Lead and succeed or be led and left dead says James Kelliher, managing director at PR consultancy Whiteoaks

The world is changing. The way people and organisations communicate is changing. And change is scary. It presents opportunities, but it also presents threats. I believe PR, as an industry, finds itself at a crossroads: we can mature, expand and grasp the new world, or we can retreat to our bunker – hiding in our comfort zone – and quietly let other marketing disciplines take the high ground.

A recent survey of 150 PR decision makers, commissioned by Whiteoaks, revealed a shift in the thoughts and expectations of the influencers and purchasers of PR services. It told us that only four per cent see achieving media coverage as the primary purpose of PR; 60 per cent believe the emergence of new ways of creating, publishing and sharing content is decreasing the influence of traditional media; and 98 per cent believe that PR can and should demonstrate its ability to influence specific business outcomes.

I believe, and our survey validates, that public relations has become too comfortable and too aligned with press relations. Before the arrival of mass media the early PR practitioners built multiple relationships with multiple audiences to achieve specific organisational objectives.

When mass media arrived, it presented a powerful mechanism for organisations to communicate with their audiences, but somewhere along the line the PR industry became lazy or confused (or probably both!). Media coverage is not the end result, it is a tactical output. Understanding, supporting and being accountable for specific outcomes is what PR can and should achieve for organisations.

Our industry has traditionally shied away from accountability, telling the world that PR cannot even guarantee the outputs of what we do, let alone be responsible for specific outcomes. And then, in the next breath, complaining that PR is perceived as light, fluffy and tactical when compared to other marketing and business development disciplines.

So, here is the uncomfortable truth: PR needs to change to survive. First, it needs to become strategic, by demonstrating that it understands and can achieve specific organisational objectives. It needs to recognise that in our evolving world a much broader set of communication tools, techniques, channels and content is needed to engage and influence multiple audiences – not just media relations. And it needs set performance targets and be accountable for inputs, outputs and organisational outcomes.

The good news is that the potential for PR to be all these things has never been greater. When done properly, we can own all the main building blocks in a marketing communications strategy. Our core skills are situated in content creation, audience definition and the creation and delivery of key messages that achieve changes in perceptions and behaviours.

The emergence of new ways of creating, publishing and sharing content also mean we have a much broader toolkit at our disposal, which includes tools and channels that enable us to be more measurable and accountable for achieving specific organisational objectives.

Now is the time for PR as a discipline to be brave, innovative and assume a position of leadership in the new world order of marketing.