PR AGENCIES? What do they do?
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- freedom
What exactly do PR agencies do, and is their work necessary?
This site claims they do graphic design, web development and list Nike and Facebook as clients:
http://goo.gl/mI8ikI doubt Nike, Facebook, Cole Haan need design from them. What do these places do that big ad agencies and normal staff cannot?
- GeorgesII0
freddddddom?
- LOL! My first thought, too. :DContinuity
- :/freedom
- his questions are like these, hahernexbcn
- yuputopian
- freedom0
Ha. Possibly a poorly and too intensely worded question. Apologies.
- lambsy0
the simplest way i can describe it is - they have connections to people who publish stories in the media. They are mostly made up of sneaky cunts who take credit for things they don't even touch.
- <Brilliant!. I might just print this out and mount it.babaganush
- +10meffid
- formed0
Some have in house design people. They basically do what their title suggests - "public relations". That can be getting a story in a newspaper or designing the website (or, more likely, sub-contracting to get the site done).
They also help coordinate messages, such as how to reach Latino teenagers.
- d_rek0
Do shitty copywriting and shady palm-greasing to get crappy articles published in various media outlets.
- freedom0
Monday bump.
- instrmntl0
They feed places like Ad Week, Creativity etc news stories about launches, promotions etc.
- eficks0
some do things like annual reports and brochures
- trooperbill0
pr do a few things
1. manage reputation online
2. manage crisis
3. devise things to talk about and talk about them
4. schmooze reporters and journalists so they publish everything
- monNom0
As I understand it, most PR is thinking about ways that they'd like people to talk about things, then the PR agency puts together source material and draft articles that news outlets can easily pick up and use for filler. Essentially they're making that way of thinking the path of least resistance. None of it is paid placement, they rely on newsrooms being over-worked and starved for content to get placement. They have to pitch story ideas so their content needs to be decent to have any chance of getting picked up.
So say you've got some real-estate client who's building a 'green development' of overpriced townhouses. A PR company might come up with a bunch of articles about the utopian ideal community that this housing development is the embodiment of, and then try to get that picked up by the local or national papers. They might also coordinate some kind of greeny grass-roots community event like a recycling drive to give the impression like the community/ideal is already occurring in that area organically.
Then there's the "crisis managment" side which is all about lies, spin, and perceptions being reality. That side is full of sociopaths.
- fadein110
In this ridiculous time of celebrity as a national obsession and celebrities as brands they do a great deal.
- animatedgif0
In terms of the ad world:
Talk complete and utter bullshit until a client bites then outsource the work to people who can actually do it.Worked with a decent sized New York/London one and some of the shit they pitch is hilariously bad and all just stolen from other campaigns anyway.
- polytechnic0
They help to manage the public perception of a brand or organisation.
As within any industry (and ours in certainly no exception), there are plenty of charlatans but, in this age of mass-media, there are also some very talented people who perform a vital function clients.
- qTime0
Basically its bitchy women and camp guys talking up companies and taking people out for lunch.
People called Jessica and Tarquine work there.
- DaveO0
A lot of people have no idea what different types of PR agencies do, and how the celebrity crisis management and bullshitting differs from integrated creative planning and through the line communications.
Within the commercial landscape and marketplace there are lots of different levels a brand needs to speak to the consumer on so there's more stuff to do than just make ads. I used to work for an integrated agency and we'd make all types of content for media briefings and press materials (the PR bread & Butter). It's still designed and art directed really well, and often lives way beyond the single use it was created for.
Now with social media and a much more octopus-like communication model a LOT of creative agencies are adopting an integrated model in order to drive a message further. Lo and behold, this includes PR.
- you sound like a PR (wo)manfadein11
- lol @ your buzz words 'octopus'... I am so glad to be out of that bullshit world.fadein11
- I can just write well, that's all.DaveO
- debatable - all v.obviousfadein11
- Not jargon, fadein11. It's an analogy.polytechnic
- instrmntl0
They place people into the lecture/speaking circuit also.
- vaxorcist0
ok.... some oddball personal experiences with PR....
I once worked in a small creative ad/web agency, we shared office space with 2 guys who had their own micro-PR firm. They were refugees from some larger PR firm... they were on the phone all day long, or out of the office, and when they were on the phone, they'd talk about all sorts of random shit like baseball games and celebrity wardrobe malfunctions, till after about 30-40 minutes of this, they'd go in for the kill and ask if they could get somebody an interview or some product placement,etc..... at first I thought they were shysters, but I realized they were good at EXACTLY what I sucked at... i.e. getting people to soften up and do what you want by any means necessary....
....and lots of the reasons ad agency people hate PR people is that they may subvert us, i.e. one bit of text in the "editorial" of a magazine may be worth 20 print ads in terms of persuausion, and there's not much "design" except for the "design" of a campaign to spend months researching and talking to people till they finally get the right person on the phone and talk about random shit for 30 minutes and then go in for the kill and get that product placement or interview....
- vaxorcist0
I also have a friend in "crisis management PR", he once told me his job is the opposite of what most people think... it's not to lie, but to try to get the company execs to stop lying to themselves and face up the facts that they really screwed up, and the sooner you come out and say that the less you have all sorts of PR disasters of everyone assuming everything the exec says is a lie,even when he's telling the truth and then they're really fucked....