Huge PR Firm Has Bunch of Kids Digital PR Strategists
As Hamilton Nolan writes for Gawker.com: Here is just the latest example of how a large PR agency can be a huge, huge, huge, hustle, staffed by hustlers, who will charge you too much money to do dumb, simple things, on the internet. Edelman!
“Younger employees help senior executives unlock social media mystery,” declares a Chicago Tribune headline [via PRNewser]. What is this amazing mystery that has been unlocked? For Edelman—the world’s largest independent PR firm, and one that loves to market itself as a “digital” expert that will help you, the corporation, navigate the wilds of the internet for a large, large fee—the mystery is, “How can we get people to pay us so much for this shit?”
“I am so all over this Delish thing,” Cabot bubbled, punching up delish.com on her computer in her office at Edelman, a Chicago-based public relations firm.
“Oh, you’re doing so well!” Spohn said delightedly, counting the recipes Cabot had collected on the food lovers’ Web site. “Look, you’ve got so much!”
Her pride was as evident as the exchange was notable. Though Cabot, 56, is Edelman’s central region president with more than 30 years in the business, she is the student. Spohn, a 23-year-old account executive on the firm’s digital team, is the teacher.
Hahaha. Do you see what is going on here? Edelman, like many of its peers, is a PR firm that will charge your company a hefty fee for all the digital insight that its 23-year-old account executives can deliver. Because the people in charge aren’t really so good on this “internet” thing. Which would be fine if they were not the same people in charge of convincing you, the client, to spend tens (or hundreds!) of thousands of dollars with Edelman for their expert strategic online influencing services. Their mentoring program for the olds is called “Rotnem” because that’s “mentor” backwards and you must be a backwards-ass fool to pay money to a bunch of 23-year-olds to teach you how to make a Facebook page and shit at an Edelman markup, when you could get them off Craigslist for much, much cheaper.
“Edelman strongly advocates that companies participate with and engage online influencers.” Did you know that Edelman, a massive corporate PR firm, started a blog called “Authenticities“? Edelman, how much do people pay you for your services? Because I am totally going to undercut your prices by one dollar, once the last media outlet finally stops paying employees. Please engage.
[Pic of Edelman's Global Head of Digital Strategy via Flickr]
Reposted from ValleyWag by permission of Hamilton Nolan.
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- Richard Edelman Fights Prostate Cancer
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Category: Featured, Online Strategies
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Hi David,
Interesting, riveting post! I have to chime in and say that probably the 23 year old does know much more about Facebook etc. than the Edelman regional manager, but it has less to do with the person’s age and more to do with traditional PR firms trying to keep up and not being willing to learn something new or admit to the clients that we’re all social media learners not social media experts.
Social media or Web 2.0 expertise does not define itself by gender, age, ethnicity etc, it is defined however, by someone or an entire entity (PR firm) whose willingness to learn exceeds the bounds of just hiring someone with the knowledge and then pretending you’ve learned it too, so you can as a firm (or individual) bill thousands of dollars to a client for your digital strategy insight.
Edelman by the way is also the firm that created one of the more famous flogs early on, which I covered as a journalist – the Wal-Mart Sony flog.
“Another blog much reviled after its exposure as a flog was created by Edelman, part of Daniel J. Edelman Inc., on behalf of Wal-Mart Stores. The flog posed as the travel diary of a couple, but did not disclose they were paid for their upbeat posts about Wal-Mart.”
—Stuart Elliot, “How to Lose Cadillac And Other Lessons On Madison Ave. in 2006,” The New York Times, December 18, 2006
What really speaks poorly of Edelman is that was almost three years ago and since that time they could have spent learning, truly learning about online strategy and Web 2.0, to really aid their clients. They instead spent it figuring out how to bill clients more for digital strategy with no understanding or even interest in how it really should work.
David – I’m late to the game commenting on this, but BRAVO! I blogged about this very topic and see it the very same way you do (I also love the quote Nettie pulled). But when I say there was a lot of piss and vinegar in the comments on my post on this topic, I think I’m stating it simply. If you’d like to check it out, you can go read at http://www.spinsucks.com/spin/edelman-admits-they-dont-know-social-media.
You’ll note I found you because Davina Brewer posted your link.