It first hit me a few months ago when I was scanning resumes for entry-level hires and realized that I have T-shirts older than most of the candidates: I've been doing this a long, long time.
Longevity is not necessarily an asset in a profession undergoing the kind of radical evolution we're seeing in public relations. New skills and methods can be harder to adopt for numbskulls like me whose careers have been defined by applying the same basic principles to a wide range of circumstances and achieving successful outcomes.
But longevity does offer perspective, and that perspective has come in handy now that I've moved over to The Dark Side. You see, a few months ago our agency, Erwin Penland, unbundled its PR department and embedded its PR professionals into various account teams to provide more seamless, comprehensive thinking and solutions to its clients. After twentysomething years focusing primarily on public relations -- albeit mostly in an integrated communications environment -- I'm now a group account director responsible for determining strategy and managing execution across the full spectrum of communications disciplines.
In this new role I've gained a completely new appreciation for where PR stands in today's communications mix. And from where I stand, it seems so-called marketing guru Al Ries was only half right when he predicted the fall of advertising and the rise of PR more than a decade ago. Because if advertising is dead, then so is public relations.
Now before you burn me at the stake for such heresy, hear me out. I believe there has never been a greater need, nor more opportunities, for PR professionals to help organizations change people's beliefs and behaviors. I just think that labels like "public relations" and "advertising" are irrelevant in an age when innovation and resourcefulness are significantly more valuable than discipline-specific expertise.
Public relations is essentially the vocational equivalent of the art of storytelling. As professionals we're trained to forge meaningful connections with our audiences, whether it's fellow employees, opposition groups, government overseers or consumers at large. In today's integrated ecosystem, I believe PR professionals are uniquely qualified to not just have a role, but to lead those efforts by harnessing the vast array of communications tools available . . . and by helping invent new ones.
Upon hearing about my new role at Erwin Penland, a colleague asked me the other day how I felt about leaving PR at this stage of my career. "Leave PR?" I asked. "I'm helping to redefine it."
Are you?
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