From across the pond at Major Players, a marketing recruiting firm, comes an interesting trend: More PR firms looking for creatives and planners from the ad world. Major Players’ Head of PR, Lorraine Barker, explains:
To keep from being drowned out in an increasingly crowded media space, PR agencies are evolving. Creative Directors are being drafted in to inject fresh thinking and bring a new dimension to campaigns, while Planners are delivering consumer insights and developing rigorous strategic frameworks to underpin the big idea. The result is a focused PR offering that stays on brand, on tone and most importantly – makes people stand up and take notice.
To me, this makes a lot of sense. Most of the really interesting advertising efforts I’ve heard about lately have not come because I’ve seen them on TV or in print or some ‘natural’ means, rather I’ve heard about them because of the PR effort behind them. Now that may be an occupational hazard of being a copywriter and blogger, but in the new Crispin “Hoopla” era, it seems that clients are getting more traction for new campaigns thanks to PR efforts for the campaign rather than the ad spend on them.
Plus, as traditional media struggles for revenue and advertising dollars, they’ve become more willing to embrace non-traditional campaigns that meld PR, editorial, and advertising. Sounds to me like a smart PR firm with conceptual creatives and strategic thinkers who can fit into the system is poised to clean up in this new world order.
