Today’s best marketing campaigns combine the efforts of many groups, including PR, advertising, social, content and user experience, to name a few. It’s about building trust, enhancing reputation, telling great stories and engaging with users.
A great idea once labeled a public relations campaign may not rely on traditional PR tactics. A cool advertising initiative may have little or no paid media attached to it.
“consumers don’t care about labels”
The lines between marketing disciplines are blurring and there really is no reason to label a great idea as PR, advertising or social. Consumers don’t care about these labels and neither should marketers.
For PR people, this creates a great opportunity. The role of public relations is to find and engage with key audiences. PR strives to find messaging that resonates and motivates target audiences to a desired action.
For a marketing campaign to succeed, all of the marketing disciplines must use a common and effective message platform. Brands that deliver consistency in their entertainment value, style and depth of knowledge, create a strong level of trust with their audience that often leads to increased sales and other desired behaviors.
At the same time, the process must constantly be reevaluated and this too is an asset of public relations. PR has always led stakeholder engagement. PR folks are used to “earning” content and developing and revising messages and tactics that hit the mark at any given time.
The new opportunity for PR lies in reaching outside its comfort zone. Collaborating with other marketing groups provides greater insight to what is driving consumer behavior and allows PR to support marketing campaigns across all platforms.
“The new opportunity for PR lies in reaching outside its comfort zone”
Having real-time information on how consumers are interacting with a brand allows marketers to continually strengthen their outreach. With this approach, a brand can fully understand their target audience and deliver content that establishes a strong personal relationship with their consumers.
This is especially important as marketing becomes more integrated:
- PR must be prepared to support and amplify messages in an ad campaign
- Social media experts must help drive engagement in tandem with experiential marketers
- Paid advertising should help amplify PR editorial content
New digital opportunities will arise and through collaboration, all of marketing must create content that drives consumer engagement across all applications.
Forward-looking clients and brands will develop teams of experts from different marketing disciplines to develop integrated campaigns with common goals. This will require like-minded experts that work well together and leave their egos at the door. These experts will have a good understanding of each other’s capabilities and a willingness to let subject-matter experts do their jobs.
“It doesn’t matter where the great idea comes from, it only matters that the full potential of that great idea is met”
Collaboration will begin at the start of the planning process, continue throughout the campaign as consumer feedback is obtained and persist through the measurement of results. Marketers that resist this type of collaborative approach won’t realize ultimate success. Today’s most successful marketing campaigns could not have happened without integrated teams working in tandem. It doesn’t matter where the great idea comes from, it only matters that the full potential of that great idea is met.
Ron Young is the founder and CEO of Shocase, a professional market network designed exclusively to connect the world of marketing. With Shocase, marketers can find partners and talent across all marketing disciplines, build teams and win business.
Ron Young is hosting a panel discussion at the PRSA International conference in Atlanta November 8–10, 2015.
