How has PR progressed as a medium?

Rather than doing a "better job", effective PR should be seen as complimentary to conventional advertising. Although widely perceived as more credible than advertising, one needs to understand that PR fulfils several roles. While PR can and does serve to reinforce the advertising messages, in some instances it forms the lead medium when profiling, positioning and educating desired target markets. Our functions also extend far beyond that and into areas such as crisis and issues management where traditional advertising methods simply can't compete in terms of function, response times, effectiveness and more importantly, credibility.

Many recent international surveys and industry analysis point to the reverse: that PR is on the ascendancy and conventional advertising spend is, in fact, declining - which would explain why "it appears that the former territory of PR consultants as business advisors has been completely eroded and is now the gambit of advertising and marketing agencies which list press releases as an 'also offering'", as Lorraine Robertson-Tarr pointed out recently on Bizcommunity.com.

But maybe its time for marketers to take a lesson out of their advertising agencies' manuals - they do almost no advertising themselves, but rather rely heavily on Public Relations to build their brands. Publicity is the name of the advertising agency game today; maybe it should also be for marketers.

Absolutely! As an industry I don't believe we've stood together to sell our profession. While we bleat that we lose revenue to the advertising industry, I don't believe we promote our successes and achievements. No one is prepared to talk about them, albeit client or consultant, for fear of divulging competitive advantages. Or is it simply a case of the next project or crisis is hitting and no-one's got the time to take the soap box out and stand on it?

I also believe that, all too often, clients appoint the wrong agency to begin with that will only result in failure and ultimately a loss of respect for the profession and the industry. It is a bit like Y2K. The IT industry hyped doom. Companies ran out and acquired new systems. The Millennium dawned and nothing happened. People felt conned, but more importantly, they had spent out of their means. This left the industry with a credibility problem, and worse still, no budgets for future acquisitions or upgrades. The industry is only just starting to see an upturn in spend as technology has moved and people have come to realise that it's the technology and not necessarily the sales function anymore that is the backbone of their business and its success.

It is imperative therefore that one aligns with a PR agency or consultant that reflects your business industry, needs and size. The scope of public relations is so broad, listing public affairs; investor relations; government relations; sponsorship; corporate social investment; media relations; internal communications; relationship marketing; as well as events and promotions as specialisations. The tactics often remain the same, but it is the business, legislative and regulatory understanding and experience; strategy alignment; depth of knowledge; the contact base and network - and don't discount the passion for a particular aspect of the business - that determines success.

As PR agents we should also be selling specialisations, not just in our offerings but in particular business sectors as well. Some PR companies are better at certain things than others.

Clients must consider their business needs first before putting out briefs. They need to research the companies, services and fees to match their business. Is it Networking and Profiling without media hype? It is Advocacy or Lobbying? Is it Media Awareness and Relations? Or is it Eventing and Relationship Marketing they need? These are all different functions with different skills sets required - personal relationships aside.

The issue of pricing services remains a concern - both on the part of client (their expectations) and consultants/agencies (who sell their services). Public Relations is a time-based profession with little opportunity for 16.5% media commissions and other production mark up's that traditional ad agencies apply.

All too often, clients only want to pay a small, set retainer every month, but with a full-service expectation - incorporating strategy, client service, specialised writing, media liaison, relationship marketing and networking, eventing and activation, monitoring, evaluation and administration. One cannot, in all honesty, offer all of the above - and still add real value to a business - at that nominal fee. Each area requires people to specialise and it goes without saying that the Total Cost To Company (TCTC) of staff employed on a piece of business to deliver real value will be far higher.

One only needs have a look at AdVantage's latest salary survey (Jan 2006) and it gives one an indication of the cost of these resources. I am at a loss to understand as to how corporates believe we should be offering a service at a low price - and then still expect phenomenal results. But, what really concerns me is how PR professionals agree to such fees, thereby under-selling their services and their intellectual capital, which is ultimately to the detriment of the industry as a whole.