I went for a job interview about 12 months ago with a food producer in the North West.
The job title was for a marketing position, but with a specific focus on Public Relations. During the interview an interesting question was posed which created an interesting debate around the table 'what do you think PR is today?'.
There are some interesting thoughts on this, when I first worked within the agency world the definitions were very clear and lines were easy to understand within the full service sector. Simply put PR was the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organisation and the public (thank you Wikipedia for the concise definition). In other words relationships were struck with the press, information was relayed on behalf of the client, the media published it, the coverage was measured, the client was happy, you got paid.
Now things are different. Press is no longer the force that it was, to be in print is a positive addition to any PR campaign but not the be all and end all. With such focus on the digital spectrum now it can be easy to view this as the new crowning glory, however due to the speed of such a fast paced medium this world does not offer the same kind of returns as the more traditional platforms did a few years ago.
Whilst sat around this interview table the unanimous answer that we came up with was the lame, 'there is no answer' and I still believe that is the case. PR is still about the communication of information to the public, of course it is. But, the measurement of success is a lot harder to gauge as the industry broadens and those working within the industry have to work a lot harder to demonstrate ROI for their clients.
Managing the spread of information between an individual or an organisation, PR is ultimately about your reputation as a business or individual. PR's love to use the Bill Gates quote of the sector that "If I only had $2 left, I'd spend $1 on PR".. I wonder if he would still do that or if he'd just stick it in a vending machine and buy a packet of Cheetos instead, then munch away until a clearer picture of the future of PR emerges?
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