It was a year when the blogs took over the media, Mother Nature and FEMA gave New Orleans a one-two punch, PR professionals faced new concerns regarding issues of
measurement and message control, and the good news from Iraq was delivered courtesy of a Pentagon pay-for-placement scheme.
As one year readies to exit and another is waiting to be rung in, PR News editors Phil Hall and Courtney Barnes surveyed a wide range of industry professionals to
determine their thoughts on the waning year and the next 12 months. The reigning concerns of 2005 - technology, measurement, ethics - will remain the top priorities for 2006,
only with an even greater emphasis.
Federal Follies
PR professionalism took quite a hit in 2005, thanks in large part to questions regarding ethics relating to federal policies.
Some of the PR experts polled for this article specifically cited the White House as stirring up an acute level of damage. For Lloyd P. Trufelman, president of Trylon
Communications, Inc. in New York, the most significant PR story of 2005 was easy to identify: "Everything happening with misleading the public and making unethical payments to
journalists," he says. "Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, paying to put stories in Baghdad papers: All of this connects back to the administration. This trend of
deliberately obfuscating the truth and paying for it reflects very badly on PR practitioners. When the headlines read PR equals secret payments, it sets everything back big
time."
Government also had a major PR black eye with woefully inadequate and frequently damaging responses to the back-to-back hurricanes that crippled the Gulf Coast regions. Ned
Barnett, president of Barnett Marketing Communications in Las Vegas and a member of the PR News Advisory Board, saw that as a case of mass communications failure
across the board.
"Everybody did it wrong - the 'it' being PR," he says. "The Feds did it wrong. The Governor and Mayor of New Orleans did it incredibly wrong. Bush did it wrong and wound up
taking far more blame than he deserved. The head of FEMA did it wrong, and got handed his head. The media did it very wrong; but, of course, nobody is criticizing them - they
don't dare. Hell, even PRSA did it wrong (though they did it wrong following Wilma, not Katrina). Katrina is a great case study about why extreme crisis PR plans are
needed, in advance - they need to be formulated, tested in a worst-case scenario mode, then refined and practiced. But nothing, IMO, surpasses the PR nightmare (for all
concerned) of Katrina."
Paul Maccabee, president of Maccabee Group Public Relations, Minneapolis, notes the political PR problems go beyond Pennsylvania Avenue. "There is Saudi Arabia's use of
U.S. PR professionals to hide their involvement in global terrorism," he says. "The PR industry as a whole continues to be tainted by the misuse of PR as a means of hiding
corporate or government malfeasance."
Some degree of government regulation can be expected in 2006. Joseph Lewczak, a partner in the advertising, marketing, and promotions department for New York law firm Davis
& Gilbert, points to the pending Truth in Broadcasting Act legislation (introduced by Senators John Kerry and Frank Lautenberg earlier this year) as a sign of clearly-
defined limitations on pay-for-placement PR by federal agencies.
"In 2006, we'll see passage of some sort of legislation that really impacts the government's ability to produce VNRs and ANRs and have them distributed," says Lewczak. "For
the PR industry itself, it will continue to focus on making sure appropriate disclosures are being made."
Blog Blah Blah
Even the most rabid of Luddites could not help but notice the proliferation of D.I.Y. media in 2005, particularly blogs. Originally conceived as an outlet for so-called
citizen journalists (not to mention anyone with an opinion and passable HTML skills), the blogosphere has evolved not only into a media market unto itself, but also turned into a
PR avenue.
A recent study by the strategic communications firm Peppercom of more than 900 PR professionals across the country found the majority of respondents (62%) stating the
blogosphere is an appropriate venue for corporations to communicate with stakeholders. Furthermore, 80% of the survey's respondents felt a corporate blog could help improve the
dialogue between a company and its stakeholders, customers, and employees; 79% felt a corporate blog can help position the company and/or its "chief blogger" as a thought leader.
There are no statistics on how many companies or nonprofits run their own blogs for PR purposes, but empirical evidence would suggest it is only recently gaining steam as a
communications practice. "Like all other changes in media since the creation of commercial television (if not commercial radio), it will make some of us into dinosaurs and some
of us into innovators," says Barnett. "The Internet 'revolution' started more than a decade ago; blogs are just the latest iteration of that phenomenon. Some of us will cope,
some of us will drown. Others will figure out how to make blogs work for us and our clients or employers."
Corporate America, however, is increasingly thinking about blogs and that trend shows no signs of abating into 2006. In many ways, blogs offer the most honest method of
measuring a company's reputation as people openly share and debate their opinions and concerns across cyberspace.
