A good article with some good insight, but I’m concerned that the overall debate misses the point. New technologies will come and go, being replaced by more innovative and relevant ways for organizations to communicate with specific audiences.

For advertising and PR firms to remain effective and show their value, they should adopt performance-based strategies. For it’s not just the understanding of the latest social networking tool that will keep agencies viable, it’s their ability to put their money where their mouth is in doing so. Hence Pay-on-Performance!

What say you all?

PR and advertising are at a crossroads

By Clifford M. Marks
cmarks@MiamiHerald.com

Advertising and public relations stand at a crossroads — at once battered by recession-driven corporate downsizing and confronted with a bevy of new and often untested online platforms. Amid the uncertainty, firms have battled back with disparate strategies: eschewing general advertising to reach smaller target audiences; rushing to integrate the once separate fiefdoms of PR and advertising; and seeking to capitalize on the disintegration of multinational firms by buying up local branch offices.

At the same time, both industries are clambering to embrace social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as cheaper alternatives to print and television that have long been their bread and butter.

But with new media still largely unproven, others express reservations about the online exuberance and have instead bucked conventional wisdom, continuing to invest in traditional platforms.

And regardless of preferred tactics, South Florida leaders in both sectors say the pie is shrinking, and those who don’t evolve will be left behind or bankrupt. Some firms have cut salaries, slashed workforces or renegotiated retainer fees accordingly.

“This is business Darwinism right now,” says Sissy DeMaria, president of Coral Gables public relations firm Kreps DeMaria. “You’re going to see a lot of consolidation in the industry, and only the strongest will survive.”

COMING TOGETHER

For decades, the division of labor was clear. Madison Avenue types took care of the 30-second spots, the billboards and the full-page ad in Sunday’s paper. Their cousins in public relations drafted press releases, networked with reporters to land favorable coverage and helped handle crises that drew negative media attention.

But where in this tidy arrangement does Facebook fall? Or YouTube? Or Twitter? Both groups are rushing to answer that question, and with all the more urgency as their clients seek to slash marketing budgets.

Firms that never would have considered video part of their repertoire a few years ago are staking a claim to the digital outgrowth of TV advertising.

“As a PR firm, creating a video is not something you’d traditionally do for a client,” DeMaria says. “But we see that this is the next wave. . . . We have to embrace this new technology.”

Cash-strapped companies have also begun demanding greater cooperation between the separate firms handling their image in hopeof seeing better returns.

“Public relations and advertising are blending much more than they did in the past,” says Jeff Steinhour, director of content management at Coconut Grove-based advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. “They used to be separate worlds — like church and state. Now you’re seeing them at the same meetings at the same time.”

Cori Rice, who heads the Miami branch of international PR firm Hill & Knowlton, cites a campaign with breakfast chain Denny’s. Seeking to strike a chord with a nation in recession, they promised a free Grand Slam breakfast to all comers. The promotion had a 30-second TV spot, she says, but because her firm and the ad agency worked closely together, she was able to use traditional PR tactics and social media to augment the advertising message, saturating blogs and news sites with buzz about the promotion. They gave away 2 million breakfasts, and sales jumped in the months that followed.

And with less to spend on marketing, PR executives say clients are avoiding expensive general media campaigns in favor of reaching niche audiences more inclined toward their product. “Nobody has the money these days to waste in communicating to the masses,” says Angel Langston, principal of PR firm Langston Mizrachi & Co in Plantation. “Messages must be directed specifically to a defined market.”

Read the rest of the article here.