CommBank CMO Andy Lark: Public relations industry is about to blow it

Clearly, this was not written by someone in PR. It’s like a secretary typed it from a doctor’s shorthand.

Now back as a journalist after 30 yearsn in PR and advertising, I see that little has changed – Very many PR people haven’t the faintest idea of the diference between quite a good idea and one that turns lights on in the media and their target audiences. Just look at the language used by these women you quote: “insight based creative thinking,” “from a transparency point of view,” “how do we maintain ownership of earned media,” “the care factor.”

What are these words and phrases? I read popular media from all around the world and they’re not the sort of stuff one sees in their pages. Not a single “let’s do this.” Too many PR people are still wankers. Most ad and creative agencies leave ’em for dead.. – Archie Bayvel, pr director (retd).

Interesting comments from a Marketing guy.

I agree that the landscape is changing but to say that PR agencies should run all content marketing/advertising is misplaced.

wow, great article and some seriously thought provoking quotes

The very issue with most PR agencies is outlined in this article well. Too many agencies adopt a “Them Vs. Us” approach. I work for a media agency but specialise across earned and owned. Most of the challenges we face is working with PR agencies who are unwilling to think beyond their traditional journo contacts. When talking a more innovative approach we are suddenly viewed as the enemy despite the fact all we want to do is help evolve their offering and give them the budget to do so with the end goal…getting some outstanding results. PR agencies are their own worst enemy and this is the very attitude that drives that.

wow, it’s difficult to know where to start.

1. It’s one thing to say that PR firms need to think more broadly, strategically and creatively about integrating with other disciplines from the outset, it’s another to turn this into a “PR pros are dumb” story angle – but i guess that’s a lay-up for Mumbrella, which like most media outlets view PR as soft target which can’t fight back . Of course, the advertising dollar directly pays journo salaries so all aspects of this industry are naturally treated more reverentially by the media.

2. I’m pretty sure that Andy Lark has only been a consumer tech PR so would speak from fairly limited experience, not having worked in the upper echelons of corporate affairs and issues management. It’s doubtful whether he has needed to manage a reputation in terms of a large corporate issue so like many CMO’s doesn’t understand what this is all about.

Other CMOs who clearly don’t understand reputation management would include the person at Qantas who ok’d the @qantasluxury campaign, and the person at Westpac who authorised the “your mortgage is like a banana smoothie” EDM. I don’t think their respective CEOs were congratulating them on their ignorance of broader corporate reputational issues.

Eschewing corporate reputation is nothing to be proud of Andy. It’s a mark of limited experience and is why many marketers will never get a seat at the table where the Head of Corporate Affairs sits.

3. Let’s be clear about what qualifies as earned media/PR and what doesn’t. If you have a budget big enough to employ David Boon and Brett Lee to spruik your mobile payments service, or to fund a glittering prize like a year ‘caretaking’ Hamilton Island – you aren’t operating purely in earned media land. You are operating in promotional/PR stunt land. Particularly if you happen to also have a large ad budget with the publications you expect to give you ‘earned’ media. Just like CommBank does. There’s not a lot of ‘earning’ going on here.

4. For an idea to have the effect of Kryptonite would mean that it repels and makes them weaker. Quite the opposite of what Andy meant for it to mean, i imagine. A telling mistake.

5. To give Andy his due, his PR savviness was displayed through his understanding that he needed to give his audiences what they wanted. His comments gave CommsCon attendees a feeling of superiority over an imaginary budgetary foe, being PR, and gave Mumbrella a pretext to criticise the PR industry.

A silo view from a PR perspective of how to grab a bigger share of a client’s marcomms budget. Andy should know better, a great idea doesn’t care where it came from. Achieving the best ROI for a client requires collaboration across whichever mix of media and implementation that delivers synergy.

Most big clients continue to procure from silos of expertise and traditional agencies continue to only think of their own share of the pie. Challenger brands will leave them all behind as they achieve more with less, by doing what’s best.

Aside from the appalling transcript that made reading this a guessing game….it’s spot on. For marketing communications PR, we need to be smart and creative. Our clients want to know that what we do works – it either has to sell the brand or sell a product. And creative agencies have the people and the resources to do it. But PR understands what makes news and influences people. It’s up to us to convince clients of this unique skill set.

A large part of the challenge is the client understanding of earned vs paid media, and respective values. In some instances it’s that the client understands the creative agency process better that the PR agency process. One is simply more visual. “Oh that’s the ad… looks nice, let’s place it”. Whereas the client may feel less control over earned media, which can be less ‘tactile’.

The answer is simple. PR must acquire creative agencies (or at least their core creative assets), and use that as a wedge into a bigger share of client spending.

Give the client a conventional paid media component to a campaign, with PR along side. Eventually you have all the data to show the client that the earned media out performed the paid media. At the same time, you have integrated more creative resources into your earned media process.

This is not about protecting earned media, rather evolving with a changing world and being a leader in change. I’m sure many of the big PR firms are thinking along these lines. For smaller firms, it may be easier to align with small creative teams that don’t have a vested interest in media buying.

I completely agree with Andy. We’ve been sitting on a golden opportunity for about four years now and have done little to build client confidence around our industry in the new media area.

Same ol’ same ol! I’ve been workin in marketing/comms/PR for almost twenty years and marketing has always been the child who demanded the most attention and money while PR/comms is the silent achiever.
The big mistake here is breaking it down to an ‘us and them’ siloed mentality. Sadly, many Marketing Heads (and Ad agencies) have a limited understanding of the power of a truly integrated campaign and clients suffer the consequences with short sighted shiny, shallow promos that cost a mint and don’t effectively help build on corporate reputation, culture and ultimately brand reinforcement (from the inside out).
No ad or above the line activity should be considered without an effective PR strategy to back it. Not to mention complementing internal comms and corp comms.
Come on people! This is OLD news!

This comment thread, or lack of, is precisely what is wrong (in part) with the PR industry. If Lark’s comments had been directed at the ad industry, how many comments do you think would be here? Ad industry folk would rush by the dozen to vehemently defend their craft with righteous indignation! The PR industry? Meh…