“The traditional way people communicate is like a pyramid, where a few media groups on top spread information to the bottom. Now the pyramid is inverted, and news comes from everywhere,” Teng Lihua said while forming two triangles in the air with her hands. Teng is the Senior Vice President in charge of technological sales and Director of China Business at the Ogilvy & Mather Group. She thinks it is becoming increasingly difficult to influence target groups with appropriate information.
Technological advancement is reversing the communications pyramid. Statistics show that the most important information channels for average Chinese are no longer television or newspapers; 46% of people get their news from the Internet. The wide use of the net and mobile phones has transformed the way people acquire and exchange information. In business, numerous information platforms are observing or participating in company operations on a daily basis. They could be your clients, your employees, or even the guy who sells beer every day in the small shop right outside your company. An era when “everybody is a journalist” is arriving. Taking advantage of the increasing variety and convenience provided by communication channels, public relations (PR) companies now recruit talent that are “proficient in thinking in the Internet context” rather than “proficient in using all kinds of computer software.”
Technical Thinking in Public Relations
Liu Xinhua, CSO at Shunya Communications Group, always carries a computer. But apart from a laptop, there are business proposals inside the case. The documents, surprisingly all about “servers”, “bandwidth” and “system security”, seem to have no relation to PR or communications-they are more like technical manuals.
“This is a proposal for a client about Internet video marketing. Since this approach considers user experience, it is very important to solve problems like video streaming and system stability.” Liu sounds more like a CTO when introducing the proposal, but this is what PR companies now do.
Internet technology is developing fast, and companies now communicate online more often. As a result, PR proposals contain new elements like online video, blogs and other online media.
Shunya Communications Group recently acquired an IT company with the help of Liu Xinhua. In Liu’s opinion, technological methods are now a must for all PR: they do, after all, have a direct impact on user experience. At the same time, the feedback supplied by the technological systems can help optimize a PR company’s strategic portfolio and communications.
The Internet is an impassable hurdle for all PR companies. In fact, global giants, Yahoo and Google, have established alliances with traditional media companies, while Microsoft has already acquired some interactive businesses. They are not only eying the long-tail markets of small and medium-sized enterprises to supply “tailor-made press releases”, but are also attempting to build bidding and transaction platforms for PR activities.
Establishing “interactive” departments inside PR companies is another big trend. Similar to Shunya Communications Group, Eastwei Relations recently launched an online company called “Weng Weng Interactive”, and BlueFocus has similarly formed a large “new media team”. Designed specially for the Internet, these “new media” or “interactive” teams are experimenting with many new PR and communications approaches.
They have helped enterprises set up websites and instant message (IM) software contact groups so key users can interact directly with their engineers. When enterprises are launching new products, PR companies not only pitch the traditional press release, but also set up interactive media platforms between the products and end users via mini sites. In addition, PR firms frequently exchange ideas with bloggers, and also conduct blog marketing through Feedsky, the Chinese Feedburner. Although still in the trial stage, these approaches have revealed that PR companies have to keep up with technological development in this “fragmented” media age, and supply communication solutions for the various scattered and “decentralized” media forms.
Products, promotions and brands are now ubiquitous in the traditional media, web portals, blogging websites, online communities, and even online games. At this stage, advertisements, public relations and marketing are all mixed together without clear boundaries. In fact, they are all part of the integrated marketing of the enterprises. Since the 1950s, public relations and advertising have experienced first integration then separation, and now, they will be integrating with each other again.
The New Merger between PR and Advertising
Liu Xinhua’s current work can be summarized in two words: meeting and bidding. During these processes, advertising companies are his most loyal partners, since they need to get together and discuss how to consolidate public relations with advertising during marketing campaigns. Shunya Communications Group has won plenty of orders by cooperating with advertising companies when preparing business proposals. Liu said the biggest advantage of his company was its competitiveness in consolidated communications.
Generally speaking, the most senior person that an advertising company will encounter is the brand director or director of marketing in an enterprise, but PR companies often communicate directly with the senior management of the enterprise. On the other hand, advertising is closely linked to the purchasing decisions but PR often doesn’t account for much in the sales and marketing budget of an enterprise. The combination of PR and advertising can help improve the brand influence of the enterprise through PR, while earning money through advertisements.
From a historical point of view, shifts in the media environment and market demand lead to changes in the relationships between PR and advertising industries. When Ivy Lee established the first PR firm in the early 20th century, traditional media like newspapers were still at the top of the communications pyramid. The value of the PR companies at that time lay in their ability to function as an exclusive information channel for the mass public, much like a “news agency.”
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