Andy Getsey: Is this thing on?

There’s always a lot of discussion about how traditional media will be replaced by digital and social media, how journalist produced content will be replaced by branded and citizen produced content, how PR people will be replaced by some other thing.  Much of the discussion makes it sound like a switch will be flipped, and suddenly the whole landscape and everyone in it will be these brand new alternative things.  > More... The evolution of science fiction tells us that this idea is wrong. The future of PR and advertising is and will actually be more like the future portrayed in the movie BladeRunner.  I said so as a panelist last week at PRSA Silicon Valley’s meeting on #thefutureofPR. Thanks to all the folks who re-tweeted my comment.  Here’s why it’s true.  This is a bit of a generalization and I chose BladeRunner as a super mainstream film example.  Others saw something similar – but didn’t mainstream it so hard.  The idea still works. 

Before BladeRunner, most sci–fi movies (like Dune or Logan’s Run as popular examples) portrayed the future as all tall crystalline towers, airlocks and Jetson–style flying cars, telepathy, ray guns and all sorts of other fantastical things. More often than not, inexplicably, people in the future wore togas back then.  WTF?  Beginning sometime before the release of BladeRunner, the future started being portrayed as a mashup.  Some buildings are state of the art, modern fortresses of ultracool design. Next door might be old buildings from year 2000; run down. Some communications are completely corporately sponsored, others are renegade. Some media are super modern, but there are also billboards and blimps.  Some people are super modern, with bio enhancements, cool weapons and outlandishly modern hair and fashions.  Some are regular people with regular weapons. Others are poor, beaten down, old–fashioned people wearing a variety of raggedy clothes that could be from any era where poor people wore raggedy clothes, and really crappy weapons.  The future of PR is turning out to be more like BladeRunner than Logan’s Run.  It’s also turning out to be a lot like the adoption curve of radio, TV, email, social networks, etc.  They’re all still here – none have totally replaced the other yet.  Each still has their place. But some are ascending in importance; others are receding.

Some agencies and clients have great tech; some don’t. Some clients care, others don’t care as much - yet. 

It’s just like that with people.  Some are super quants.  Some are social media mavens.  Some are trans-media story tellers.  Some are awesome with bloggers. Some are super good at getting on TV and into the New York Times.   Some are good with everything.  There’s no complete switchover yet.  It’s a mix.  And most kinds of people still have their place. 

Nelly Furtado didn't pay very close attention in zoology or biology class.  She states, "I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away.  I don't know where my home is."  In fact, most birds know not only exactly where their current home is, but exactly where they were hatched.  Some fly thousands of miles to the same exact spot.  Good singer, not a great teacher of children on topics regarding the memory or directional skills of birds regarding where their homes are.

I was invited to talk at  a round table discussion last night about the Future of PR sponsored by PRSA Silicon Valley.  The panel was moderated by Steve Barrett, Editor in Chief of PR Week and included David Swain, director of technology comms for Facebook, Kelly MCGinnis, VP comms for Dell, Burghardt Tendrich, formerly Text 100 and Bite, now associate professor at USC's Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism.  And me. Here's a mashup of my thoughts, and those of the panel and audience... > More

about the critical skills PR practitioners need to acquire as the field advances. Excellent writing and storytelling skills.  More than ever, good thinking, writing and storytelling skills are critical.  Brands are now self publishing all sorts of content, the journalistic media world is more hard pressed for time and bandwidth, and these core professional communications skills are getting more important, and yet many in the audience feel somehow harder to come by than ever. A healthy understanding of how powerful "traditional" media really are, still.  It's popular among many of the digerati, as well as many social marketers (both groups to which I belong) to propel the idea that traditional media don't matter any more (a myth to which I do not ascribe).  Our agency has monitored and analyzed every campaign we've ever done over a twelve year period, and I can tell you that we have never had even one single instance where a client's web site has crashed because of online buzz.  We have dozens and dozens of examples of client sites crashing from exposure in traditional media.  Sure, their business models are under siege in many cases, but their ability to deliver massive audiences and persuasive impact is still kind of intact. Transmedia skills.  People with bright intellect, solid experience, good writing skills, and solid media expertise PLUS social media, SEO, graphic design, video production, event production, etc. experience will have a leg up.  Especially if they know how to tell stories and engage audiences in various ways, written, visual, experiential, through search returns, etc.  IMHO, since the lines between PR and advertising are blurring a bit at the edges – a stint working at an ad or digital agency wouldn't hurt.  Branding expertise.  Most of us like to think we understand branding, but it's actually a bit more of a formal discipline than many PR people like to think.  Future PR pros will be wise to have some formal education in branding, and a good way to do it, especially for students, is to intern at a pure branding consultancy.  For others, there are a number of great books, books on tape and videos about what a brand is and how brands are managed.  PR work gets better when it's informed with a knowledge of the principles of branding that CMOs work with every day.  Lack of real understanding shows. Business savviness.  As communicators, we'd all like a place at the table in the C-suite.  But business is the language of the C-suite, and we need to understand business in general, the specifics of the client or employer business at hand, and specifically how various communications strategies, programs or events might or will impact the business itself. We need to be able to counsel C-level execs at this level, to provide real value at the table.  Too many practitioners lead with pure PR- or publicity-driven thinking.  Business education or hands-on management experience is usually what it takes to build the knowledge needed to succeed at the C-level table. Sophisticated knowledge of and application of analytics for planning, consulting and program measurement.  Most of the conversation about analytics in our industry is about reporting in order to defend the value of programs. Or it's about listening in on social conversations. Same was true at the event.  But I disagree with this focus.  There is actually so much more value in applying analytics to forward strategy and planning, in addition to simple listening and reporting.  With the volume of noise and data increasing dramatically across all channels, practitioners can elevate their skills dramatically by becoming educated in a variety of communications analytics, statistical principles, and especially how to apply analytis and insights to strategy and planning.  Don't justify – lead! Aggressive curiosity.  The industry is changing so fast that we will all do ourselves a big favor to be boundlessly curious, and stretch beyond what we know to acquire broader knowledge, more skills and a wider network. Don't settle into a groove. Is the future easier for PR professionals?  I'm afraid the answer is no.  It's more complicated and demanding.  But as a PR professional that started in the industry just as the landscape and dynamics got way more complicated, I can tell you that for people with innate curiosity, drive and the willingness to master new skills and adopt new perspectives as the industry evolves, PR and social media offer an incredibly interesting and rewarding career. What do you think? Ping me at andy(at)atomicpr.com, or message me: @andygetsey on Twitter. Tags: #futureofpr, Andy Getsey, AtomicPR,