Sydney Morning Herald
Posted with permission from author Julian Lee
December 4, 2008
PUBLIC relations people are nothing if not opportunistic, as the head of one of the world's largest PR firms only too gladly demonstrates.
While the advertising industry goes into meltdown, the worldwide chief executive of Burson-Marsteller is pushing PR as a more effective and cheaper way of getting results.
"You can't just communicate by advertising [alone], which if anything has [had] a diminished effect. Or just online, because what drives online is the earned [editorial coverage in the] media," Mark Penn says.
His comments are all the more pertinent because his agency is part of the London marketing services group WPP, which counts among its agencies the venerable advertising brands JWT and Ogilvy & Mather.
"A lot of what is driven online is what's seen on cable TV or in the newspaper. The cycle between what you see in traditional media gives people a response mechanism that they can exercise online."
As more people research products online, Penn has begun urging his clients to use PR to set the agenda for the myriad conversations taking place in the blogosphere; something advertising cannot do, he says.
"Most companies spend 65 times as much on advertising as public relations, but what we have seen is the ROI [return on investment] in PR and digital combined has been underestimated relative to advertising. As they realign their budgets they have to take these facts into account."
Penn says marketers would do well to remember that the world of social media does not exist in a silo; that events - such as those orchestrated by PR people - act as a stimulant for web chatter.
He points to the recent presidential elections in the United States. The Obama camp successfully used the digital world of blogs, texting to mobile phones and online video to leverage speeches by Barack Obama, rallies and television commercials, he says.
"The growth of the importance of the digital image is so PR-driven versus ad-driven that more and more companies have seen [PR's] value."
But his analysis of what works - and just as important, what doesn't - risks being trampled underfoot in the headlong rush to cut budgets, he says. Penn has observed a swathe of cuts in corporate America.
"They are not exactly using scalpels here," he says.
Now is not the time for meek marketing but to aggressively grab market share from rivals who are ducking for cover, says Penn. "Market share fights are by nature more competitive, so I'm urging clients to look at competitive advertising and public relations during this period."
Those marketers who invest will be rewarded with greater growth once economic conditions improve, he says.
"Hopefully they'll be able to take the time to step back and look at things more carefully and adopt a strategy for winning through the recession and not just cutting back."
Burson-Marsteller lists Ford, Merrill Lynch and Shell among its clients. And some are already listening. The marketing chief of Hewlett Packard recently told the media it was "incredibly important to be risk-takers in the economic climate we're in" and "you don't hunker down and go in the bunker".
Others aren't heeding his message, but Penn won't say who.