- Should the guys with the shiniest toys be pushing the pram?

I remember attending a course on digital marketing at which the presenter in his first slide cheerfully confessed that he had no experience in PR and knew little about it. The day long presentation was a great overview of the widgets of digital marketing and there is no doubt that the excellent presenter knew his RSS from his elbow.

However, I left with a feeling of unease about the explosion of digital marketing agencies with little or no experience of PR purporting to offer digital marketing communications campaigns. My concern was escalated more recently with a major supplement in IMJ on digital marketing which never once made reference to online PR.

In one sense this is astonishing in view of the power of online PR. In another sense it is understandable as many of the digital marketing agencies freely confess to their lack of PR experience. Especially in the B2B space, to consider online marketing in the absence of an integrated online PR element is unthinkable. We know this because we have solid Irish client examples demonstrating the power of online PR in driving web traffic both globally and locally.

Now a new report has predicted that digital agencies will disappear. The Holmes Report 2010 (http://www.holmesreport.com/) in its top ten trends says that the process of clients coming to agencies looking for digital campaigns already seems “quaint and old fashioned”. Paul Holmes says that this is, “…indicative of a fascination with (and ignorance of) the shiny new toys available to communicators rather than a grasp of how they can be used as part of a comprehensive, multimedia campaign”.

Holmes says that clients are coming to realise that integrated campaigns that leverage the power of new and traditional channels are more effective than those that rely on one or the other.

Secondly he adds, “Mainstream public relations firms have learned pretty quickly that their process (telling a story to someone with influence and credibility, relying on that person to retell the story to a wider audience) and their skill set (building relationships based on dialogue) are just as applicable – indeed more applicable – to the new media as they are to the old.”

He points out, “At the very least, mainstream PR firms are learning digital faster than specialist digital agencies are learning how to deal with traditional media.”

Matthew  Freud of Freud Communications, admittedly a PR guy, said in a recent rare interview* with PR Week, “Ten or 15 years ago CEOs used to know the head of their advertising agency, but now our peer group (PR) has emerged as the strategic advisers of choice in marcoms.”

Freud points out, “We (PR) apply more rigour than any other marketing discipline; we can provide creative solutions based on truth. It is because every day we have to operate through the editorial filter. Every idea that comes out of our building is scrutinised by sceptical journalists.”
Holmes agrees, “If ever there was a time for public relations professionals – both in house and on the agency side of the business – to take the lead rather than merely providing support to the marketing function, this is it.”

Holmes believes that digital agencies will evolve into creative studios – useful for developing widgets and viral videos. “But strategy will be developed by agencies with a broader understanding of all media, not just a single medium.”

I personally don’t believe that digital agencies will disappear. On the contrary we work with a number of them and believe that they are an integral part of the new rules of marketing and PR.

However, just because they have the shiniest new toys in the pram, does not mean that they should be pushing it.

Ends

* http://toppragencies.prweek.co.uk/Freud-Supremacy.aspx

Ronnie Simpson BBS, FPRII is founder of Simpson Financial & Technology Public Relations which won the 2009 PR Excellence Award for New Media. He was one of the first Irish PR bloggers. (ronnie@simpsonftpr.ie).

PR people are generally more comfortable promoting their clients than themselves but we are named as Ireland’s outstanding small consultancy at the 2010 PR Excellence Awards. These were presented in Dublin yesterday by Micheál Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs. This is the first time this particular award has been made.
(See  www.simpsonftpr.ie/NewsDetails.php?NID=963).

 
This is a great tribute to our staff and clients. PR is a little easier when you work with great people and clients. And no, we don’t mind being described as a small agency. (See my previous blog Small is Beautiful in Financial and Tech PR).

 
From our foundation in July 1995 our strategy was to be a specialist, boutique PR agency focusing on technology PR, financial services PR and B2B PR. 15 years later, this strategy appears to be working.

 
Many thanks to the judging panel and to the PRCA, PRII and CIPR (not forgetting Leonie Brennan who over the years has had the task of reading through every entry and has not yet been carried away to the funny farm).

My father, who was 90 last week, asked a pertinent question. Over a glass of red wine (to which he attributes his longevity) I had just let him know that Simpson Financial and Technology PR had been shortlisted as Outstanding Small Consultancy (6 people or less) in the 2010 PR Excellence Awards to be announced next month.

The Da wanted to know if we were comfortable being projected as a ‘small’ PR agency. It was a good question and indeed we had hesitated before entering this category. Ego driven PR folk like to believe that they punch more than their weight.

We work with large clients like O2, Cisco, salesforce.com and our 15 years’ experience suggests that clients appreciate the fact that we are small. Benefits include the fact that clients are managed at a senior level. Our top three senior executives have a combined (if a little frightening) 65 years of PR consultancy experience so there is little we have not seen before.

Doctors bury their mistakes but it is worse for PR people who publish them. So experience and senior day to day level account management, advice and judgement is a valued commodity.

We are also an ideal size to manage small technology companies or start ups more cost effectively than the big agencies. We have no high cost layers of local or international management or show case, expensive city centre premises that the client pays for. IT (an excellent consulting and support service from CMGi) and accounting are outsourced.

In a small agency the founder is also much more involved in client service. I was formerly managing director of the Irish office of a very good international PR agency. But in a larger agency you are often less directly involved in client work and more wrapped up in management, staff issues, new business and (not to be underestimated in terms of time) reporting into your international parent.

Neither does a small agency lack international clout. As Simpson FT PR we can offer cost effective global reach through our membership of Eurocom Worldwide – the Global PR Network. Eurocom is a B2B specialist with a focus on technology and sister independent PR firms across 60 cities – larger than most international PR agencies.

A few years ago I remember a technology editor, who worked as a journalist in both London and Dublin, saying that in his experience the quality of the service he received was in indirect  proportion to the size of the PR agency. As a working specialist journalist, small was more beautiful in terms of PR agencies.

And certainly, most technology companies don’t seem to have an issue with size. When we started with just two people 15 years ago, our first clients included industry giants HP and Oracle. Remember, HP itself began with two people in a garage.

On the financial services side as well, size has not been an issue. In the past we have implemented programmes for Ulster Bank and Standard Life – hardly minnows.

In the industry jargon we would be known as a “boutique” PR agency and are proud of that. We don’t claim to do everything. We specialise in technology, financial services and online PR.

So Dad, a great and relevant question, which I hope I have answered.

P.S. Of course you do realise that if we are ever acquired by an international agency, I am going to have to rewrite this.

The humble press release has received a new lease of life with the advent of Online PR. Increasingly press releases, or perhaps more correctly termed, news releases are being written for the web, wire services, customers etc.

There are now exciting opportunities for your stories and news releases to be found on the web. The downside of this is that if your releases are badly written, sloppy and full of jargon you will turn off potential customers and investors.

With this in mind IrishDev.com has asked me to present a seminar on writing good technology press releases this Wednesday. Registration is at: http://irishdev.com/Home/Events/Article.html?id=401