Marketing and PR in 2010

2009 was a funny old year. This year definitely saw a seismic shift in the way that PR and marketing is executed.

It had to happen, but the internet and the digital revolution has taken over PR. Fact. In 2009 clients were no longer after the inches in newspapers and magazines. They wanted a bigger bang for their buck. And this meant embracing the digital age.

Although digital 2.0, PR 2.0, social media PR or whatever you want to call it was already on the scene, last year the egg fertilised.

And today building a marketing campaign has to involve web PR. Clients expect a digital presence. Facebook and Twitter campaigns are a must for the marketing managers.

Last year many PR agencies hastily rearranged their service offering by including digital into the marketing mix for their clients - to good effect. The reason PR, and digital PR in particular, did so well last year in a recession was the acknowledgement by businesses that PR actually provides good value for money. In a nutshell it costs less and brings credibility to your business.

One of the unsolved mysteries, and will remain so for a while, is how you measure online PR during evaluation type. Traditonal media was easy. Get a ruler, measure the inches and multiply with the ad cost. Then, depending on what PR agency you are, multiply it by 3,5 or 7 times to get the equivalent ad value (eav). In the digital world, things are not quite so easy. There are so many factors that need to be taken into account that it is a real task to get the eav.

Twitter - definitely the website for marketeers in 2009. Whether it remains so is anyone's guess. The funny thing about digital is that the more connections you make via social media, the more alone you get. Sure, digital campaigns give you the big hits and quick growth but are you actually engaging with the end consumer? Are you? Indeed, we reach a critical mass very quickly, but do we really know the people who become followers or friends. It seems via the digital revolution, and in particular social media, we seem to have traded quality for quantity.

If reaching a certain number on the friends list is seen to be a measure of success for marketeers, we have real problems. We know the names of the people on the friend list, and we know their friends of their friends, but do we really know who they are? The intimacy of your end-user seems to be lost in the tech waves. The more people we reach, the less we know about them and from a consumer and branding perspective this defeats the object of marketing.

Twitter and Facebook are a great way to grow the numbers, but for a consumer it really is a soulless experience. And when you lose the soul, you forget what makes the consumer tick. Sure, they will click on the link for your great new viral, but their affinity to your business ends when the video finishes.

Expect more of the same in 2010. The digital revolution will continue to grow. PR will continue on the road of creating even crazier stunts for clients to get column inches (see earlier posts for some stunts of 2009 or click here or here). Flashmobbing will become more popular. Another Meerkat-inspired character will front the campaign for something-saving website.

In my opinion Twitter will carry on growing, but somewhere along the way we will have to start paying for its use. It's not making money so it has to claw back money somehow. Staying on the prediction vibe, we will see more and more newspapers charging for content use. So, those media websites we visit everyday for free will become monthly subscription service.

We can't leave the blog without mentioning what 79PR will be up to. One of the major things we are doing is a guest blog for various publications to help those targeting certain markets. The editor of the publication will speak, in no uncertain terms, about how they would like PR's to work with them and what works and what doesn't. If there are any publications, especially ethnic outlets, you require more information for, then please contact us on info@seventyninepr.co.uk and we will help you. After plenty of work towards the back end of last year in event consultation we are looking to set up 79Events sometime in the next few weeks. And finally, we want to make a change for the positive. As such, we are in the embryonic stages of a major campaign to help youngsters understand media with a series of courses and seminars with industry leaders.

No doubt, we will keep you posted.

Best.
The 79PR team.

http://seventyninepr.blogspot.com/

Memo to Tiger Woods - Come clean!

An interesting thing happened this week. Really interesting.

It is an uphill struggle at the best of times to explain what PR is, what it does and the benefits it brings.

Funnily enough, even most of my friends and family don't know what I do for a living. The worst thing is that in my former workplace, even the other departments didn't what the PR team did despite the fact that we were one of the most successful facets of the entire business and group.
I feel like Chandler from Friends sometimes - those who follow Friends will understand that comment.

Explaining PR is a difficult one. Many reckon that it is advertising. It isn't. Whereas others associate it immediately with Max Clifford. Trust me, its not that glamorous.
There definitely needs to be more education around what PR does - but that is a question for another day.

Anyway, a few days ago I find myself explaining PR to a bunch of my family and friends during a dinner. Among those in the audience, listening avidly was a 10-year-old. A very bright 10-year-old.

While others were digesting my explanation of what I do, this little cookie stared at me intently, before posing a question which many adults in that room could never have mustered. And what a cracking question it was.

"So," he began, "if you look after the image of businesses, what would you do if you were the PR man behind Tiger Woods?".

This kid will go far, I thought immediately. Not only had he grasped what PR was from my feeble explanation, but he also showed that he kept abreast of current affairs. There is still hope for the youth of this generation.

Now I'm no celebrity PR expert but the lessons to be learned from the debacle surrounding Tiger Woods can be applied to PR for businesses as well. (Those of you who have somehow miraculously missed this story should click on this link here) Although I don't represent celebs I did have a chance to do some work with an up and coming sports star a little while ago. Since then, this guy has become a household name with dreams of cracking America next (any ideas anyone who I'm talking about??)

Clearly for a darling of the sport such as Tiger Woods these revelations have come as a great surprise. But what has been a bigger surprise is the way his publicity and management team have handled the whole affair. While Tiger has applied the mute button, others have not. One thing that a celebrity, and a business as well, must learn is that if you stay quiet, the newspapers wont. They love a scandal involving a celebrity and once they see that no information is forthcoming from the celebrity camp, they start digging. And when they dig, they usually find something.

The lack of words from Tiger has cost him. Sponsors are dropping him, others will follow I'm sure. Perhaps a silver lining is that Gillette will drop him and we won't get to see those awful ads with him and Mssrs Henry and Federer. (Although I would like to ask the person who put these three together in the first place a very serious question - WHY????)

So, in response to the 10-year-old - the answer lies in the truth. Let's think like Max Clifford for a moment. The best thing that any celebrity can do in a situation like this is to come clean. Quickly. Get yourself in front of TV cameras. Be honest. Be upfront. Say sorry, lots of times and be genuine. By doing this you endear yourself to the public even more. And, you also cut the supply of possible dirt being dredged on you by the red tops. If you've already come clean - damage limitation is in full effect.

Never stay silent like Tiger has. People assume guilt and it will take a little while to recover. There are possibly a few mistaken reasons as to why Tiger has taken a vow of silence. He either thinks he a) it will blow over b) he is too embarrassed to say sorry c) or he is too arrogant to apologise. Who knows?

On the flip side I know whose camp I'd like to respresent right now - his wife. The media love a woman who is a victim - especially a celeb one - and with correct management by her PR team she could be birdying her way all the way to the bank.

The 79PR team

http://seventyninepr.blogspot.com/