PR moves from awareness to influence

I noted with interest Chime’s results announcement on March 14th. Lord Bell, the group chief, says that, “We have no evidence that the growth won't continue through 2007...business continues to move from awareness to influence, which is good news for PR.”

There are two points worth comment. The first is that the PR industry (or Chime at least) recognises that awareness is insufficient – it’s influence that matters. Chime has tangible activity to back this up: for example, it owns Sunesis and Insight, which talk about influencer relations, and it owns Opinion Leader Research, which conducts influencer research for BT among others.

Does this mark the formal shift of PR into Influencer Relations? We’ll see. Though nearly all PR firms think influence stops at analysts and journalists.

The second point is the assertion that the news is good for PR. Actually, I think it’s very bad news for PR. PR is an industry measured in “air cover” – broad coverage measured in column inches. Influence is measured in impact on sales. The two are at complete ends of the targeted communications spectrum.

If you were a small vendor with limited budget, would you spend your meagre market budget on unfocused coverage in any trade title that will carry your copy? Or would you spend it on knowing who is directly influencing your target market, and then getting those influencers to carry your message?

I believe that the PR wave is heading for a crash. It’s good news for vendors, but not for PR firms.