In an economy of scarce resources, PR, Advertising, and Marketing fight over tight budgets. Justifying programs, activities and ROI becomes even more important for each department.
So who gets credit for success is not to be trivialized.
For example, the customer-created commercials by Doritos which play during the Super Bowl are clearly an advertising story www.crashthesuperbowl.com. Yet this advertising idea was hatched by the Frito Lay (PepsiCo) PR group. The promotion was a combination of traditional PR spreading the word and the interactive world of viral marketing.
The phenomenally successful videos from BlendTec www.willitblend.com have contributed to a 700% increase in sales for the high end appliance. Who gets credit? Of course the company does. However, if PR can show it created the idea, maybe they do better in getting a seat at the table and increasing budget for the next big idea.
When a crisis plan created by the PR department keeps a story from getting bigger, who gets credit? Externally it is a non-event, but internally there should be some credit.
So we want to chronicle the PR wins. Share some with us on this blog so we can share them with others and help PR demonstrate its worth as well as provide ideas to other professionals. Let us know the situation, what you did and how it proved the value of PR, and yes in a competitive way, when PR should get credit over other departments in an agency, organization, or company.
I think the true win would be if advertising and PR were under the same roof in an integrated marketing plan. Unfortunately, this usually is not the case. As content continues to establish itself as king, I think this will happen.
I think we’ll see some new names for the Communications function. Advertising, PR, social media are all part of the story. There will probably be a bigger budget bucket with a Chief Communications Officer (CCO) or a CMO whil will make decisions.