ALIGNING INTERACTIVE MARKETING and PUBLIC RELATIONS
Now
The Next Wave
As I written before, the boundaries between PR and interactive marketing continue to blur â€" even though they still often operate as separate functions in many organizations.
I suspect in time, social media will push companies to the margins that focus exclusively on web applications and media relations. Money will still be made courting reporters and overseeing web development, but the real action will be where PR and interactive marketing overlap. In that digital/social media space, the focus will be on balancing relationships, storytelling, placement, search, applications and a means to measure success.
Right now, the real challenge is managing the transition and determining an effective alignment strategy. Consider what Rachelle Spero, Executive Vice President, Digital Media, Cohn & Wolfe wrote me:
I was recently discussing the alignment of PR and interactive with a peer from one of our sister companies at WPP. She told me that during an all agency call the client asked about search optimization. The interactive agency contact said she had a whitepaper on search. Then the ad agency manager piped in and said he had a whitepaper on search. Then the PR guy added that his agency had a whitepaper on search. Aligning PR with interactive is important to the client. Do we need any other reason?
Rachelle will be addressing this changing dynamic as part of a session at my upcoming PR Camp New York. Rachelle and other PR executives will be paired off with interactive agency executives to discuss how to better align their practices.
The goal of the discussion is not blood on the floor or to pick a winner. Rather, it's collaboration. It's time to directly address such issues as messages vs key words, placement vs search, impressions vs click-throughs, and story telling vs application building.
So in addition to Rachelle, here's a preview of what some of the moderators are thinking about in terms of the alignment issue.
David Berkovitz, Senior Director of Emerging Media & Innovation, 360i emphasized the need to learn from each other:
"Especially when engaging in social marketing, interactive marketers increasingly need to think more like PR practitioners in terms of building and cultivating relationships with the key influencers in their fields. Meanwhile, PR professionals need to better understand what online influencers want - namely targeted, personal communications and often some assets to share, rather than press releases and corporate updates. There is plenty both kinds of practitioners can learn from each other."
Andrea Harrison, Strategy Director, Razorfish wrote me that the need for cross agency collaboration is critical in managing resources and delivering results.
More and more our clients are asking us to work cross-agency on social marketing programs, highlighting the need for better collaboration with our counter-parts in PR. While in the past all earned media or WOM was earmarked as the domain of the PR shop, the growth of the social web and the role of digital marketing has changed that dynamic. Now we see PR and Interactive working together to craft and deliver the messages through platform applications and other interactive campaigns.
Joe Ciarallo, Editor, PRNewser.com and Manager, PR Initiatives, mediabistro.com believes that their won't competition to own social media because everyone will own it.
Brian Solis said to me recently, who 'owns' social media within an organization is going to be like who 'owns' email. Yes, maybe IT sets up email, but it is used by everyone in the company. The same will apply - if it is not already - to content creation and interactive marketing.
But even as social/digital media becomes more central to the way we do business, Jonathan Kopp - Global Director, Ketchum Digital still recognizes the non digital world.
"Even the most digital citizen lives with one foot firmly planted in the analog world. Each of us is living in our own "digalogue" â€" the word I use to refer to conversations that span seamlessly across digital and analog channels."
In addition, Alex Norman, Executive Vice President, Schematic and Chris Andrew, Vice-President-Group Director Media, Digitas will lead discussions.
So if collaboration is the end game, how do we get there? Visit the discussion tab on the PR Camp New York Facebook page and share your thoughts. I am interested to get your perspective on how intense the rivalry is now, whether the alignment PR/interactive marketing is really an issue, whether PR and interactive marketing will evolve into one business and if so, what role will social media play in making it happen?
Let me get back to you.
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