Evolution of Advertising & Public Relations: PR’s Winning
I was going over some old presentations that I’d saved in my “Research” folder, and came across a great diagram that Richard Edelman had used at one point. It was meant to depict the evolution of PR in the Social Media era.
It got me to wondering about the other big recipients of marketing dollars: the advertising guys. How are they evolving? Here’s my take, which is a riff on Mr. Edelman’s original concept:
As you can see, PR is becoming increasingly interpersonal: there is a daily flow of interaction, responsiveness and adaptation going on amongst PR people and their ever-expanding publics. Good PR pros are becoming increasingly open — clear and casual, responsive and transparent.
Meanwhile, the advertising folks are coming to embrace more and more user-generated content, but as PAID media (versus EARNED media), the advertising execs’ ability to flex the corporate message is practically non-existent. They can only move into the “CONTROLLED Collaboration” quadrant of this diagram because ads are, by definition, an official corporate branding exercise.
Yes, the advertising industry will always have an edge in terms of sex appeal, and the future of advertising (particularly in a mobile online world) is still quite exciting. But advertising’s intrinsic, long-term value to the corporate brand is declining in the Social Media era. And the PR industry is the happy beneficiary.
Agree? Disagree? Are you at least glad I’m back from vacation?
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Gist of today’s post: PR *finally* winning over Advertising, after 50+ years competing for budget, thx to Social Media. [link to post]
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RT @microgeist: PR winning over Advertising, after 50+ years competing for budget, thx to Social Media. [link to post]
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Very glad you’re back! You’re article raised an interesting point that I was just discussing with my “New Media Technologies” professor. With the quickly rising use of social media, personally and professionally, consumers now — more than ever — crave (and in many cases require) two-way communication with companies. I don’t think that advertising is going anywhere soon, but I do agree with you that public relations is on the rise. Consumers want to engage in conversations with companies and feel important and valued (as you explained so well in your book Brink). Twitter is a prime example of what the two-way communication looks like.
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RT @nicklucido: Good news for PR folks – PR is beating advertising: [link to post] (h/t @sheesidd)
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RT @TDefren: The Evolution of PR *versus* the evolution of Advertising. New blog post: [link to post]
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RT @sheesidd: RT @nicklucido: Good news for PR folks – PR is beating advertising: [link to post]
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Really good post from @TDefren [link to post] – Evolution of Advertising & Public Relations: PR’s Winning
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Why are we still viewing it as a zero sum game? I can’t imagine a basketball coach saying, “we’re going to just feed the ball down low” or “let’s just put up 3-pointers.” No, you have a basic philosophy and you develop strategies based on your strengths, your competitors strengths and your ultimate goal. The inside game (PR) has to support the outside game (Ad) and vice versa. Otherwise your competition can easily counter.
In the biz world, philosphies may be changing to a more social, collaborative mindset but the ultimate goal (building brand recognition, identity and profit) and the strategic thinking needed to get there are the same.
If a company is playing in the social world, advertising should be about building a brand that is open, inclusive and participatory and PR should complement that by reinforcing that message and making it true. I don’t think one wins out over the other. Instead, in shifting from a half-court offense to a run-and-gun, there’s likely to be more shots available for everyone.
@jeffdonald
Love the truly catchy slide. Great way to display why pr has an edge on advertising.
However, pr will still need to win what I consider the greatest battle – a way to display results to the leadership.
When advertising always has a very tangible product (print/movie etc) and guaranteed results (bought space), pr will need to develop better measurement standards to achieve a better understanding among corporate execs.
My experience is that the understanding of pr results is slim – if the result isn’t a full page article in a national morning paper…
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RT @patrickRevans: Really good post from @TDefren [link to post] – Evolution of Advertising & Public Relations: PR’s Winning
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