PR and Marketing, like Ebony and Ivory

Jonah Bloom at Ad Age writes a timely commentary about "The Cultural Gulf that separates marketing & PR - and why both sides must work harder to bridge it"

To excerpt from the article:

"Transparency means that marketing departments, so often home to hyperbole in the past, are also confronting the fact that an over-claim in promotional material can be exposed as a lie in the time it takes some blogger to write that his whites don't wash whiter and his phone service actually drops calls every other conversation. Ad execs are also learning the importance of listening to influential consumers before crafting messages and are trying to facilitate word-of-mouth programs -- two tactics some PR practitioners see as inherent to their discipline."

"Conversely, many companies' PR executives, who once massaged other people's messages and left most content creation to the marketing department, are now building and populating websites, social networks, message boards, blogs, vlogs and podcasts. They're no longer just intermediaries; today they're becoming media and message originators, too."

"Its a big cultural gulf, but as the internet makes the relationship between corporate reputation and brand equity ever more transparent, the two departments will have to use their new found common language to bridge it."

And with that, I cue Paul and Stevie...

Lyrics


via Ad Age