Last November I wrote a post that questioned whether the PR industry/profession was adequately keeping pace with the rapid changes in digital media and communications. Entitled “Is PR Still Relevant?,” the post generated a lot of interest. Probably because it is a “relevant” and somewhat provocative question these days in the marketing and communications industry. Here is that original post: http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/?p=34

Most PR agencies would answer in the affirmative. Of course they are as relevant – or more relevant – than every before, they argue. Just look at the industry’s growth rates in the past few years to see how clients are voting with their pocket books. True enough, the PR industry has grown quite healthily in recent years, even to the level of new boom times for the profession. I have actually been pretty amazed at the strong comeback of PR firms after their precipitous fall in the wake of the dot.com disaster of the early 2000s.

Those same agencies would also say that they have embraced digital communications in a big way. “We are managing the blogosphere with the best of them,” is a frequent comment I have heard PR agency types say to demonstrate that they really do get (and leverage) digital communications and social media.

In my November post I questioned this commitment to the emerging digital media. It appeared to me that a lot of it was mostly lip service and window dressing. At the time, I had been trying to hire a PR account supervisor (the “senior sergeants” of the PR agency business) with digital/social media experience, and could not find anyone who had any real expertise in this area (beyond emailing a few bloggers on occasion).

But, a recent conversation with a senior executive of a global PR agency has given me cause to be a lot more optimistic about the prospects of the PR discipline in the fast changing world of digital media and communications. This PR executive (he’d prefer to be known as a marketer…which he undoubtedly is) is a real leader in consumer marketing PR. He has worked at some of the leading PR agencies in the world, and major consumer product marketers, too. This guy is a “pro’s pro” in PR and consumer marketing – and he definitely “get’s” the new digital environment. And so does his agency, he tells me emphatically.

His agency is a global top-ten PR firm, and widely considered an industry thought leader. He said that every one of his firm’s client relationships today includes a range of digital activities, from the afore-mentioned blogosphere relations, to online influencer activities, web videos, microsites, SEM, viral/buzz marketing, and the list of hit digital tactics goes on. For his agency, digital is no longer a tacked on activity in a long list of capabilities. It had become, in many cases, the foundation – the core – of the programs offered to clients.

Who is doing all of this digital work at his agency? He said his firm has separate departments that handle everything from the web media planning to site design and production. Account people are indoctrinated in the emerging digital media from day one. It is no longer just smiling and dialing to set up interviews with the local style editor or TV news director. And, heaven forbid, it’s no longer just press releases.

What I found particularly interesting was his comment that his agency’s clients (the PR VPs and directors of major companies) were not always ready to embrace the digital media approach as much as his firm would like and recommend. His point here was that the clients tend to be the ones lagging in adopting digital media and communications approaches rather than the agencies themselves.

I finally asked him who his main competition was these days. This is where the conversation really got interesting. He said he did not view the other big PR firms as his main (or most feared) competitors. He cited the big media agencies as the category he was most concerned about in the new digital media and technology environment. (BTW, his PR firm is part of one of the global agency holding groups, and it has a number of leading media agencies in its stable.) He noted that the media agencies were now calling the shots in more and more of the marketing and communications decisions. Given the growing complexity of digital media, and the importance of integrating it and all other forms of media into seamless marketing programs, these media agencies are now the “powers” of the agency universe, my friend stated. It’s no longer the big advertising creative shops.

That insight certainly aligns with what I have been seeing and experiencing in the marketing business of late. I am sure it won’t be news to you either. Just recently I read about how a major media agency had announced that it is starting its own creative services shop (the tail is no longer wagging the dog…it is the dog!). I have since spoken to other plugged-in industry observers, and they have heard that other major media groups are doing the same thing.

At the same time, you have very clever firms like Naked offering what they describe as something revolutionary in the marketing and communications business: communications planning. Claiming total “media neutrality,” Naked says their approach is the only way to go these days as “traditional” agencies (advertising, PR, digital and direct) still try to sell you the channel they specialize in rather than what you really need (if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail). Naked is competing both with these emerging media agency powers and all other agencies, too. They say they have no conflict of interest because they just do the integrated planning (including, presumably, the big ideas/strategies), and no execution. We will see how long that “no execution” pledge lasts. I suspect Naked will eventually have to start doing the execution as well as they will not find sufficient business “just” handling the planning part (just like the media agencies are now starting to discover as they launch their own creative operations).

What does all of this portend for the marketing industry – including the PR business? For starters, it means that digital media, technology and communications tactics have scrambled the marketing game like never before. And the scrambling continues, as evidenced by the growing influence of media firms, and the emergence of “communications planning,” media neutral/agnostic specialists like Naked. The fact is that everyone is now competing with everyone else in the marketing business. The growing power and connectedness of digital will do that to you. My friend no longer feels he really competes with other PR firms. He is now trying to snag a bigger piece of the marketing pie that is being hotly pursued and hunted by every other agency type.

The marketing communications agency “mash up” is making the business more interesting and competitive by the day. That is mostly a good thing for marketers. More choice, more ideas, more options. What these major market shifts require from the agencies is even more innovation than ever before. Because, in today’s digitally driven world, innovation increasingly will be the difference between the true winners and the also-rans.

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