The digital future’s bright but will it be PR?

While the rest of the UK PR scene analyses the implications of the NLA’s recent attempt to create money out of nothing, PRmoment can’t help but feel this is not really the BIG debate of the day. The NLA is unlikely to be decisive in the future of our sector. The big issue is surely the ownership of digital? A recent survey published by ipressroom (in the US) asked which department within a corporation owns the web strategy of the business? 45% of respondents said the email marketing dept owned the web strategy of the business. PR came in second with 30%. This got me thinking; if the website is governed by the marketing dept, where does PR come into play? If company X want to interact more with its customers, they’ll use the marketing teams email expertise. Who’s to say that when they want to add content to the email they’ll put in a call to the PR guys? They might, but more likely they’ll give a digital agency a call, or maybe a video production agency? Or just do it themselves. Why would they call the PR guys? The email has nothing to do with media relations, they'll think. Clearly, I’m playing devil’s advocate but PR needs to rebrand itself. No longer are we the media people, we are the providers of content to media, be that corporate websites, CRM emails, Twitter, Facebook, events or contact through the media. But this rebrand could prove tricky because all of the marketing disciplines are circulating around the digital space. Why don't they leave it to PR? Because firstly they all want the budget and, to an extent, they all have a claim to the digital arena. Emails are essentially digital direct mails, while branding and advertising clearly have a role to play in a company’s online strategy. So what does PR need to do in this fight? Well, work out its point of difference for a start. And for me a good place to start is to position PR as the content provider. No other marketing discipline is better positioned to provide text and video content that is in tune with the demands of an organisations stakeholders. And once PR becomes the content tsar, everything else follows. So, it’s not about the NLA folks, the stakes are a lot higher. Potentially the future for PR is massive but we must ensure we position ourselves as the content kings.