The spotlight shines on the kind of work PR people really do

I recently had the privilege of serving as a blue ribbon panel judge for IABC’s Gold Quill awards. Submissions to the annual international communication award program go through a first-tier judging process. The entries that score high enough are passed on to the blue ribbon panel, which meets for two grueling days of judging at IABC’s San Francisco headquarters.

If the judging taught me anything, it’s that the dismissal of PR as a bunch of hacks sending out clueless emails is even more misguided than I had previously believed. PR’s impending death has been wildly exaggerated. Along with the other judges (who came from places like Russia, Argentina, South Africa, the UK, China, Australia, France, and India—along with the U.S. and Canada), I saw a parade of communication efforts that applied tremendous creativity and innovation in support of very specific and measurable business goals. And only a few of them were designed to generate press coverage.

There was the web video designed to discourage college students from binge drinking, the social site for lovers of a particular brand of cheese, brochure that addressed the issue of childhood obesity (yes, a print document produced spectacular results). In every case, regardless of whether the entry ultimately was awarded a Gold Quill, the 200 or so entries the panel reviewed were designed to meet a specific business need and showed exactly how the effort met that need.

For communicators sick of hearing how PR is all about email pitches to bloggers, I suggest you block out this wrong-minded drivel (you’ll never get those who believe it to change their minds anyway) and strive to continue producing work that would pass muster with the Gold Quill blue ribbon panel. The panel’s work, after all, is not subjective, but based on a seven-point rating system applied to a number of very specific criteria (like how you know your work achieved the measurable objectives you set for it, the characteristics of the audience, and the the effectiveness of the solution in employing messages, tactics, and media).

For those who are convinced that PR is merely pitching badly by email, take a look at this, this and this.

I’ve argued before that most PR people don’t spend most, if any, of their time pitching media. Seeing the range of high-quality, compelling work cranked out by communicators in this year’s crop of entries only reinforces that belief.

1. PR works on many fronts beyond social media: community relations, cause marketing, special events, investor relations, media relations, public affairs, government relations, crisis PR, etc. I saw the best of these and many more recently as a judge in this year’s Silver Anvil competition put on my PRSA. Entries are judged on success in four criteria: research, planning, execution and evaluation. The winners will be announced June 4. PRSA puts winning case histories on its Web site. If anyone is ever in need of examples of best practices and results in any category, go to this link and search. The power of PR shines.

   http://prcsearch.prsa.org/dbtw-wpd/Textbase/PPCNEW/silveranvil.htm

   Posted by Tom Gable  on  03/25  at  04:58 AM

2. Thanks for mentioning the awards. I might not have thought to go read the cases if you hadn’t mentioned them.

   I have never considered PR professionals to be “hacks”. There are many who are doing great work and seeing terrific results. But with that said, I’d love hear how you and other readers are thinking of “PR”.

   My master’s focus was Integrated Marketing Communications with an emphasis on Public Relations, but I’ve moved away from what I think most people consider as “PR” to a broader practice of Conversation Marketing and Influencer Relations.

   I think so many people confuse PR with press pitching because they consider it to stand for Press Relations. In the past, Press Relations and Public Relations were synonymous and it meant that a business was try to get press to write about them so that the public would see it. But there are so many other ways of reaching “the public” today beyond press.

   Maybe, communications professionals should start thinking of these practices in a broader sense instead of continuing to call themselves PR professionals. And maybe some are trying to as I noticed that IABC is not specific to PR but rather the broader topic of Communications and the Golden Quill Awards are given to many different types of communications efforts and not specifically PR.

   Just food for thought.

   Posted by Christine Fife  on  03/25  at  05:16 AM

3. Thanks for posting this Shel. While I’m no longer on the ‘practicing’ side of PR, it is so discouraging to hear the entire profession get berated by what I feel are bullies who don’t really understand what PR is at all. It’s hard to just shut it out when you are trained as a communicator—the instinct is to try to educate, communicate, etc.

   I rarely pitched media during my time as a PR practitioner. Most of our work was working with communities and individuals.

   I’m glad you enjoyed doing this!

   Jen

   Posted by Jen Zingsheim  on  03/25  at  08:35 AM

4. Shel, great post (as usual)—I’ve been banging around thoughts on my blue ribbon panel experience as well, and I agree especially with your assertion that a number of the entries “applied tremendous creativity and innovation in support of very specific and measurable business goals.”

   And that, in particular, is what truly set the exceptional entries apart from the rest. Managing toward real, honest-to-goodness business outcomes is the true hallmark of successful PR, whether it be via traditional methods, blogging or even social media.

   Communicating strategically toward measurable results was always “the name of the game,” but the new tools available to communicators will only amplify the signal-to-noise ratio unless everything is done towards a purpose. Page views, equivalency to ad dollars, or even press mentions don’t achieve much other than helping communicators appear busy.

   In the new age where content (and moreso relevancy) is king, you need to know how to make sure what you’re communicating is moving audiences toward action. And something as simple as an opinion survey or an uptick in sales or referrals (tracked against a benchmark of course) says a ton more than how many times your content has been “dugg.”

   Posted by Dave  on  03/26  at  05:33 AM

5. I heard from two other judges how impressed they were with the thorough process and the diligence of the judges - who paid their way to come and serve.  Impressive allegiance to IABC and what this award represents. Kudos to you Shel and all that you continue to do for the organization

   Posted by Kare Anderson  on  03/26  at  08:31 AM

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