I have a fair amount of experience managing the full marketing mix. But at the end of the day, I’m a PR guy. Everyone in marketing comes up through the ranks via one of the functional areas; PR was mine.
There is something that happens far too often in PR (the impression I have is that the balance of the marketing mix is less subject to this phenomenon): “random activity,” which is, if not the death of good PR, a very good way to squander your PR spend and take all the impact out of your program.
In too many programs, tactics are king, and the more the better. “Wait!” you say, “tactics are the executional substance of a program. Strategy without tactical execution is just talk.” I totally agree. But tactics without a clear set of objectives and disciplined strategy are just random activity. When was the last time a PR agency went to the client and recommended they spend more of their budget on random activity? Perish the thought.
But many PR programs are primarily made up of just that—random activity. The initiative on random activity typically does not come from the agency, though agencies often become complicit in this program behavior and then struggle to represent back to the client the effectiveness of it.
I know why this happens. I’ve seen it over and over. There are no bad guys here. Just pressure, relative ignorance, fear and itches that are easily scratched—easily scratched because tactics are easy. This happens because, too often, the management applying pressure does not understand how solid, sustained PR happens. They are bored, or worse, cynical about the PowerPoint presentations they are subjected to, full of situation analyses and bulleted strategy slides. “That’s a bunch of talk. What are you actually going to do? Hey, why don’t you do this.” Only tactics are real. Everything else is hand waving.
So, under pressure to do something, long lists of tactics are developed. Many of them are executed. Many of them come not from PR people, but from their masters. The foundational blocking and tackling of good media relations sounds to itchy bosses like so much uninspired same-old same-old. “I want creativity. I want aggressive PR.” (Yeah, what is that, by the way? Harassing reporters? Annoying reporters? Arguing with reporters? Threatening reporters? No. “Aggressive PR” is what PR people tell their bosses they will execute so their bosses will leave them, at least for a little while, in peace.)
When a program is under this sort of pressure, it quickly devolves into fire drills and non-news press releases (the junk mail of the PR function). Rather than delivering a focused message, sustained over time and clearly tied to business and marketing goals, PR delivers noise via lots of tactics. Tactics are god. But this god is a false one. He is just an idol before which the unsophisticated worship. And he is the death of sound, sustainable, high-impact PR.
PR teams, both agency and internal staff, who are fortunate enough to work for management that either understands PR or trusts the pros they hired to execute the function are not subject to this phenomenon very much. Sometimes an agency will have a client who devolves into this frantic state. A wise agency resigns such an account (while giving the client plenty of notice and supporting them through the transition with complete professionalism). The best client-agency relationships are those that thrive on building and executing programs that start with a firm foundation in positioning and messaging, and are designed from the top down with clear business objectives (for which PR objectives are strategies). And then: PR strategies that are clearly designed to achieve these objectives. And tactics also, of course (plenty of them, actually). But tactics that are only in the plan because they clearly tie into agreed-upon strategies.
Just because a tactic is “cool” doesn’t mean it should be executed. Every tactical idea should be evaluated through the filter of the program objectives and strategies. If it doesn’t pass this test, don’t do it, no matter how exciting or cool it seems.
This is basic stuff. I am not revealing anything a trained communicator doesn’t know. But it is pretty remarkable how many PR programs out there don’t function this way. Too many programs only acknowledge the God of Tactics. They are programs notable for random activity, and little else.
Jeremy James is a founding partner at Seismic Marketing LLC, a PR and event marketing firm specializing in high tech and life sciences. An expert in positioning and messaging, James’ particular tactical talent is business press media relations.