Originally posted on Fuel the Future.
It was a big week in Cannes, and I just flew home. From Jacksonville.
So here I am in Connecticut trying to decide if I have Cannes envy after following my friends and colleagues in France on Facebook and Twitter.
But what I’ve decided is that maybe Cannes isn’t the place for PR people. By now, everyone has seen the news that the Grand Prix in the PR category went to Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for its work on a National Australia Bank campaign. It’s the second year in a row that an ad agency won the PR category (last year it was TBWA for Gatorade), and like many of you on the PR side of the fence, I’ve been scratching my head all week as to why ad agencies are dominating the PR category.
In a piece posted on Ad Age’s site, president-CEO of Fleishman-Hillard Dave Senay, who’s also the Cannes jury president, said the jury began with the belief that “excellence and creativity in public relations doesn’t have an address. We’re in an era where the labels matter less and less.” But, continued the article, Senay said this might be a wake-up call to the PR industry: “‘There’s a certain amount of isolationism in our industry,’ he said and the winners will be the ones, no matter what their label, who ‘reach across the disciplines and grasp hands.’”
Yes, we’re living in an era of integration, with the lines between PR and advertising being blurred more than ever, and media becoming the currency in which we sell products and concepts. It’s no longer about a great TV spot or print ad; media is simply transcendent and all-encompassing in our communications-obsessed world.
But I think the ad agency domination comes down to a couple of things: The Cannes criteria and ambience aren’t right for the tighter-constrained, less-hyped, less-packaged PR space. ERWW PR, North America, my agency, withdrew our entry this year because PR agencies don’t have the right assets to compete.
I suggest a wake-up call, too—that people remember what public relations is: earned media. What about earning awards the hardest way? With metrics. Of course, that would mean someone would have to figure out a truly great metrics system…