Answers for Adam: Should PR agencies and creative agencies be combined?

PR agencies are increasingly seeing our work creep into other spaces as well (social / digital / video / experiential etc.) so as the landscape changes, we are all scrambling to claim the same territory.
What I think Adam touches on here is the lack of understanding about what we actually do. In my experience this means marketing agencies who decide to add a PR arm, often hire someone mediocre to head it up because they don’t know what questions to ask. I’ve seen so many average candidates with impressive CVs in this industry.
The other thing I would add is that PR is often added as an afterthought, once the creative has been finalised and then we are expected to build on something that was never designed for our audience. PR needs to be considered from the start because the rewards (ie media coverage) will be so much greater.
So to answer Adam’s question, the two should be combined because we are all involved in creating engaging content and putting it in front of the right audience. However you will always need genuine media relations experts who have strong relationships with journalists because these channels remain valuable and have the most cynical and discerning audience of all.

Sigmund Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays invented the profession of public relations. Its aim: ‘the intelligent manipulation of the masses’. Same as advertising.

Yes. Silos are breaking down. The potential capability of an individual to produce cross-silo solutions is increasing. I’ll welcome a great creative idea from a PR person as much as from anyone else. What I’m sick of is being made to stick within my own silo, whether by agency or client. A good solution doesn’t recognise silos. As an operating model, why not?

@Dawn Hewitt. You’re right about the touchpoints emanating from the agency. As much as I’d welcome ideas from a PR person, there’s no way I’d want them art directing a shoot. Equally, there’s no way I should be the touchpoint with the journalist.

Has PR degenerated into cash for favourable comment from the media? Cut and paste media releases that make the journalist jobs easier? Positive spin when everything goes pear-shaped? But the real question is: ” Don’t consumers see through all this anyway?”

I agree that the core disciplines of PR is now at the heart of all marketing. That is, the need to engage the audience in a conversation (as you say) and build relationships by bringing something of value to that conversation.

The essence of newsworthiness is what makes today’s good creative campaigns good i.e. they start a conversation, they’re worth talking about.

That is the basis of PR but PR is so much more than that.

PR was and should continue to be about reputation and trust. Other aspects of our industry just don’t seem able to muster that filter or nous. Actually I don’t think they care, its not sexy or creative enough. It requires a long term outlook.

And, trust is more important than ever for brands. Its not something that can be or should be glibly handed over to a Creative agency.

@Tony – Adam is asking the questions. When you have a regular column on Mumbrella you can start asking questions but only then.

One major problem not oft identified is the diversion of funds from traditional advertising to PR. This means that the medium that carries the messages PR is trying to get out – magazines, newspapers etc – is being strangled and starved.

PR still has a lot to learn from the creative agency model. As do creative agencies still have lots to learn from PR. PR experts tend to be generally good at a lot of things making them ‘strategically creative, conversation maintaining types’, however creative agency producers, suits, creatives and planners tend to be better at each individual area. What creative agencies don’t sometimes get is how to earn media and when they do, what tactics to use to amplify it. Creative and earned media are complimentary, so definitely agencies should combine but to better understand each other and improve, they need to work together under one roof rather than in integrated meetings. Eventually more creative agencies will understand earned media better and more PR’s will become more creative.

We manage PR and creative services in the one agency. Managing all levels of creative projects (design, digital and social) for our clients encouraged the discussion of having the same agency manage their PR for them too. We’ve found adding this service to our portfolio to be quite successful. Being a creative agency, we have a completely different approach to PR and I feel this is desirable and comprehensible by many SMEs. Our packages are an easy opt in with an affordable monthly price point.

Cpb thought so back when they were awesome

http://farisyakob.typepad.com/.....ating.html

Adam. How about I bring the beer and you bring the pretzels? Let’s gather a few at the local park and discuss your very valid question.

My opinion is we’re all chasing the same objective of connecting people to causes (brands being causes). But the differences are in the starting blocks and running shoes.

For the client I think the differentiation isn’t the ‘how’ but the ‘why.’ As for the PR winners – do the truly beautiful people win beauty pageants?

There is always more love in combining than separating. Key thing is that those good in PR tend to understand what creative agencies do. For those good in creative agencies are however happy to proclaim ignorance of PR. Like I said. I’ll bring the beer. Let’s find a comfortable park bench….

I say start with the problem, then to the insight, onto the message, and then the medium.

I’ve worked on both sides of the fence – and let’s just admit that good ideas do come from anyone with a thinking brain. However, making it a great piece of communication takes effort, and experience.

That saying if you have a crisis, say missing airplane – it’s certainly not a forte for a person experienced with drawing attention to a product. With social media and press statements being put up in 140 characters – it will take the best folks in PR to have a clear view of the stakeholders and execute the reputation recovery plan for the brand, or country.

Advertising and media folks typically bring the wildest ideas to answer the brief. They also have the advantage when vendors with cool platforms go to them first… so they will know about augmented reality executions before the PR folks… That is an information gap though, and can change when you know people who know people.

