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Loading ...CMOs and marketing managers have to wake up. As do ad execs, PR honchos, and social media heavyweights. That’s because if we don’t, we’re not serving our clients well.
Advertising is a form of marketing. Public relations is a form of marketing. Social media in most contexts is a form of marketing.
In fact, social media often becomes a form of advertising and it often becomes a form of PR at the same time. That’s because it helps formulate marketing messages. It strengthens and enhances a brand. It builds relationships with customers. Much about social media is new, but much about it’s foundation is in traditional marketing concepts…word of mouth, customer service, sampling, display advertising.
I’m finding though, that just as ad agencies and PR firms often don’t talk to one another, neither do they seem to want to talk to the new kids on the block. Social media agencies. This is not so much from my direct experience here at Abraham Harrison (although I’m sure it happens), but from my observation from industry trends from my experience in trying to bring in work for A&H. The ad agency that doesn’t know jack about social media that also doesn’t know who the hell what PR firm their client is using for the major rebranding effort that both are undertaking. The PR agency that refuses to take the effort to reach across the table to to the ad agency in order to integrate social media capabilities that they either say they have or farm out for.
This is bullshit.
Who’s to blame? For the most part, I’d say the clients. Followed by the perceived lead agency of an entire marketing effort.
Both sides should realize that they need to work together to create consistent messages. Both sides need to play a role in each others strategy sessions. And they need to bring in social media…as oppose to keep them at bay.
But I blame the company marketing decision makers the most. It’s their responsibility to, at the very least, INTRODUCE the players. And knock heads if there is resistance. But all too often they don’t. They don’t seem to understand that its vital. And when they don’t, the key players will often resist involvement with one another. Hunker down. Don’t work together. Sort of like a business merger between two rivals. Or two law enforcement departments that won’t reveal their findings from investigations. Turf war crap.
I see a ton of missed marketing/promotional/branding opportunities because one side doesn’t know what the other is doing. I see problems taking longer to solve - if they get solved at all - because working together is not a priority. I see great ideas go by the wayside because the concept couldn’t be extended across marketing firms.
It’s stupid, it’s unprofessional, and it hurts all of us.
CMOs and marketing managers need to bring their marketing vendors - and remember, marketing types always positions themselves as “partners” - together. So we will really be partners.
Otherwise, we’ll all be failures.
Filed under: Ad Budgets, Ad Buys, Ad Sales, Advertising, PR Ethics, PR Hubris, PR Industry, Public Relations, Social Meda, Social Media PR
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