The Fight for Social Media: PR vs Advertising

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Tac Anderson — 2 Comments

Pepsi to Skip Super Bowl Ads in Favor of $20M Social Media Campaign

For the first time in 23 years, Pepsi will not have any ads in the Super Bowl. Instead, the company will be spending $20 million on a social media campaign it’s calling The Pepsi Refresh Project.Such a large move is noteworthy for any company, however Pepsi’s symbiotic relationship with the Super Bowl makes this shift to new media that much more seismic.

The Pepsi Refresh Project

Rather than spending money on a Super Bowl ad, Pepsi will launch the Pepsi Refresh Project on January 13, 2010. At that time, users can submit their ideas to Pepsi for ways to refresh their communities, making the world a better place

This reemphasizes some of the huge shifts we’ve seen in 2009 and highlights even bigger changes coming in 2010. The media landscape over the past several years has shifted and there is a whole new class of non-traditional and digital influentials who have blurred that line between media, enthusiast, consumer and customer.

Disciplines are in an old land grab right now for ownership of social media. That fight just got turned up to 11.  Ad agencies and traditional media will be doing their best to make advertising look and act more like social media.  As such, the necessary outreach and content PR provides the “new influentials” has shifted. Some PR agencies have done a good job evolving media relations to include branded and unbranded bloggers and to create rich media building block to help them tell their stories in richer and more engaged ways.

Each Marketing discipline has value to add and it’s important that PR pros don’t let themselves get pushed out.  Here are a few things to keep top of mind as we continue to redefine what PR means in the social age:

• Stake your claim: PR’s heritage of storytelling, experience in influence and our understanding of nuance is more appropriate for social influentials than the advertising and digital agencies who are usually driven by reach and CPM.
• Be the connector: PR can be that connective tissue that holds the messaging together between all the marketing disciplines and helps campaigns and initiatives work more effectively and efficiently.
• Plan for social and media influentials simultaneously: If we de-prioritize or bolt on social comms it sends the message that it’s not a core competency of ours and we don’t view it as critical.
• Get there early: PR’s perspective is crucial to creating solid creative and strategic plans. But when we get integrated into the all-up campaign strategy late we miss the opportunity to pitch these ideas because the duties have already been assigned.
• Start thinking like an integrated communications marketer: Media relations + direct to customer + content strategy + social engagement. Don’t let marketing deposition or define PR as just media relations.
• Think about the end-to-end journey: We will increasingly be asked to defend our ROI. What are we measuring and what are the stepping stones that get our audience from awareness through consideration to action?
• Own the process: Who is better positioned to own the relationship with the Public than PR? No one. But if we don’t step up and own the process then PR will be relegated to an afterthought.

This was a collaboratively written post by Tac Anderson and Nathan Misner