August 29th, 2007
Firm Footing - public relations business - Brief Article
Public relations professionals long endured the stigma of being the ugly stepchildren to their ad agency brethren. Not anymore. The pr business is booming, and public relations agencies are at last getting respect. The following panel comprising Edelman Public Relations Worldwide president and CEO Richard Edelman, Burson-Marsteller Worldwide CEO Chris Komisarjevsky, Weber Public Relations Worldwide chairman and CEO Larry Weber, DeVries Public Relations CEO Madeline DeVries and Porter Novelli International CEO Robert Druckenmiller explores the changing landscape in the pr biz with Adweek/Brandweek contributing editor Michael Schrage.
Brandweek: What do pr agencies understand about brands and the branding process that is unique and has put you in a better position, relative to advertising agencies?
Edelman: Advertising is great if you’ve got a single stake holder–if stake holders are consumers. We’re great at the orchestration among stake holders because in a message for a technology company or healthcare company, it is more complicated. It’s just who you talk to, when, what you say, how fast you say it. I don’t think advertisers are very good at speed.
Druckenmiller: I agree, but I think there are other elements, which are trust and credibility. I think they’re paramount to technology and healthcare companies. The two-way communication and ability for us to build relationships with those audiences, particularly in the cynical environment surrounding communications today [says] anything packaged is suspicious.
BW: So advertising is packaged, and pr is not?
Druckenmiller: We are delivering our messages through third parties–whether it’s reporters or journalists or other ways in which the credibility is enhanced. The credibility of those media are at stake as well. So yes, we’re not as packaged.
Komisarjevsky: I think the issue here is that you have to look at the cost/benefit tradeoff and the speed in which you can create a brand, whether for an existing company or a newly formed entity In today’s market, if you can’t create a brand quickly and you can’t demonstrate there’s some equity in that brand, then the ability to continue to get funding is very limited.
Weber: I don’t believe the ad business and the pr business necessarily agree on what branding is. What has moved to the center of branding is the relationship with the constituencies.
BW: From branded product to branded relationships?
Weber: All product is the fulfillment of a promise you make with the constituency. So I find an extremely tactical thing is going to be happening. Television has been the primary road for traditional ad branding. It’s at an all-time low in viewership. That’s not a trend; it’s a behavioral change. You start looking at what is the key core competencies of affecting constituencies. That’s dialogue. It’s interactivity. And who better than pr professionals to try and get an influenced opinion? Whether that be to buy something or to get a vote.
DeVries: Because they’re number driven, agencies are concerned about who’s reading everything, who’s viewing everything; they’ve stopped looking at content. So if you’re dealing with a healthcare brand, they’re not reading what the health editors are writing to consumers. The media planners and the dollars are driving what media exposure that brand is going to get. I think pr people who consume media all the time have a better feel for what people are getting to see and what they really need to hear or read.
BW: Is the brand steward the agency or is it the people or some intersection?
Komisarjevsky: The brand steward should be the CEO of the client company.
Weber: Ultimately, it’s the CEO. But…I think you’re trying to put a round peg into a square hole. We can’t all line up right now like it’s either an ad guy or a pr guy who’s going to carry the football when the client isn’t looking at it that way. I think the CEOs of the more enlightened companies are saying, “Look, give me a mix. I don’t care what you call it, but I’ve got to have the best relationships with the constituencies who are going to buy my products, affect legislation and vote for things. You tell me the balance–if that means there’s advertising, if that means there’s public affairs or lobbying. You work on that mix.”
BW: Your best clients are saying, “Give us a buffet?”
Komisarjevsky: I think at the end of the day, as public relations professionals, we’re striving for some sort of integrated approach because we think the combination of techniques and implementation is absolutely essential to what has to be done today. So in an ideal world, the client is saying, “Bring a team. Whether that’s from one holding company, Interpublic, WPP or Omnicom. What difference does it make? But bring me a team, or I’ll create the team. I’ll bring my own advertising. I’ll bring my own pr people. I’ll bring my own direct marketers, bring my own Internet people.”
BW: Are they challenging you to be integrated or saying “Please reduce other costs because we have neither the time, the energy nor the brand wit to cope with 10 points of content?”