2008: Predictions, comments and observations about marketing and public relations

Published January - February 2008

As each New Year comes around there’s usually a plethora of comment about marketing and PR. 2008 is no different. Here’s a selection of comments - some serious, some not, to reflect on.

“The buzzwords of the year - the ones the industry will overuse and be heartily sick of 364 days from now will be: engage, educate and entertain. These three words are becoming the essential descriptors to use when touting mobile marketing, widgets and other 2.0 applications, and all three will be bludgeoned to death by sheer repetition by 2009.” (Steven Blinn in PR Week US).
“Marketers succeed when brand messages are fully integrated and synchronised across all media channels. That requires strategic alignment - leadership that ties everything together - particularly when the forces of change can potentially pull them apart. Strategic alignment is one of the most important roles of the chief marketing officer, and in 2008 more CMO’s will ensure organisations are strategically aligned. Lead agencies will be appointed to make sure all supporting agencies carry out the same brand message.” (Bob Liodice in utalkmarketing.com)
“PR is still slow to adapt to the new environment: It would be easy to say that next year will be the year when the PR industry will turn the corner and itself start to adapt to the social media always-on environment. But I don’t see the signs that this will happen that quickly. Instead most PR will cling to their traditional PR models- carefully crafted press releases, one-way PR pitches, spray-and-pray PR programs - for at least another year. You don’t have to be the “most” people - start making the transition to interactive, social media pitching and placement now.” (Jon Greer, CBNET Networks).
“Throughout 2008 and into the foreseeable future, press releases will continue to be written in the same format, since we all know that the PR Gods will strike you dead if “XXX company, a leading provider of XXX’ does not appear in the first two sentences of the release.” (Steven Blinn in PR Week US).
“People have had it with greenwashing. Any green claims will be met with scrutiny, so PR people touting the sustainable environmentally friendly aspects of their client’s business should be sure to have all the facts at hand.” (Suzzane Henry, president of Four Leaf PR in Charlottesville quoted in Ragan.com).
“Technology companies are quickly learning that pure technology solutions are not what the customers want. The customers want technology to bring down the cost, but they still need smart people to interpret the data and tell them what to do with it.” (Katie Delahaye Paine, of KD Paine & Partners, US research specialists).
“One problem with today’s PR is that the press is moving at blinding speed, while PR waits for numerous approvals (client, marketing, finance, CEO, legal etc).” (Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter).
“You need to know what’s being said about your business or your industry in all those blogs or social networks, so PR people will be working overtime if they aren’t already. Make sure any PR campaigns you do have the added benefit of online PR. If your PR team don’t do that, then find a company that does.”(Forty First, a UK Online Blog.)
“This year brands will need to realise that if they’re going to market themselves on social networks, it’s all about understanding this environment, being incredibly subtle and providing real value, not marketing gimmicks. Just look at some of the marketing gaffes from last year when social network members spotted a hackneyed marketing campaign and tore it to shreds.” (Toney Mooney co author of ‘The Impact of Social Networking in the UK’ by Experian.)
“Metrics will take centre stage in Online PR. No longer will ‘hey boss I got you in X publications” be enough to justify PR budgets. Measuring things such as placement relevancy and related SEO traction for optimised keywords will become standard in reporting to savvy clients.” (Vince Bank, The PR Guy).

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