Digital Video Killed the PR Star

No, I’m not changing the lyrics of the 80’s new wave pop music hit “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. That incredibly catchy song, which made its debut as the first music video on MTV, forever altered the landscape of the music industry. For the first time, consumers had images to go along with the music they heard on the radio, and a commercial art form was born. Artists who weren’t as photogenic as Madonna or Prince were going to be passed by when it came time to see as well as hear them. Certainly some artists without singing talent, but with a great image, would benefit from this new medium.

Now, just as that first music video opened the floodgates that made videos an integral part of packaging musicians and marketing to the masses, we’re at the dawn a new era for online digital video. Today, all marketers are talking about how digital video is going to radically alter marketing as we know it. Consider these stats: 80% of Millenials say that their computers are more of an entertainment device than their televisions; and U.S. online video viewers grew by 46% since 2006 and 73% of active web users watched online video in December (source: eMarketer and Nielsen Online). The tide of digital video users is rising like the flood waters of Katrina.

Just as the transition from silent pictures to “talkies” made stars out of some actors but ruined others who had weak voices, the adoption of digital video for marketing will leave some companies behind while others rise on the tide. Yesterday Google announced Google Video for Business, a new application that enables companies to distribute video internally among their employees, enabling the same YouTube experience to a closed corporate audience. Last week, Nikon announced the D90, a Digital SLR camera with interchangeable lenses that, for the first time, can record digital video. From both an online interface as well as a product perspective, digital video is growing by leaps and bounds.

So, where does this leave PR professionals and other marketers? Well, there are some companies like Blendtec (www.willitblend.com) that are the gold standard in using digital video to showcase products. And for every successful online video that is produced, there will be many more that are unsuccessful. That reality doesn’t stop clients from desiring a hit “viral video” that will be passed along to millions of viewers. But there are no guarantees that a video will catch fire on the Internet like Matt Harding’s dance video (www.wherethehellismatt.com).

The growing prevalence of digital video presents both an opportunity and a challenge for marketers. Clients will rely on their agency partners to help them navigate the ins-and-outs of scripting, producing, shooting, editing, hosting and distributing video content. All agencies must understand how and when to deploy video content. If they are not smart about digital video, and willing to adopt it as a new tool in the communications toolkit (like the venerable press release), they will be doing their clients (and themselves) a huge disservice.

Advertising from the Inside Out

Working at Mullen provides PR practitioners with a unique perspective on the ad game. There are few PR shops where it’s possible to participate in ad agency new business from the brainstorm to the pitch meeting and see the creative evolution of ideas. For that matter, I don’t know of another PR shop where you can have lunch in the gourmet cafeteria and sit with the creative director or the CEO of a top advertising agency. This is not the usual situation of most public relations professionals, to say the least.

What’s the benefit of being a PR staffer embedded in an ad agency like a war correspondent embedded with the troops in Fallujah? For one thing, the creativity of the place is contagious and informs the way we PR folks think about how to create innovative marketing programs for our clients. Like our advertising brethren, the PR team at Mullen wants to push the envelope of creativity. We’re not in opposition to advertising; we’re all part of a marketing continuum that is constantly in flux and adapting with the times.

After all, PR gets consumers to believe in brands and take action, just as advertising does. The main difference is that we rely on the media and others to tell the stories of our clients, and advertising ultimately has more control over the messaging (I would love to guarantee placements in all of the outlets my clients want to be, but that’s not how it works in PR).

This unique insider perspective enables some interesting interactions. When people ask me where I work, I tell them Mullen. They naturally assume that I work in advertising, but I usually clarify that I work in the PR department. The nuance of how the agency consists of a range of disciplines is lost on most people, and I’m fine with that because the difference in what we do is not that extreme.

Internally, I’ve had some moments where an account service person will ask me what I do. I tell them that in some respects I do what they do; I lead accounts and make sure my clients are happy. When I talk with someone in Direct I also tell them that I create direct mailers on a regular basis. When I talk with Analytics, I explain that I am responsible for measuring the success of our PR campaigns. And the Creatives at Mullen scratch their heads when I tell them that PR writes all the copy for our press releases and other marketing materials. You could say that PR does what all of the other agency departments do, but we do it for less money.

Watching Mad Men on AMC I’m always amazed at how segregated ‘60s agency Sterling Cooper is (and I don’t just mean racially). There’s a hierarchy with the Creatives at the top of the pyramid and the account service people down below. When Pete Campbell in account service dares to come to the table with some creative ideas, he’s smacked down by creative director Don Draper for violating protocol. But should an agency rely on its Creative department alone to be the idea engine for clients? Clearly the answer is no. And at Mullen there are creative people in all departments doing creative work.

To understand how just how much today’s ad agencies differ from those of the ‘60s, I suggest reading “Then We Came to the End” by Josh Ferris. It’s one of the most insightful books on modern agency life. In the book, a character explains that at an agency there are “Creative Creatives creating creative creative.” Beyond being a fun tongue twister it’s actually not true. At Mullen we’re all creating creative creative, and I think that being an integrated marketing agency makes us different, and better.