Public relations played a key part in the debut campaign for Sony’s VAIO P-series notebook computer.
cent to $3.75 billion in 2009, and grow at a 6. 6 percent compound annual rate during the forecast period “as companies
continue to rely on the expertise of PR firms in promoting a
positive image online and offline,” the report says.
At the same time, newspaper ad spending will drop 18. 7
percent to $35.5 billion in 2009; consumer magazines will
decline 14. 8 percent to $11 billion; radio will drop 11. 7
percent to $15.8 billion; and broadcast TV will be down
10. 1 percent to $43 billion, the Veronis Suhler report says.
The fastest-growing trend in media spending, according
to the report, is the incorporation of social media into word-of-mouth campaigns, as companies track conversations and
mentions about their brands through social networks.
“Rather than pushing messages from on high, communications execs are ‘spiritually aligned’ and can benefit from
taking advantage of Web 2.0,” says Paul Argenti, professor
of management and corporate communication at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. “It’s always been about
pull with PR, creating a conversation with people, listening to them and focusing on two-way conversations.”
A SEISMIC SHIFT
The shift in communications spending comes amid sweeping changes in consumer behavior. In the social sphere,
people are looking for information about products and
services on their own terms. They want brand information communicated in a friendly vein and don’t want to
feel like they’re being pitched, sold to and prodded.
“PR understands how to engage consumers in a dialogue about a brand,” said Margi Booth, president of public relations agency M Booth & Associates, which in early
August was acquired by Next Fifteen Communications
Group.
Last summer, M Booth & Associates put together an
“interactive tasting” to stir things up for client Macallan
Scotch whisky. Nearly 30 food and drink bloggers were invited to New York’s "eighty one" restaurant to sample different ages of Macallan whisky. The agency also secured
five influential bloggers for a virtual tasting via Twitter
using the hashtag #Macallan. Bloggers at the live event
tweeted their comments about each whisky and compared
their notes with people who participated online.
Within two days, the Twitter conversation about
Macallan Scotch had grown to 45 pages and attracted
50,000 followers.
“In terms of social media, PR does have a seat at the
table,” Ms. Booth says. “I can’t imagine any forward-think-ing CEO who isn’t looking at public relations to drive consumer choice and not just for doing publicity.”
Yet the demands that public relations work closely with
other marketing disciplines go beyond the C-suite. “It’s not
just that the CCO [chief communications officer] and
CMO have learned to ‘play nice’ in the sandbox, but the
board expects PR and marketing to work together more
effectively because the disciplines are converging,” says
Anne McCarthy, exec VP-corporate affairs for Western
Union. “There is a renewed appreciation for the two disciplines and an expectation that PR and marketing work
hand in glove to create more impact in the marketplace.”
Western Union’s public relations
department has been earning a greater
share of the promotional budget due
to the surge in social media, Ms. McCarthy says. PR was heavily involved
in Western Union’s “yes!” campaign,
which rolled out in February. The
campaign centered on the company’s
target audience, international migrant
workers who send money to friends
and family. It included a Web site (
The-PowerOfYes.com) featuring Western
Union’s customers telling their stories
through photos, videos and text about
how they said “yes” to their dreams.
The campaign, which included
outreach via Facebook, MySpace,
Twitter and YouTube, has provided
solid returns. Since it was introduced,
Western Union’s transactions rose 3. 4
percent in the first half of the year—
no small feat in a down economy.
Whether concerning long-estab-lished brands such as Western Union
or (relative) newbies like BrightRoll,
marketers agree that public relations
can have a positive effect on the top
and bottom lines.
“I can track direct ad spend on our networks as a result
of the bylines on social channels that PR was responsible
for,” says Tod Sacerdoti, CEO and founder of BrightRoll, an
Phil Juliano, Novell
Jon Iwata, IBM
online ad network whose clients include Starcom and Universal McCann.
BrightRoll’s PR agency, LaunchSquad, produced a series of 12 three-minute videos embedded on BrightRoll’s
Web site that Mr. Sacerdoti says has spurred sales. “Among
all our PR and advertising efforts in aggregate, we have
benefited most from our bylines in the trades and self-created video content that were promoted primarily via
social media.”
Public relations has been brewing sales at Diageo, whose
brands include Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff.
In the weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Day 2008, PR, in
collaboration with the Guinness brand team, introduced
the Proposition 3-17 marketing campaign, which was continued in the weeks leading up to
the holiday this year.
With tongue firmly tucked in
cheek, Diageo’s PR crew introduced
a Web site that asked people to vote
on making St. Patrick’s Day an officially recognized holiday in the U.S.
The Web site, supported by ad buys
in print and broadcast media, garnered nearly 500,000 signatures, says
Dan Sanborn, Diageo’s senior direc-tor-corporate relations & brand PR.
As a result of the campaign and
local market execution, the Guinness brand had a double-digit increase in sales comparing the St.
Patrick’s selling periods in 2008 and
2009, Mr. Sanborn says.
Public relations has “always had a
seat at the table” at Diageo. But with
the advent of social media and a
changing media landscape, PR is
playing an even more important
role in marketing Diageo’s products.
“It continues to be a critical lever
for marketing,” he says. “No matter
how much ad spend you have, PR
remains a powerful tool to connect with consumers at the
grass-roots level through credible third-party endorsement. Many great brands have been built on the power of
recommendation.” ■
THE PR FACTOR I S5
