PR at Cross Purposes
While doing research for my new book, “Making News in the Digital Era
This issue came to my attention thanks to Ogilvy’s John Bell after I had written a blog posting, Why Big PR Lacks Online Leadership/Expertise. Bell left a comment in which he said:
“…clearly you do not know much about my team at Ogilvy. 360 Digital Influence is Ogilvy’s global social media-based word of mouth marketing discipline. I have almost 90 people worldwide about half of which come from social media and longer digital backgrounds and the other half from public relations.”
When I read his blog comment, my first thought was to find out how many people work for Ogilvy PR worldwide. The number is around 1,700. So, “almost 90 people” translates into roughly 5.29 percent of Ogilvy PR’s staff devoted to digital communications. My second thought was … WOW, that’s a pitifully small team in such a large agency and certainly nothing to brag about, especially when you consider that digital communications is the wave of the future.
But Bell had given me a valuable insight and lead that was confirmed simply by calling other major PR agencies … it is that most large public relations agencies are woefully behind in developing the resources to assist clients with strategic opportunities in the fast-evolving online digital environment. Some haven’t even begun.
In my survey, roughly 3 to 7 percent of agency PR employees are assigned to online/digital communications, and the rest are doing traditional PR. It’s an obsolete model that will inhibit agency growth.
My research was conducted this past summer and the numbers haven’t shifted much since.
What’s more, these digital teams within large PR agencies are acting more or less as independent entities to either develop their own stable of clients or to be called in when the agency needs digital expertise. This odd dynamic sends interesting, mixed signals to clients that maybe the large agency doesn’t really have a full commitment to the online world but has merely created a token group. It also tends to validate today’s growth of boutique agencies that provide a higher level of online and digital expertise.
There is, however, an enormous opportunity I believe for the emergence of an authentic leadership in the area of digital communications expertise by a large PR firm. Quite simply, the advantage will go to the first major PR agency that takes the bold and dramatic step to educate, cultivate and develop meaningful skills among a majority of staff members, not just a few.
Think of it … a major PR agency that can counsel and advise clients on the best techniques of strategic communications, public affairs and online/digital communications. No one is there, yet … and no one is close. But I believe the payoff would be huge for whoever eventually “gets it” and takes this bold new direction.
By the way, the concept is developed in “Making News in the Digital Era
Related posts:
- Is PR Out-of-Sync with the Internet Era?
- Why Big PR Lacks Online Leadership/Expertise
- The Changing Face of PR Leadership
- The Very Broken PR Agency Model
- How-To Hire Online Communications Expertise
Category: Featured, Public Relations
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David – Thanks for bringing light to this very important subject within the PR industry. I certainly agree with you that few – if any – agencies have both their traditional and digital PR practices in line with each other. As you noted, many agencies utilize a sort of separated unit whereby the traditional PR side only calls on the digital side when needed, and vice-versa. I would hope that many in the industry realize that this does little to cultivate long-term growth, as eventually, most companies will want a mix of both traditional and digital PR/media relations, and not having those auspices integrated within each other will only serve to hurt one – or both – sides of the business.
By the same token, we all need to realize that change, particularly on the scale that you are talking about at major PR companies (e.g. more than say 500 employees worldwide) takes a great deal of time, energy, resources and skill to implement properly. Simply saying one day that everyone within a PR agency is going to be fully fluent in both traditional and digital/social media PR practices is not very realistic. What i would suggest those of us in PR work hard to do more than hope and pray that both major and boutique agencies get their entire practice in line with digital PR is that we – as an industry – come together to create a movement to better educate everyone in the business about how to fully educate yourself in digital communications and social media, and then how to put that in practice and actually create meaningful engagement, results and build sales leads and an advocacy base for your clients and company. That, in my opinion, is a stronger idea than to just hope that all of the agencies jump on board.
@KeithTrivitt
This is spot on, David. Digital/social media communication is just a channel like brochures, newspapers, satellite feeds and videotapes. As the novelty wears off and the competitive field of sites and services (FB, LI, MS, TW, etc.) shake out, it will become even more important for counselors to ensure they and their colleagues are ready, willing and able to consider, evaluate, prioritize, use and measure the entire toolkit of communication strategies, tactics and channels. Great post as usual, David — thanks!
David, as a consultant doing work for a federal agency, I have to conclude that many clients, too, are woefully behind in recognizing how social media can reach important audiences directly and effectively with their messages. There still seems to be a tendency in many large organizations to view communication as a top-down tool where they still envision they can maintain control of all the messages. For many, this is a question of ensuring accuracy. This is especially true in highly technical health agencies, I think, with notable exceptions like CDC and FDA adopting direct-to-consumer social marketing tools like SMS messaging and Twitter.
Until clients call for an integrated communications approach across social and traditional media, I think we will continue to see the Ogilvy’s of the world with smaller digital media shops separate from print, PR and marketing. They may be trying, but not all clients are buying!
Good discussion.
@dcoffbeatartist
I think you are heading in the wrong direction here. By taking a comment out of context you have woven a completely inaccurate story.
Yes, it’s true the 360 Digital Influence team is a solid core of digital strategists, a good portion of our time has been spent training the other members of our worldwide communications experts on social media over the past 5 years. We have not built, nor believe in a digital ‘silo” – anyone will tell you that is not the future.
We have tansformed our agency by bulding capacity amidst the embedded PR practitioners around the world. While you may have some bias against big agencies, the future of social media is as an integrated offering across marcom disciplines. Ogilvy is well on top of that and no other agency – big or small – has the strengths that we have.
Look at the work we are doing for our clients. Look at how budgets are shifting to digital. Look at our global training program that has reached the majority of our entire worldwide staff.
Again – happy to tell you more and discuss if you want to get to the real story of our capabilities. Feel free to email me at john.bell@ogilvypr.com
To John Bell,
Your entire comment is there to read. What’s “out of context?”
BP
I should think that most PR agencies, with a heavy investment in the skills & knowledge of traditional PR are not quite convinced that digital work is all there is in the future.
It may also be a retraining & seniority issue. “Do I really have to learn that, when I know so much about the field already?” or something like that.
Would think it a good idea for PR agencies to hold a “Futures Morning” once a month, or oftener, with seniority on hold & everyone free to bring forward at least one new idea or thought about the future of the agency.
Since the discussion is the future of PR, news, and a truly new model of communication, my question is: why must the agency be “large”?
It can’t be realistic for an established PR agency to suddenly transfer 100% to digital. While digtial is clearly growing, there is still a demand for “traditional” PR and the honest truth is that some clients still aren’t really demanding, or are willing to pay for, digital activity on top (others are the exact opposite). As a smaller agency, our view is to weave digital and social media into all of our campaigns (to whatever degree makes sense), and to focus on getting the whole team to develop their knowledge and capability in this area, with one or two giving it particular focus.
Eddie,
You are quite correct that not all of an agency’s resources should suddenly transfer to digital but certainly more than the pitifully low level now offered by many if not most agencies.
David