In this video from PRWeek, Edelman PR CEO Richard Edelman and Ogilvy PR CEO Chris Graves discuss the future of their industry. I know and have enjoyed conversations over the years with Richard. I don’t know Chris, who used to be a journalist.
A few key take-aways:
1. Both talk about how companies now create their own content. Edelman hired former BBC Global News head Richard Sambrook to do that for Edelman clients. That’s a massive shift – instead of trying to spin stories through media, PR firms are now helping companies tell their own stories through their own channels. Richard repeats what’s really the essence of all my work at We Media – every company is a media company.
2. Industry trend: Giant PR/Ad/Marketing conglomerates like WPP, which owns Ogilvy, pitch their “one-stop, full service” advantage over little guys; and Edelman, strictly a PR shop – though hardly a little guy – pitch the benefits of working with a focused specialty firm that isn’t bogged down competing with itself for other kinds of billings.
3. PRWeek editor Steve Barrett didn’t ask the tough question that people who don’t work in PR would ask first: Isn’t PR still a dirty business built to help companies like BP look better than they really are? Is PR different in the digital age, or does it just apply different tools and techniques to do the same old thing?
4. Compared to the leaders I know at U.S. media companies, both men, and their companies, strike me as much more in-tune with global issues, trends, insights and information flow. I’m on the board of the World Editor’s Forum, an international journalism association based in Paris. It is next to impossible to persuade Americans to participate in WEF activities unless they are invited to speak.
