Exclusive comment from Ian McCawley, MD Acuity PR
“PR has for a long time been held prisoner to the paradox that the industry is brilliant at proving its clients’ worth, while struggling to boost its own value in the marketing mix. That means a seat at the top table has been less attainable than is deserved.
The contributors in this article are quite right that PR’s moment could be now.
The power of social media to bolster or undermine reputation in seconds is a key driver, along with the difficulties ad blocking will cause for marketers.Educating brand and business owners about the need to bring PR into their strategies much earlier in the process will be crucial to the industry’s success”
Public relations has always played its part in the marketing mix, even if it was added to plans late and rarely recognized like other disciplines.
But the emergence of skippable, blockable, opt-out-able advertising, not to mention ever-more integrated campaigns, means PR can suddenly demand more than a supporting role—and maybe even take centre stage.
At the Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas, Coldwell Banker deployed its internal PR team and CooperKatz & Co. to talk about how smart home tech will affect the selling and buying of residential real estate.
“Our smart home strategy is a result of my challenge to our PR internal department and CooperKatz to craft a three-year plan that moves us beyond traditional public relations, and into the digital age and strategic partnerships,” said Coldwell Banker Chief Marketing Officer Sean Blankenship.
“There is no better discipline than this in today’s transformative and interactive marketing landscape.”
Putting the company’s PR team in the lead role for its smart home initiative has helped Coldwell Banker partner with the likes of Nest, LG, CNET and Lutron, Mr. Blankenship added.
H&R Block Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Collins said advertising may still be dominant, but PR is rising. “We are now spending more on PR, especially around our cause-marketing program on improving teen financial literacy, Dollars & Sense,” she said. “We’re also doing more PR around our partnership with the NBA and social media, for example.”
Clients increasingly understand that marketing is multichannel, and that the digital and experiential spaces lend themselves to magnification by PR, said Harris Diamond, McCann Worldgroup chairman-CEO. “If you have the idea at the center, all platforms are necessary to amplify that idea above and beyond paid media,” he said.
“More and more CMOs are recognizing the power and importance of PR, and I’m seeing more practitioners in the field being involved in integrated campaigns and that’s dramatically accelerated PR’s pace.”
More important, Mr. Diamond said, the “idea can come from anywhere.”
At Chobani, where PR has always been a weapon to battle bigger-spending rivals, the discipline is becoming increasingly vital, according to Peter McGuinness, CMO for the Greek yogurt brand. The growing importance of PR is not only a Chobani development, he said, but a “macro-category trend” because of highly curious consumers and the increasing need to reach them with brand information.