Opinion

Answers for Adam: Should PR agencies and creative agencies be combined?

This week Adam Ferrier asks whether PR is starting to mean everything and nothing, and whether it is any different from traditional advertising.  

I’ve been thinking about the PR industry lately and where PR fits in the broader communications landscape. I’ve thought about it a lot, and worked with most models from integration under one roof to partner agencies, and a few things in-between.

adam-ferrier-2-copyPR is a mythical beast and one I don’t think most people quite get (including me?). There is the behind the scenes classic walking the corridors of power ‘spin doctor’ stereotype, and there is the moi- darling press release sending glamour puss stereotype.

Yet there is also a third type of PR much more prevalent than the first two who I would describe as a strategically creative, conversation maintaining type of PR.

The first two can easily be written off as bad, dated cliche’s of PR – and although they no doubt both exist – they are clearly in the very small minority of what PR does. However, the third group, the strategically creative set is what I’m interested in. If they are the bulk of PR these days – how exactly do they differ from a modern brand building agency?

It seems like everyone is talking about always on communications. Two way communications. Conversations. And so on.

So just like digital is starting to mean everything and nothing. Is PR also starting to mean everything and nothing. Is this the reason most agencies who win PR awards are not PR agencies?

My question is does a modern PR agency do things that different to a modern creative agency to warrant a whole separate agency supplier – or should the two ideally be combined?

Adam Ferrier is chief strategy officer at Cummins&Partners. Each week he sets Mumbrella readers a new question to answer. His book ‘The Advertising Effect’ is available for pre-purchase here.

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