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The shift in focus to paid social media content is redefining, yet again, the role of the PR professional—a topic that Kellis will dive into in his opening Wake-Up Call session at PR News' Big 4 Social Media Summit, which will be held in San Francisco on Aug. 10. In a way, paid social is bringing public relations full circle.
"At least at Clorox, earned media now comes from creating social media ads that people will share," says Kellis, who leads the social media function for all of Clorox’s brands, including Hidden Valley, Clorox-branded products and Glad. "In the past, we’ve done PR around advertising in magazines and other media. That’s what we’ve come to with social. We’re doing PR to get earned media impressions from the sharing of social media ads. The earned part is critical, because we’re no longer measuring organic social campaigns—that’s completely out the window."
Doug Scott’s recent departure from OgilvyEntertainment, the successful unit he founded eight years ago, has raised questions about whether its WPP parent might fold it into another corporate entertainment sibling like media agency Mindshare Entertainment or GroupM Entertainment at the operating level. While Ogilvy execs say that isn’t in the works, such speculation still begs the larger industry question: As media, creative and PR agencies—along with production companies—vie to lead the growing number of marketer content initiatives, where should responsibility for branded storytelling reside? With traditional advertising becoming less profitable, everyone, obviously, is scrambling for these new income sources.
On the creative agency front, proponents argue that without a great concept born from understanding a brand’s narrative, long-form storytelling doesn’t hold an audience’s attention and justify the media expense....
Does advertising still have a place today? Take a look at what Jeff Rosenblum thinks in this Q&A.... ... Q. You also say that instead of just spending huge amounts of money on advertising companies should first look inward and spend money on making themselves better, on improving their products. A. That is the revolution in a nutshell. Take that lens and turn it inward and focus on behavior. Create an incredible platform. The advertising industry, in many ways, hasn't changed since the days of “mad men." And since the days of "mad men" the industry has been known for being full of shit. But being full of shit doesn’t work anymore. Q. It seems to me that your philosophy overlaps a lot with what we’re trying to do at HubSpot. Our co-founders talk about megaphones and magnets, the idea being that instead being a megaphone and using outbound tactics to “spray and pray,” you’re better off becoming a magnet, and using content to draw customers toward you....
Nowhere was the wall between editorial and ad sales as high nor as impenetrable than at mainstream news organizations. Who can forget the maelstrom that erupted in 1999 when one esteemed journalistic enterprise the Los Angeles Times blurred those lines by publishing a 168-page special Sunday magazine issue devoted exclusively to the city’s new sports arena, the Staples Center? It was an ad-brokered deal. The Times's respected media critic at the time David Shaw recounted the ethical breech (and the newsroom turmoil it caused) in a 30,000-word critique titled "Crossing the Line." Many other media pundits echoed Shaw's distaste for this egregious church-meets-state no-no. My how things have changed! In an era when display and classified ad revenue at nearly every paper-driven media organization has fallen off the fiscal cliff, and the CPMs at Web-based media have failed to quickly fill the void, publishers have resorted to new and creative ways to blur the lines between advertising and editorial to enhance "ad" revenue. (Shaw, who passed away in 2005, would likely not be pleased.)... [Peter Himler offers an in-depth look at the crossover between editorial and advertising, trends and impact of social media. ~ Jeff]
While the tipping point was predicted a few years ago, 2012 is the year. For the first time, half of Forbes, Inc.’s revenues will come from its digital businesses, according to Meredith Levien, the business media company’s chief revenue officer. In a conversation at the American Magazine Conference, Levien was quick to point out that this proportional increase isn’t a result of shrinkage on the print side. Forbes' print revenues are also up, thanks to a 12.5% increase in ad pages in the first nine months of the year, per the Publisher’s Information Bureau. That compares favorably with rivals in the business category like Fortune, down 2.4% in the same period; Inc., down 6%; and Money, down 6.4%. (For the magazine business as a whole, ad pages are down 8.6% in the first three quarters.) Forbes’ digital revenues are up 27% through the month of August.... [Truly a tipping point for Forbes and potential for other publications ~ Jeff]
New research identifies logo trends in the United States, including color, geography, and more. Thinking of using a leaf in your brand’s new logo design? You might want to think twice about that decision, because it’s not unique. That’s according to data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as analyzed in James I. Bowie’s new blog, Emblemetric, which uses quantitative analysis from USPTO data to decipher and report logo design trends.
Nearly 3.8% of logos use a leaf in their designs (that includes generic leaves only, not specific types of leaves such as maple leaves or elm leaves). The trend of using leaves in logo design picked up steam in 2000, and today, leaves are considered a visual shorthand of an eco-friendly brand message. However, the use of leaves in logo design is even more popular in specific industries such as agriculture, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and beverages (approximately 10%-13% of logos in these industries use leaves in their logos). Even the advertising industry is above average in its use of leaves in their own logos (approximately 4%)....
