and deadlines; monthly reports that focus on results and not activity; and semi-annual (at least) account reviews that reaffirm or modify program direction.

Once a year, we ask for a formal report card and take any grade but an A+ as a wake-up call for change.

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