Call the PR Machine

What caught my eye about this article is that it addresses the growing trend of big businesses and companies moving away from traditional advertising and moving towards new media marketing. In this article they refer to what I have called new media marketing as "earned media". What this means is companies that perfected the "paid media"(ads, billboards and print advertising) such as Disney and Paramount are now relying on free coverage in magazines, newspapers and blogs through PR expertise. Coming from a PR department, the same messages seem more credible than when they come from advertisements - the messages seem less loaded.

Once again this article talks about the all too familiar Facebook and Twitter phenomenon of "earned media". These sites have changed the game for big media outlets. Everyone is online and now business are signing on to where their biggest audience is.

Sometimes I think it's interesting to read about and follow how business are treating this new wave of marketing and advertising. When I first started using Facebook, I couldn't have imagined it would have turned into such a critical business tool - as I'm sure the creators couldn't have imagined either. While everyone is trying to perfect their "earned media" skills, I believe that we all still have to be wary of how far to take it. PR is still misunderstood with words such as flack, spin doctor and cover-ups, being used to describe our strategic skills and applications. Even with the proven success of earned media, we should be wary of where the line should be drawn for pseudo-events and staging silly stunts that will only encourage the stereotypes.

Universal's executive vice-president of publicity, Michael Moses, said it best,"You've got to remain responsible with your resources while continually finding new ways for your campaigns to stand out."

Check out the full article HERE