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New Year's resurrection for PREnd-of-year reflection is the tipping point for New Year resolution. And as I look back on the public relations year in review, I see much to excite - and alarm - me. All of the excitement comes from external developments like the rise of social and digital media and the growth of the industry (but more of that, ominously, later). All the alarm comes from looking inwards at the profession. Here's the gauntlet - compared to the ad industry, PR has become rote and stagnant. It lacks creativity, it lacks the wow-factor. Another problem with the PR industry is that it is too full of parity PR shops. Maybe this isn't a different problem but merely a reflection of the first concern I have about lack of originality. There is a mundane sameness to most of the agencies whose websites all proclaim the same grab-bag of services. Whether delivery ever meets promise is a moot point. Also there's a splinter-off-the-same-block mentality where employees resign from agencies to start their own one-man bands. This wouldn't be so galling if there was a shred of original thinking but all these micro agencies are doing is minutiarisng the industry. Taking somebody else's big idea and diluting it through lack of resource till it's a pale shadow campaign is not growing the industry's stature. The breadth and depth of service delivery just isn't there in these nano-PR shops and there's a bland familiarity - a dim sameness - to the rote roll-out of the work as they copy campaign templates from their parent agencies. It concerns me that the profession is in danger of becoming down-scaled and I would argue down-valued by a seemingly endless stream of mini-me start-ups who don't manage to effect campaigns better, merely reduced and with less impact. The lack of fresh thinking is alarming. The lip-service paid to best-practice is gratuitous. I would argue that there is a PR Method, a preferred manner of operation and a superior way of professionalizing campaigns. For PR to be effective, let alone outstanding, agencies and practitioners should look to the following principles. I offer, therefore, a PR Method built on seven principles:
Method PR, like drama coach Lee Strasberg's famous Method acting, should be intense, real, direct, engaging. Just like Method acting cuts through the stale clutter of old style, phony performance, Method PR connects with audiences and makes them feel, makes them react. Method PR produces reactions. Method PR produces results. About Marcus BrewsterMarcus Brewster is chairman of South Africa's most awarded PR firm, Marcus Brewster Publicity (MBP). To subscribe to The Method, MBP's monthly newsletter of industry insight and best-of-breed practice, go to www.marcusbrewster.co.za. View my profile and articles... |