"Companies are starting to watch what people are saying about them, and they're beginning to understand the value of being aware of (if not engaged in) the conversation," says
Mitch Arnowitz, managing director for Tuvel Communications, Rockville, MD. "Citizen media will continue to grow and companies will continue to build relationships directly
with customers - and get better at it. Web sites are being built with blog-like features that encourage interaction."
Users might be gratified by the depth and scope of this new media, but in some sectors the strength of this online experience has reshaped the PR map. This is especially the
case in the highly charged world of political PR. This past year saw new media dethrone old media, literally: The early retirement of long-time CBS News anchorman Dan
Rather, whose credibility was undermined in large part when bloggers called into question his October 2004 reporting on President Bush's military service (or lack thereof) during
the Vietnam War era.
"Due to its round-the-clock nature, and the fact that anyone with a personal computer can start a blog, this mode of communication will have a profound impact on all issues
surrounding politics," observes Mark H. Mahoney, president of M2 Public Relations, Whitefish Bay, WI. "It will force politicians to re-focus campaigns to include increased
grassroots initiatives, as most major metro media now look to blogs to 'break' stories. Understanding that the Internet is still relatively new (past 10 years) in terms of media,
new forums will continue to appear each and every week, and they must be on the radar screens of all PR professionals."
But even the most seasoned PR experts can find themselves inhaling and exhaling with greater alarm at this field. "A new blog is created every 7.4 seconds," says Sarah E. Pew,
assistant vice president for public relations at Wells Fargo Small Business, San Francisco. "There are 12,000 new blogs a day and 50 million regular blog readers.
Bloggers write about 275,000 posts daily, or about 10,800 blog updates per hour."
Pew adds that many reporters and columnists now have their own blogs in addtion to their regular published assignement. "We find our stories showing up on them all the time,"
she adds.
Evolving Net Strategies
Blogs, however, are not the only Net-based communications tools to proliferate (both as communications entities unto themselves and as vibrant tools of reaching target
audiences).
"The biggest PR trends of 2005 were the introduction of podcasts and MySpace exposure," observes Clint Weiler, director of publicity for Music Video Distributors and
Eclectic DVD Distribution, Oaks, PA (MySpace is an online community where people can share photographs, publish journals and connect with those who share similar interests).
"Both utilize the ever-evolving and increasingly accessible Internet and provide users instant gratification with a click of the mouse."
The cyberworld has also emerged as the medium of choice for grassroots PR campaigning. E-mail campaigns, online petitions and Web sites designed to influence legislators
and/or corporations have become commonplace, and the results have often been startling. The Tupelo, MS-based American Family Association (AFA), for example, has used this
digital grassroots approach during the past month to successfully alter how several retailers phrase their seasonal marketing campaigns.
The speed of delivery and the exactness of reaching its target made this PR approach hard to ignore, and the lack of expense in sending an e-mail (versus the costs of
telephonic or postal communications) makes it all the more attractive. "The average person in America now has access to the CEOs and chairmen with the biggest companies in
America," explains Randy Sharp, director of special projects with the AFA. "Instead of talking to a phone bank of 100 customer service representatives, you can go straight to the
boardrooms. This allows the average American to be on a level playing field with a CEO."
Yet Sharp adds the only way this will work effectively is via a high quantity of input. "Anyone in America can start a boycott of any company," he adds. "Success comes in
having enough people to make a campaign effective. We were able to get 622,000 to sign our petition to retailers on how they were advertising for Christmas."
But in at least one area, a Net-based giant is taking itself to the forefront of cyber-PR. The format is search engine marketing, the company is Google, its the target
market is publishing, and the result is - well, no one is quite sure yet, since the publishing industry did not solicit Google's input and charges of potential copyright
infringement continue to shroud Google's plans to scan millions of books and make their text available online.
"Google Book Search (formerly known as Google Print) has really positioned both publishers and Google itself in a way to possibly take a new lead in terms with how content is
offered and shared," says Rod Meade Sperry, media director for Wisdom Publications, Somerville, MA. "It's caused so much brouhaha - because we know that content is key to
bookselling. Both Google and publishers have to walk a fine line: They want to make the most of this option, without seeming like they're willing to compromise authors'
intellectual property. And then they have to skillfully represent their position. Some publishers and authors have divided into camps, where everything is black-and-white:
'Google's the best thing ever,' or, 'Google is going to hurt publishers!' Our approach is to really dedicate a lot of time to investigating the way Google's programs might work
for us."
