I am on my way home after a debate at the Communication on Top Forum in Davos on the subject of “The New PR vs The New Marketing.” Given that the audience consisted primarily of PR people, I figured the odds were stacked heavily in my favor, and maybe my original opponent felt the same way, since he withdrew at the last moment.
As it turned out, he was replaced by Marshall Sponder, a Brooklynite, author of the upcoming book Social Media Analytics and an expert in the same subject. What transpired was probably not what the event organizers envisaged: I was there to advocate for a PR “takeover” of marketing, or at least for the merger of public relations and marketing into an all-encompassing function that I like to call public relations; Marshall was certainly not advocating the opposite.
But he was convinced that the PR business is doomed in the social media age, because the majority of its practitioners do not understand analytics and are unwilling to grapple with the metrics and analytics challenges posed by social media. He made a couple of interesting predictions: that PR firms would either wither and die because of their inability to prove their relevance, or that they would end up being led by people like him, who understand and embrace analytics.
Marshall and I certainly didn’t agree on anything, and I certainly don’t think we’re going to witness a wholesale takeover of the PR field (or the marketing field) by analytics folks (although you could make the case that Mark Penn at Burson-Marsteller is in the vanguard of just such an invasion). But I do think Marshall is right that PR people need to understand analytics better, and make analytics a much more robust element in both planning and evaluation.
So I’ll meet him half way. Two or three years from now, every public relations firm that wants to be taken seriously in the C-suite and/or a lead marketing role with have someone like Marshall in its senior leadership ranks, a chief analytics officer responsible for ensuring that account leaders think more deeply about analytics and that the firm works with the best available outside suppliers to integrate analytics appropriately.
I completely agree with the prediction that every PR firm will have an analytics expert in its senior leadership ranks before too long. We are already seeing a growing expectation from clients that our social media recommendations be accompanied by clear metrics and analysis.
If PR is to own the debate, it must prove the relevance in terms the client understands. That is to say, we must be able to show quantitative evidence that the discussions we are starting and the dialogue that result across all platforms have impact on the bottom line.
There will be an interesting distinction in this regard between demand creation PR and brand PR. Clients already expect measurable benefit when it comes to demand creation ie — did the conversation drive hits to my site that converted into qualified sales leads for my sales team. And of course the importance and therefore value of analytics in brand PR are well documented.
Progressive PR firms, and I would count Hotwire among them, are already investing in this area and will, before too long have analytics and planning sitting among their senior leadership teams.
It strikes me that the PR industry, and maybe bits of the Creative ad world, has a comparative advantage in communications that aim for emotional connection.
But the management consultancies, direct marketers and media buyers have the advantage in using data.
So the really successful agencies will be able to combine both. How many agencies are even trying though?
Thanks Arun — In my view, the future is bright if you are an analytics expert. Of that there is no doubt. In the b2b PR space, we are already providing metrics that justify investment in social media conversations in terms of turning clicks and dialogue into qualified leads. And we are all familiar with the measurement around brand value.
Any progressive agency will have had this on their agenda for some time now. It’s morphed to some extent from a planning role into an analytics function. And as with all developing needs, the precise description will evolve. But one thing is clear, the time for a chief analytics officer or some similar grand title is just around the corner.
I think it is very seductive to think that you can create a role like CAO but analytics is and will continue to become more and more a feature of the everyday work we do. We need teams of gurus not the odd character with a pointy head.
Every month a new tool or company is launched to make this easier, and at the same time it is becoming second nature to use increased computing power, free tools, and our curious analytical minds, to do a lot of this work.
There is an unstoppable momentum towards more measurable, targeted and insightful communications informed by analytics.
Will PR takeover marketing, will marketing takeover PR? This is good debate fodder but the reality is probably like you suggest, a merger, and more integration of the two.
Paul,
Thanks for the opportunity to debate you in Davos. Looking forward to more thought stimulating conversations in the future, both in London and New York.
And, my publisher, McGraw Hill, and I would like to take you up on your offer to run some aspect of Social Media Analytics closer to it’s publication date next August.
Thanks again,
~marshall
Webmetricsguru.com
From Porter Novelli’s perspective, analytics is pivotal to the future of the integrated strategic communications discipline. (I should know – in my position there, the growth of analytics is my responsibility)
That’s not to say that individual specialty agencies won’t exist. They will, and will perhaps be even more important than before. However, I am convinced that analytics will tie all the agencies working on a business together as clients aim to improve their results.
Marshall was spot-on. We live in a world of hyperconvergence – especially in Digital – and most especially in the availability of vast repositories of data via Web services / APIs. Many big pipes. Growing by the day. And just because there’s available data – doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve got the right Org Chart and Culture to leverage it appropriately.
PR / MarCom or otherwise…
Hence, the ascension of the Web Analyst towards the executive ranks. It’s indicative of the (hyper)evolution.
This hyperconvergence also means a blending of R&Rs in Analytics: Search, Media, Web Analytics, Social Media, Market Research, Mobile, etc.
And those of us that can effectively develop the full qualitative and quantitative solutions spectrum will be in the best position to develop the appropriate attribution and ROI models – that everyone SCREAMS for.
And we’ll soon run your companies.
Agree. Many, but not not all, of the PR people I speak to have a scary lack of knowledge of analytics. You can include the full spectrum on this – everything from SEO, to online traffic to ROI and impact measurement.
I’m not convinced a Chief Analytic s Officer is the way to go? I guess the hope is that it becomes ingrained into best practice, for all PROs, not just at the top.
I am unconvinced by this idea that companies don’t need a chief analytics officer because analytics should be part of everyone’s job, or because it should be ingrained into the fabric of the business.
You could, after all, make the same case for PR in a corporate setting; today, managing the company’s reputation is everyone’s job. You could even make the same case for a CFO; making the company profitable is everyone’s job.
I guess I would argue that the reason you need a chief analytics officer is precisely because analytics needs to be part of everyone’s job, because it needs to be ingrained into the fabric of the business. Either someone is in charge of that, at the C-suite level, or no one is. If no one is, it won’t happen.