PRINZ senior practitioner's event: Who stole my cheese?
The boundaries between public relations and the other elements of the marketing mix are becoming increasingly blurred, with advertisers, brand marketers and business advisors increasingly undertaking functions traditionally in the PR profession’s domain. This presents our profession with many challenges – and opportunities – alike. On 24 November, PRINZ hosted a senior practitioners event, ‘Who stole my cheese?’ to encourage discussion and debate over some recent research results along with views from PR, advertising and the client side.
The event started off with Margalit Toledano from University of Waikato presenting the case for Public Relations. She discussed the impact of new technology on the interplay between PR and advertising. The findings from her 2009 survey of PR practitioners in New Zealand suggest that PR, advertising and marketing each contribute different expertise in the creation of digital content. Even though a majority of respondents felt that PR practitioners are better trained than advertising and marketing executives for managing online communications with stakeholders, only 30% agreed that social media gave an advantage to them within an organisation. In addition to this, her study observed a significant unawareness of future developments and risks.
Mike Hutcheson, Executive Director, Ice Interactive, spoke in favour of advertising and argued that communications practitioners need to think ‘out of the box’ and be more creative. According to him, in the times dominated by Facebook, Twitter and Google; there is a growing need to target niche and smaller audiences. He even introduced ‘Chatterbox’, which is their real-time social media monitoring tool. Hutcheson stressed the fact that all forms of communication are eventually about good storytelling and whatever tool they choose, that’s what communicators need to do.
Vodafone’s Tessa Tierney, Head of Marketing PR elaborated on how marketing, PR, advertising and branding are all overlapping functions in today’s times. Tierney made it clear that there needs to be a single ‘great idea’ and consistency in communication messages across the board. Paul Brislen, External Communications Manager stated that the willingness to admit faults and engaging with the audiences is the key to using social media effectively.
The presentations were followed by a panel discussion where the audience engaged in debate over the various challenges and opportunities that social media presents for the communications industry as a whole. The panel included Cedric Allan (Director, Star PR), Katherine Trought (Communications & Marketing Manger, Environment Canterbury), Bryan Crawford (CEO, DraftFCB), Claudia Macdonald (MD, Mango) and Paul Brislen (External Communications Manager, Vodafone). The panel agreed that PR, advertising and marketing have something to learn from each other to maximise benefits from social media. The experts pointed out that change has always been a constant in the media industry, from the advent of fax machines all the way through to Twitter and it must be embraced.
The event was hosted by the effervescent Cameron Brewer from Newmarket Business Association and sponsored by Media Monitors.
Click here, to view the pictures on Facebook.
25 November 2009
Asking "Which agency should own Social Media" is like asking "Which agency should own TV/magazines/newspaper?" or even "Which department should own events?"
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