By Francis Moran
I originally wrote this post for DangleTech, Canada’s largest community-sponsored website dedicated to the issues surrounding Canada’s technology sector, where I contribute a weekly blog called “In the media: It’s where you need to be.” But my editor here at inmedialog, who’s been itching all week to see a post on this subject, decided we should also post it here.
One of the most frequent and, to tell the truth, most boring and least helpful, themes in the blogosphere is the all-too-common declaration by one blogger or another that PR is dead. With all the authority of his well-read blog, Robert Scoble started the ball rolling again this week with a post Monday that celebrated the fact that he actually heard about a new company – more of a raw beta concept, really – from some source other than a PR or corporate flack.
Leaving aside for the moment the question why this should be so noteworthy – Hey, Robert: It’s a rare day I don’t learn something new or hear about a new company, product or service with no involvement whatsoever from a PR or corporate flack. I call it waking up, opening my eyes and walking down the street! – he went on to extrapolate from this that PR is dead.
I’m not going to weigh in with comments on all the arguments raised both pro and con the silly idea. If you really have nothing better to do, if Canada’s not doing well enough at the Olympics to draw you in to all the TV coverage and you have time to kill, then you can see a good round-up here.
Notwithstanding the tediousness of this apparent fixation on the part of a lot of the blogosphere to bury PR and speak its eulogy, two useful points emerge.
The first is that when it comes to understanding public relations, the full scope of activities that fall under its rubric and the even fuller scope of marketing activities of which PR is merely a subset, Robert Scoble is strictly a blind man touching an elephant. Like many of his blog brethren, all Scoble ever sees (touches) is the story pitch. And since they are on the receiving end of a staggering number of poorly written and badly targeted pitches, it’s no wonder these guys see no value in what most PR people are doing with them.
In fact, the pitch is the very end of a lengthy and intensive process that, if done properly, creates tremendous value, both for the idea being pitched and for the person to whom it is being pitched. It’s merely one arrow in a PR quiver that, in turn, is merely one weapon in a marketing armoury.
The second useful point is that in many ways, Scoble and his colleagues are right. PR is dead. At least, PR – as it has been practiced by too many for far too long – is dead. That old way saw (mal)practitioners source huge lists of so-called contacts from commercial media directories, mail-merge them with their news release or story pitch, and then blast it out to hundreds, if not thousands. It didn’t work in the old days any better than it does now. All that has changed is that the targets of those useless pitches are naming and shaming those who do it. (I did weigh in on the death of the media directory.)
Far from the blogosphere sounding the death knell for PR, it has focused attention on the most egregious practices of the industry. While I still find most of the arguments tendentious and silly, at least they’re serving this one useful public service.
By Leo Valiquette
A community manager does what again?
There’s this new corporate entity that’s apparently popping up more and more called the community manager. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what exactly is the scope of responsibilities of this position and where it fits vis-a-vis the public relations function. Over at his blog, Chris Brogan gives his take on the essential skills of this all around champion, cheerleader and ambassador who, among other things, must obviously steer any social media effort. It still seems to me to just be another PR role with a specific set of responsibilities, but some people will jump at any chance to decorate their business cards with a catchy new job title.
Gone in seven seconds
Getting and holding the attention of big-wig, heavy-hitting media types means doing one’s homework and preparing to make the most of a seven-second opportunity before picking up the phone. Talia Andrews from Fusion PR offers some pointers.
Viral buzz
Lastly, over at The Buzz Bin, social media consultant Mack Collier talks about viral marketing, what he considers to be valuable social media tools and how likely it is that all the social media tools that are so hot today will prove to be flashes in the pan tomorrow.
By Linda Forrest
I was intrigued last week when the Marketing Profs newsletter opened my eyes to the fact that so-called “Generation Y” appears to love direct snail mail. Given how “plugged in” younger people are these days, this seems utterly counterintuitive, but it is indeed the case. One wouldn’t assume that amongst the electronics that are so prevalent in young people’s lives, they’re keeping their coupons clipped, but indeed it sounds as though this can be an effective way to reach this audience. Certainly more relevant information for those marketing a consumer play, but as entrepreneurs get younger and more skilled young people rise through the ranks in the workforce, it’s a good idea for those in the B2B space to be conscious of the habits of this age group as increasingly they are decision makers in the business world.
Marketing to different age groups has indeed been a hot topic in the marketing newsletters of late, as the Daily Dog also pointed to a piece on bridging the generational gaps with PR programs at the end of last week. It’s important, regardless of what you’re marketing, to be conscious of your audience and implement the marketing activities and methods that are most likely to bring about success. Perhaps these articles will provide you with some insight into your market and how best to reach them.
By Francis Moran
My wife and I were listening this morning to a local CBC radio story about a filmmaker who had invested very large sums in the production of short video clips intended for viewing online or on mobile devices. I was only half listening, so please excuse the lack of more precise details. The point is that he was quoted as being “hopeful” that an arrangement he had forged with Canadian ISP Sympatico would eventually pay dividends for him if his content drove higher viewer numbers that, in turn, drove higher ad revenues for Sympatico.
Good luck, my wife commented, adding that the nut of getting web content to pay is still, to a very large degree, yet to be reliably cracked. Besides adwords, what’s your play?
Well, for some time now, I’ve been hearing about the growth of internet advertising, especially its growth outside adwords. Our family breakfast discussion this morning was timely given a research report out of IDC just today that said, “Worldwide spending on Internet advertising will total $65.2 billion in 2008, which represents nearly 10% of all ad spending across all media.” The researchers went on to predict, “this share will reach 13.6% by 2011 as Internet ad spending grows to $106.6 billion worldwide.”
This is good news for our filmmaker and others seeking to monetise their content through advertising revenue. Still, IDC said, spending on display ads would not outstrip spending on adwords anytime soon, with display ads expected to account for only 20% of all online ad revenues, compared to fully 33% for adwords and just a shade ahead of the 19% share claimed by classified advertising.
This, I believe, is where internet advertising is missing the boat. And it’s a point I have not heard made by most of those talking about advertising on this medium.
Research consistently shows that as much as 80% of the purchase decision-making process takes place within one metre of the product itself; in other words, in the store aisle while the consumer is eyeballing her or his array or choices. At that critical stage, most advertising is but a dim memory.
The internet is the only place, outside of in-store or point-of-purchase advertising, where the opportunity to promote a product lives cheek-by-jowl with the ability to actually purchase the product. This incredibly powerful cohabitation of promotional message with the product itself is the very force behind the planet’s most successful e-commerce sites such as Amazon, but it is a force seemingly only dimly understood by too many of today’s online advertisers who fail to grasp that the internet is not just a medium, it’s also a marketplace.
Until these two elements come together — medium and marketplace — the full potential of internet advertising will not be realised and our local filmmaker will never become rich.