So it’s really interesting to see both camps confront social/digital here. Social moves quicker than advertising is used to, and engages with the folks (not the media) at a more immediate level. If nobody gets your message within seconds – the engagement with the brand drops. If it works – a tiny paid will push it to more people, and brand engagement increases.

It’s a new playing field folks… the skills that you have from either side will be a great use in social and it will take the best of both sides to survive…. Right?

Very interested to hear your thoughts about this digital/social space, and how traditional advertising and PR houses are gearing up to respond to it.

I’m going to expand on my original comment.

For the sake of example, I’m going to use the BUPA ‘Find a better you’ proposition. I think its the best thing I’ve seen in a while and this is not a reflection on either Clems or Big Red, but a hypothetical reverse-engineer.

The market is crowded primarily with messages about saving on premiums or the add-ons available in one’s possible policy.

A strategy – that is an underlying proposition – is sought. Maybe it comes from the strategy dept or is post-rationalised when some creatives come up with a nice idea. Here we have something at odds with what else is out there. A tangential consideration that rings true for the potential customer.

Find a better you. Related directly to health insurance, but not a generic price or value offer. A fantastic insight into how we sometimes see ourselves in the mirror. A great prompt to enquire.

Then, the creative executions are drawn up. TVC, Press, Website, Apps, Experiential executions (whatever is appropriate, not saying all are) are prepared. Media plan put together. As part of any modern marketing plan, the full spectrum has to be considered. How do we disseminate this message in earned media? How do we define the nature and govern the parameters of social comment?

From my perspective, anything or everything above can be conceived by any marcomms professional.

BUT the original proposition is key.

To my experience (20 yrs across comms spectrum), the people who are MOST LIKELY to come up with something as good as ‘Find a better you’ are in the creative agency. Apologies to PR people, but I just don’t think the ability to find a core, differentiating truth like this is within your grasp. And I’m genuinely not saying this to be inflammatory,

Actually, its not within the grasp of many of the creatives I have met, but that’s for another conversation.

The point I’m trying to make is that strategy and tactical are often confused. Once the strategy is defined, each marcomms silo responds with their tactical plan designed to support the underlying proposition.

Where PR people come to the fore is generally at another level – corp comms. Stakeholder/investor relations related to the functioning of the client as a business entity. And, as has been mentioned, crisis management, which is really a subset of the corp comms thing. Absolutely and utterly keep creatives away from this one.

None of this is set in stone, but right now I don’t think I’d have faith in a PR person being able to produce a great example of one of these underlying propositions – the strategy.

Things will change. Both our games used to be a ‘black art’ known only by members of the guild. But enabling technology, combined with the wonders of the human mind, will break down these silos.

In short, we both have our core skills, but for an applied marcomms brief, I still believe the creative side of the business has the demonstrable strength.

Sorry about your loss Clems, and good luck Big Red.

+For Immediate Release+

@ PReriously! It seems I have struck a bit of a raw nerve with you by naming a few elephants in the room. After a few decades working of with PR agencies in both comms agency and client roles, like Adam, I have seen PR morph through its many different models. I have heard the same questions raised in more than a few boardrooms.

The PR model is somewhat slow to transition to the many changes that have occurred and as consumers are more informed and savvy than ever before, some PR efforts quite rightly need to be reconsidered as the rest of the industry is marching on regardless and delivering more immediate and credible solutions.

Thankfully I live in country where I still have the freedom to raise questions; albeit ones that might make you feel a little uncomfortable.

+ End Release+

Here’s the thing, though. Write to the average creative agency with PR credentials and you wouldn’t even get an interview. You wouldn’t be seen as having any advertising experience. So how on Earth do we see the jobs merging when that fundamental issue still exists?

@Cameron. There is an old adage. Someone with half a dozen A-grade (and I mean A-grade) concepts in their folio should be able to get work in a creative agency. How do you get through the door? By using a demonstration of your imagination.

The average PR person doesn’t keep a portfolio like that. Another disconnect between what goes on in the world of “real PR” and advertising.

@cameron. That was advice. You need to understand how desirable a job as a creative is. It’s pretty much the best job in the world. So a lot of people are jostling for a few positions. Creative Directors are not interested in your CV. All they want to know is how many awards you’ve won. Seriously.

If you’ve been in PR, then maybe you want to be a copywriter. Award school is still the best training, but its intense and there’s no guarantee of employment unless you win. Failing that, choose some products and write your own ads/campaigns/strategies. Then find a creative mentor to help you with your folio. At entry level, you can get away with rudimentary layouts as long as – and I can’t stress this enough – as long as the ideas are strong. The disconnect happens when people fall in love with their own ideas. The best creatives filter out the crap. A mentor will help you with that. Good luck.

@me – creatives are a dime a dozen, good creatives a quarter a dozen
Most of the ad industry survives (and thrives) on self-congratulation (back slapping knob jockeys, as Stuart McGregor once called them)
an exceptional corporate and financial PR person is a lot harder to find and a lot more valuable
this is why specialist corporate and financial PR agencies have 40% margins – the sort of profitability about which David Droga can only dream