Although still dwarfed by advertising in terms of corporate budget allocation, PR executives are discovering that their dollar can stretch much further than the advertising buck.
In fact, PR has become the needed ingredient for image overhauls and brand posturing. And linking PR and advertising can mean the difference between a corporate move that flies and one that flops.
PR's place next to - not behind - advertising hasn't come without significant growing pains and advocacy. Today, those in the upper tiers of corporations are recognizing the worth of PR because of how well PR directors and execs are fleshing out measurements - such as requiring more analysis beyond simply quantifying clips as well as looking at post-campaign market research to trace the effects of a particular event, program or media blitz.
And that's resulted in less uncertainty as to whether PR is worth the weight those in upper management are giving it. Certain indicators, such as a tie-in of healthier stock prices by companies that rely on awareness ratings and the surge in cause-related marketing, both point to the emphasis companies are placing on PR.
There are countless examples of companies that are pegging part of their campaigns on the prowess of PR. For example, Boston-based Continental Cablevision relied on swift and continuous PR for its new $20 million image campaign for its May 13 name switch to MediaOne.
The amount, several hundred thousand dollars, earmarked for PR was only about 1 percent of the overall campaign - but it's a considerable chunk when you take into account that many corporations today have annual operating budgets of less than $1 million for corporate communications.
But that allocation, according to Rob Stoddard, VP of corporate communications at MediaOne, underscores how PR has evolved as key to company branding - a task that used to fall mostly on the shoulders of those with some sort of advertising title. Add that 1 percent to the dozens of PR efforts MediaOne will take on this year and it becomes more than a drop in the bucket.
Now more than ever, PR is the common thread that's woven in reputation management plans put together by not only publicly held companies looking to woo shareholders but by small businesses and entrepreneurs.
If there's been a place for PR to be front-and-center on the business stage, it's been on the corporate headquarters level, versus the subsidiary or product levels where advertising is still the main attraction. "On the corporate end, PR is very important," said J. Kenneth Nasshan, VP of corporate relations for 52-year-old Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., a diversified company entrenched in the aerospace manufacturing and defense goods industries with a splinter business in music products.
"Everything we do is highly intergrated," Nasshan added. "We are trying to generate articles as much as we are trying to get ads placed."
Including overhead and salaries, Nasshan oversees a five-person communications division that costs the $953.7 million company between $250,000 and $500,000 a year.
The Status of PR Today
"This is a good business to be in right now because of the fast clip PR is growing at," said Michael Morley, president of Edelman New York and deputy chairman of Edelman Worldwide. "Just look at the 20 percent growth that the top PR firms are experiencing now and you'll see that's true. Conversely, some industry statistics show that advertising is only growing at a 2 or 3 percent rate. Proportionally, many corporations are spending much more on PR."
There is a long history of companies who relied on PR as a way to propel them in the public eye. Consider the following two companies:
Before the Orville Redenbacher brand claimed its stake in advertising, the brand relied on media tours and media relations to give it "foothold," according to Morley.
The Body Shop, with little advertising, skillfully positioned itself through PR as a cutting-edge, eco-friendly business.
Where Do Advertising and PR Meet?
When Edelman New York embarked on its spring allergy campaign for Claritin (manufactured by Schering-Plough Corp.), it did so with a sizeable budget that came in at under $300,000, according to Ame Wadler, executive VP of Edelman New York.
The Claritin campaign, in fact, stands as a case study of how advertising and PR are meshed today. While advertising has helped to create the "consumer buzz," PR has conveyed the educational story and built relationships with those in the public and private sectors, said Wadler.
In March, Schering hosted a gathering in the middle of Times Square that included:
- Inviting visitors to conduct online allergy research with the help of computers at cyper posts set up by the company;
- Children being invited to plant non-pollen-producing flowers; and
- A giveaway of Claritin T-shirts, notepads and mugs.
Final event tallies show that the PR effort triggered some impressive media attention, including NBC's Today Show and ABC's Eyewitness News. And that doesn't include the more than a dozen local stations which picked up the SMT.
Edelman's eight-person Claritin PR team consistently looks at a variety of identifiers, including the number of calls that come in to 800 numbers, the "quality," not quantity of, messages in the media and how its designated spokespeople come across.
But it's a constant challenge to ensure that PR and advertising are sending out consistent messages.
"We don't always have a detailed sense of what the other is doing," Wadler said. "So we rely on shared status reports and making sure that there aren't redundancies and that we're on the same wavelength throughout the campaign."
(MediaOne, Rob Stoddard, 617/742-9500; Kaman Corp., Ken Nasshan, 860/243-7319; Edelman, Michael Morley, 212/704-8138 and Ame Wadler, 212/ 704-8218 )