Measuring Measurement
Issues relating to measurement dominated much of the PR talk for 2005 and will most likely continue to reign into the New Year. However, at one least one PR leader wouldn't
mind seeing the measurement talk evaporate.
"A trend that I'd like to see fade away in 2006 is the struggle for measurement of what public relations can do for a company," says Amy Christopher, senior vice president at
Warschawski in Baltimore. "I'd like to see the public relations industry resolve to end this 'debate' over how we can be relevant to our clients through measurement and
metrics - it is not particularly useful. Let us resolve to focus on crafting and executing highly relevant communications strategies that achieve business results for our
clients. In 2006, I'd love to see PR practitioners resolve to understand what our clients' brand essence is before generating visibility purely for the sake of visibility."
Yet having solid measurement data can help strengthen the cause of PR's viability, especially at a business-to-business level. Jim Nail, chief marketing and strategy officer
at Cymfony, an automated media measurement company in Watertown, MA, notes that "anywhere from 50 to 60% of sales" can be traced to "something you cannot attribute. The
trend will be to see if you can attribute some these sales to PR and corporate reputation."
The inability of many PR professionals to measure intangibles inevitably reflects poorly - especially at an agency level, where proven results are key to survival. "Many
corporations are fed up with having to pay a retainer fee for which they feel they get little, only to pay further fees per service," complains Matthew Papertsian, North America
marketing director for Cartesis, a performance business management software vendor in Norwalk, CT. "Many companies have found that the solution is to either hire the
talent and do the PR work themselves or outsource some of the work to professional free-lance PR reps, rather than see a large chunk of budget spent without a tangible ROI."
"Many of our colleagues are still stuck on trying to measure their output and have yet to draw a line of sight between their functional role and its contribution to the success
of the enterprise," notes Matthew P. Gonring, vice president of global marketing and communications for Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee. "Measuring message usage in media
for example is only relevant after the message has been validated to drive desired behavior with key constituents. I think this is one of the fundamental barriers we face in
striving for organizational legitimacy. Our functional competence qualifies us to produce quality communications related output, but to be a really effective business partner we
need to talk in terms of the business problem we are aiming to solve."
Measurement is often frustrated by the increasingly ephemeral nature of media coverage. "What does become clear is that stories burn brighter and faster, and the ones that do
stick, if only for awhile, tend to involve people who already have a media platform," says Kathy Daneman, publicity director for Soho Press, a New York publishing company.
"Even in publishing, you see book deals going to people with blogs or some other kind of built-in audience."
"The next frontier for measurement is to tie corporate communications to outcomes such as revenue or stock price," says Paul A. Argenti, professor of corporate communications
at Dartmouth University and member of thePR NewsAdvisory Board. "Transparency needs to be seen as more of an opportunity rather than a hassle. If you can convince
constituents that you are really transparent, and get the trust of the general public, you can be the major player in your industry."
Staffing Concerns
While a great deal of emphasis is placed on the technical aspects of the trade, there is also the question of the human element of PR. Getting the right people for the job is,
obviously, an ongoing challenge and many industry experts see that continuing as a pressing concern into 2006.
"Staffing accounts will be a challenge," says Helene Solomon, president of the Boston-based Solomon McCown & Co. and a member of the PR News Advisory Board.
"Service expectations are high; everyone wants senior level attention; the labor pool is tightening. Getting smart, experienced people who adhere to the highest standards and
expectations of quality to serve as reliable day-to-day point of contact is a critical issue."
Papertsian at Cartesis is not entirely optimistic that the issue will be properly addressed in the coming year. "Marketing, sales, operations, HR, finance and every other
discipline have gone through major changes where each has been asked to step up and reach beyond their traditional roles to provide more forward thinking and value add to the
companies they work for," he says. "A good example is the role of the CFO which has morphed from a back bookkeeping- "how did we do" mentality, to a forward thinking "here is
where we can go" mentality. I am not confident that the PR industry is prepared to truly take advantage of this trend and communicate not to where people are, but where they need
to go."
Yet Mark Weiner, president of Delahaye in Norwalk, CT, and a member of the PR News Advisory Board, is optimistic for the year ahead. "While I believe that
technology will continue to have an affect on productivity, speed and lowered costs, I also believe that as long as PR is about enabling human relationships," he says. "There
will be a high degree of familiarity between what PR will be and what it has always been. The next challenge isn't 'heavyweight' - it is rather comprised of the small incremental
choices we make each and every day wherever PR is practiced, and these are the decisions that either enable or retard PR's primacy within the marketing and communication mix. In
the end and in a binary world, if PR continues to grow because we can prove that it works, then we've won. And if we can't make a quantifiable case, we lose."