And the rise of PR (cont)

Though I cited such marketing luminaries as Seth Godin, Philip Kitchen, Philip Kotler and Al Ries, my talk on this well-worn theme still seemed to surprise some MSc Marketing students.

So let's hear from Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of marketing services group WPP, quoted in Media Guardian:

"I can't recall a time when PR has been as strong," says Sorrell. "Something has changed and the reason for the change is online activity, where personal recommendation and personal communication have become more important. And it's clearly editorial and it's clearly not advertising based."

Comments

[Elif Esiyok]

Probably the reason why advertising is falling is; we can only put advertising on a media and that's it we couldn't know whether if it reached to our target audience or not.

In PR; companies directly go to their target customer and they are sure that the audience got the message.

The other thing is; as Sir Martin Sorrell told; personal communication is most effective point because it creates "trust". By use of advertising it is impossible to create a trust because many people thinks that in the advertising only benefits of the product is shown. We see only "make-up" face of the product.

[Chris Norton]

Hi Richard, I think it's a good quote, I would agree with him too. PR is doing well at the moment and this area of online relations is only going to grow over the next few years.

The problem is that if it does grow companies will have to become completely transparent and that can be difficult for some people to swallow. I recently met with a potential financial client and they were interested in the benefits of social media but they couldn't get their heads around letting people in the team write on blogs and social networks without having to approve everything. Our argument was - it was already happening and they knew it. It will certainly be interesting to see how some of the older more traditional industries deal with this problem.

[David Child]

Richard
Glad to see Sir Martin is so willing to recognise the growth in PR v advertising - a refreshingly honest approach to his leviathan business conglomerate.

I would urge a little caution on the growth being due to online - I would very much hope (and can certainly attest from our experience) that its increasing popularity among bosses also lies with PR companies been increasingly able to being seen as intrinsic to a company's growth.

The use of online media and its now established methods of communication are still very much anathema to many SME bosses and it's something we're working hard to address among our client base.

Monday's Guardian also raised a related point though in that traditional media relies on advertising to sustain itself - if PR makes advertising unnecessary then the Guardian itself will cease to exist...certainly something I should mourn. Maybe we need to start working hand-in-hand to highlight the importance of both forms of marketing.

[Rachel Todd]

I find this topic really interesting and agree with Chris Norton.

So many companies are used to having control in their communications and they see that the use of social media and blogging gets in the way of their control. I predict this is for more than one reason. Firstly, it would mean, as Chris points out, that people in the team write on the blogs without any "permission". It also means that other people who are unrelated to the company can write about that company, which means that there is even less control.

Surely the answer would be to get on board with the new phenomenon and try to keep as much control as possible. In many cases this is what is happening, hence, the fall of advertising.

[Anderson]

I am a MSc Marketing student and big fan of Al Ries (unashamedly!!!). I guess that nothing in life is just black or white, everything has to be thought through carefully. Again there are people saying that PR is dead, in the end we are all dead, it's like a merry-go-round. Why not to say we are all seeking truth and to express the times and seasons we are leaving in through different canvas or/and using different lenses? Is Advertising dead? what about PR? Now then, shall we celebrate SEO now? what about embrace diversity, plurality and a more conversational approach to find riches and beauty in all expressions?

[Cillian Naughton]

I think the rise of PR is largely down to its versatility as something to be used within an industry and as an industry in itself. PR
also"Reputation management is now equally or more important than brand management and, as a result, there is a gradual shift of budget into public relations," says Chime, Britain's biggest PR Firm's chief executive Christopher Satterthwaite.
Companies are becoming more and more concerned with being seen as “Good Citizens” in the eyes of the pubic.
I have commented on my own blog, about the rise in significance of Social Networking, it is becoming more apparent that industries need to embrace it and find new and interesting ways of interacting with it because it looks like it is here to stay!!