False Impressions: What's Holding PR Back?
I’ve been in this business for more than 25 years now. The start of my journey in PR pre-dates the launch of Google, the Web 1.0 implosion and social media. Yes, I’m that old. And a bit cranky, too, especially when it comes to defending the value of public relations.?
For those of you who don’t know and can’t imagine life before the Internet, let me state the obvious: the amount of change, innovation and disruption that technology has thrust upon virtually every aspect of our personal and professional lives since 1996 is staggering. What’s more staggering? The lack of change, innovation and disruption in public relations over that same time.?
Sure, many firms including the three I’ve worked with over that time have experienced strong growth; however, looking deeper you’ll see that that growth has largely come from the scale economies of globalization, the accretive benefit of acquisitions and stealing share of wallet from advertising, media and digital agencies by successfully persuading our clients that we can now do what they have historically done.
But have we, as an industry, driven true, game-changing innovation? Has anyone Uber-ed traditional — and traditionally-thinking — agency brands into obsolescence? Nope. Yes, we owned social media when it was about citizen journalism and organic community development and engagement, but quickly ceded that leadership position to advertising, digital and media shops when the various platforms succumbed to the pressure to monetize their businesses. And nowhere is this more true than in the tech PR space.?
One has to ask why. What’s stopping us? I think there are five fundamental fears that haunt the industry, and each is a barrier that we have allowed to stand in our way of jump-step innovation. Fear of numbers; fear of strategy; fear of technology; fear of accountability; and fear of change.???
The public relations business cannot and will not see exponential growth in size or relevance until we have an attribution-based measurement system that allows us to link the results of our efforts to business outcomes that matter to C-Suites worldwide.?
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Impressions aren’t it. Getting a story on the morning shows or in the mainstream business media isn’t it. The total number of stories placed in a year isn’t it. These are all outputs and, as such, basically meaningless as a measure of value delivered for price paid.?What should matter is what the intended target does with the information shared.?
These and so many more KPIs are all inherently trackable and reportable, and each will do more to prove our value as part of the media mix than the standards by which most practitioners have been tracking and reporting their results for the past 75+ years.?
We are our own worst enemies, and we can and must do better. We need to lean into those five fears, embrace change and accept the fact that we are indeed accountable for producing results we can take to the bank.?
At SHIFT, we helped DemandBase create the account-based marketing category. We’re now beginning to apply that same logic to how we think and work as we evolve from a Public Relations into a Performance Communications business.?We want to be accountable for moving needles that matter, because as we see it, that’s the only thing standing between us and meaningful share and spending gains in the total communications mix.??
Human Resources Administrator at Rise Up Solutions
2 年Change IS nature. Businesses must not be afraid of innovation and change. Instead, we must embrace it because our era is growing fast that technology is still the number one of the most valuable resource one must not waste.
All true. Until there are more senior strategists who understand the different disciplines (earned media relations, paid, social, etc.), are sufficiently experienced and confident to create integrated strategies that actually drive measurable actions, and are able to get clients to connect the data dots on the back end to measure and report results, those C-suite seats will remain occupied by others. To overcome the fears of technology, numbers, change, multi-platform strategy and accountability, we pre-Internet era practitioners need to keep learning, keep moving with the times. It's up to us to do our best to bring the right comms and marketing specialists to the table and get everyone aligned around the idea that what we do is about moving the business needle. Impressions be damned.
Change is a process, not an event. And the best way to adapt and succeed, is to plan for it.
2 年Very well articulated Rick and I would expand on one point that you made “fear of strategy” As a former PR practitioner (led the Canadian biz unit for Weber Shandwick for four years and built my own communications agency over a decade) and now a brand strategist, what I hear from clients is that they simply don’t see the value of working with a PR agency that doesn’t get business or brand strategy. I hear constantly that they get pitched by seniors and then saddled with juniors who are in over their heads and have little business experience at all. These comments are not one off’s unfortunately. You note a “fear of strategy” - I might add complete lack of depth and experience in translating business and brand strategy into communication strategy and tactics … just some comments to ponder and a chance for the sector to look at how it is failing to gain a credible seat at the table with clients
Omnichannel Marketing ??Communications ? Digital Strategy Executive
2 年Excellent points, and I especially appreciate the Demandbase example. That's a great company and defining the ABM (and now ABX) category is heavy lifting, but so incredibly valuable. Thanks for sharing!
I appreciate the evolution from public relations to performance communications and refocusing the goal achievement. Good stuff!