Edelman just released their 6th annual "Trust Barometer" survey. Most of it deals with how much consumers trust various types of media outlets and spokespeople, and of course, how everyone in the world is kinda fed-up with the U.S., etc. Blah blah, yada yada.
Here's the tidbit I found interesting, from the Edelman press release:
"Approximately nine of ten people across all markets believe information conveyed by articles or news stories more than advertising, and more than 80% of respondents overall do not believe information unless they see or hear it from multiple sources."
First of all, you need to know that according to Richard Edelman, most big companies spend 98% of their marcomm budget on Advertising, and Mr. Edelman has publicly vowed to wrest a few %%% away from Madison Ave. I wish him the very best in this quest.
More to the point, what I like about the stat is the piece about "multiple sources."
PR is the most flexible communications discipline in the whole marketing matrix. What other discipline allows you to place a variation of the same news in the local and national TV newscast, on any of a number of blogs, and in local, national and/or vertical industry hardcopy outlets?
That takes A LOT of hard, creative work, folks. It ain't about pretty pictures. It takes nuance, strategy. And it IMPACTS the fate of our clients; it impacts the bottom-line. You know it, and the clients know it (as referenced below).
Yet we get just 2% of the budget?
As soon as I figure out a way to combine the sophistication of PR with the sex appeal of Advertising, I am going to collect my bazillion dollars and retire to Cape Cod.