Advertising agencies need to get past their preconceptions and learn how the disciplines of public relations can actually improve their creative thinking. Advertising learn something from public relations? Are you kidding?
Why, that's like Don Draper, the suave CD of "Mad Men," taking sartorial tips from Sydney Falco, the oleaginous press agent of "The Sweet Smell of Success."
After all, the whole idea of branding was dreamed up by you ad guys. You speak the language. You created the metrics. You control the lion's share of the marketing budget.
At least, you used to...
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2014′s been a pretty good year for PR happenings and case studies in crisis management. From Uber to Ray Rice to scientists in naughty shirts, from ice buckets to British Airways, the year has been especially generous with teachable publicity scenarios.The outpouring of finely distilled, distractingly quotable PR know-how that flowed from these events has been just as generous, to, and twice as nice.In a word, we in PR kicked some serious tail in 2014 – and we got the quotes to prove it!....
The public relations industry is known for a lot of things: media relations, press conferences, event management, crisis communications, and, more recently, social media strategy and community management.
But there’s one thing that many communicators haven’t been particularly well-known for: creativity. At best, PR has been put in a box to amplify creative ideas developed by others. At worst, we’ve been accused of “spinning” stories or doing “stunts” to make a splash.
That’s changing. Over the last 18 months or so, branding, advertising and digital agencies’ dominance over creative campaigns has started to wane. Clients are increasingly turning to PR agencies to come up with the “big idea,” as the discipline is now in a good spot to call the shots on creative development. Here’s why.
For starters, it’s trying way too hard to have it every which way, and trots out too much corporate blather and jibber-jabber. All that lawyer-approved disingenuousness shuts my circuits down. Most people watching would find it interesting to know that Coca-Cola owns over 600 brands, including teas, waters, sports drinks, health drinks, and the sweetener Truvia. I love the design of the tiny cans, and the big graphic calorie counts on the front labels of the sugared drinks. All good information. But you can’t have it both ways. Exactly how deeply concerned iscitizen Coca-Cola about "playing an important role" in addressing obesity, when clearly it is also using this very same message to lobby voraciously on behalf of high-fructose-syrupy, supersized drinks (which Mayor Bloomberg of New York City is threatening to kill) and against higher soda taxes? This will take “continued effort from all of us,” says the announcer, evenly. But speak for yourself, lady. It’s a bit presumptuous to ask your customers to exert any effort in your direction. The root causes of obesity are so complicated, with so many possible angles (never mind Coke’s role in that epidemic)...
“People don’t hate ads. People hate bad, interruptive ads.” That was the response of noted venture capitalist Fred Wilson when I asked him why Twitter and Tumblr have eschewed the online ad industry’s standard display ads in favor of their own, native ad formats. The exchange took place during an onstage interview I had with Fred on the past, present and future of digital advertising at AdTech here in New York. Over the course of the interview, Fred highlighted six key issues as critical to advertising-based Web services as they build their businesses for the future (credit to AVC community member William Mougayar for helping summarize them). Here they are... [Lots of advertising, marketing and social media insight ~ Jeff]
amazon can deliver to targeted ads will trump the social trending analysis that facebook and other social networks can create. Last week Amazon took the wraps off its "Amazon Media Group." As Advertising Age noted, "Amazon isn't exactly a newcomer to advertising, but until recently its ad efforts existed in a sort of extended beta." The fact that Amazon now feels ready to rollout an integrated advertising platform should make the world stand up and take notice, both offline and online. This may indeed be a watershed moment in online advertising. One reason to take notice is obvious: Amazon's size. How big is Amazon? As anyone who has not been under a rock knows, it is the largest global online retailer. What everyone may not know is that it is more than four times bigger than the second-largest online retailer (Staples). In terms of total retail sales online or offline, it sits just outside the top 10. A much more important reason to stand up and take notice is that Amazon can offer the holy grail of online delivery and detailed measurement on a scale that simply cannot be matched by anyone. They can deliver ads based on purchase behavior across an eye-popping array of consumer categories. Books? Of course. Videos? Toys? Yup. That's obvious. What's not so obvious is groceries, jewelry, pet supplies, scientific and medical instruments, just to name a few non-entertainment categories. Amazon has its digital fingers in lots of real-world pies.... [Brian Sheehan shares valuable insight into Amazon's big advantage for marketers ~ Jeff]
The Financial Times article, however, indicates that things are not really changing at all. Advertisers still want to get their ads in front of your eyeballs irrespective of how you might feel about it. But who are these “advertisers”? Based on the quotes and references in the article, it seems pretty clear that the “tension” originates from the old school media and ad agency folks, who feel disrespected by a company that puts user experience ahead of advertising opportunities. The article quotes an unnamed “senior executive at a large agency group” as follows: They have a great business, but it’s the hubris that drives me crazy. It’s a bunch of 23-year-old kids telling you about how you’re a dinosaur....
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Earned media impacts PR's role once again.