PR agencies told to swoop on clients while media agencies are weak
Media agencies are facing an unprecedented “evaporation of trust” and public relations practitioners should fill the void and become more prominent in the agency mix, Ben Shipley, managing director of Spectrum Group told the audience at Mumbrella’s CommsCon.
Shipley said there is an oppourtunity for the PR industry to “take on the big guys and win” in the face of digital transparency issues and international debates about the role media agencies shoud play.
“Having come out of a big WPP network, I definitely see that there is an opportunity to take on the big guys and win. First of all, from an ad agency, media agency perspective, there’s never been an opportunity where they have been as weak as they are right now,” he said.
“You would have seen in the States literally the evaporation of trust in the media agency. We should be doing better at taking advantage of that. Even in this market, if you’d said at the start of the year that we’re going to see a trend where major advertisers were going to be pulling out of Google, everyone would have said “You’re nuts” – but that is exactly what we’re seeing today. People are open to consideration – and as PR professionals, we should be trying to fill that void with a great story.”
Are you kidding? Media Agencies today are more crucial to the marketing process than ever before whereas PR Agencies are a dying breed.
In what universe could a PR agency offer anything remotely similar to the depth of knowledge and insights a media agency can bring?
Rubbish.
There are so many flaws in this that it doesn’t even warrant breaking down. It’s an article based on nothing more than unsubstantiated (and self serving) opinion with the only support being an allusion to “facts” that are actually never properly referenced. How would a lawyer go pinching spend intended for doctors simply because, as a profession, they were having a bad run? As the previous commenter points out, an effective media agency is more important than ever. Stick to your knitting, demonstrate value and you’ll do just fine. Make a land grab with no substance? Good luck.