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/

Only one life after journalism???

Life, Journalism and then PR?

Maybe a few of my ex-journalist colleagues may wince at that comment, but this sequence is a fact of life - even moreso today.

For a hack, the most obvious career after journalism is to get into PR. Fact. But do ex-journalists make the best PR professionals? Yes and no but there is a learning curve.

When I trod the path of hack to PR I must admit I entered with a little naivety and arrogance. I remember sitting in the newsroom reading awful press release after press release while being bombarded with irrelevant calls by PR bods and thinking
“I can knock out better releases than this and I can create better angles. Journalism doesn't pay me what I'm worth, I'm doing ridiculous hours and I'm forever slagging everyone off. I’m going to move into PR, show them how to write a press release, earn millions before driving into the sunset in a sports car.” Easy.

Not quite. And the above comment illustrates a common ignorance among journalists about PR.

Sure, many PRs have never stepped inside a newsroom or even know what "nib" means, but to dismiss them on that basis is slightly disrespectful.

PR isn’t just about good writing and getting as much exposure for your client as possible. It helps, but there is so much more involved.

Having spent over two years working for one of the biggest PR agencies in the UK I now know different. PR is all about managing the reputation of your client, brand recognition and ultimately creating demand. Punchy news headlines and well-written releases are just a start. Being an ex-journalist I instantly gained respect for my writing skills, I knew what made a story, I had the contacts, I knew how a newspaper works, how a journalist thinks and how to write press releases etc but there was so much more I needed to learn. My arrogance quickly disappeared when I realised that to be a good PR person you need to embrace the profession and learn new skills.

One of the biggest role of a PR professional is understanding the client’s needs, making them understand how the media works, what angles and stories will work and why what you are doing is for the good of their business.

One of the biggest tasks in PR is keeping the client happy, as they are the ones who pay the bills. Journalists are naturally autonomous and independent. They don't care who you are, if there is a story to be had, no matter how controversial, it will be written. So, to go from this to bowing to the whim of your client is no easy task. It requires skill and art. You could say that it is similar to how journalists handle good contacts.

I now have my own business (http://www.79pr.co.uk/) fusing everything I've learnt as a journalist and in PR to help my clients. What I've learnt is that journalists can become the best PR people in the world. But that can only happen when they learn the skills needed in PR. Journalism skills combined with PR skills makes a very powerful combination.

There are other careers outside of PR for the hack looking to lock away his shorthand notepad for good. But PR is the closest thing you will ever get to being a hack.

Sure, it will never beat the buzz of a newsroom on a good day, or unearthing a gem of a story or getting a front page lead. But, the reality is that nothing ever will. But, creating a good campaign or securing column inches for your client on a national or a regional publication comes close.


So, a hack and a PR person. Much closer than you think.

http://seventyninepr.blogspot.com/