Just came across
this little snippet from Brand Republic where Wayne Bickerton, the head of partnerships and emerging media at
Diffiniti (formerly Carat Interactive UK), argues that:
"agencies are best- placed to provide
clients with advice and consultancy on blogs because they are involved
in the overall communications strategy that brand blogs should fit
into. "We would never sell blogs on their own, they are just one part
of what a company should consider doing,"
He is talking about the big ad agencies and I find this very
disturbing. I would challenge that they are "involved in the overall
communications strategy". The marcoms strategy maybe, but get real most
ad agencies are not in a position to offer the best advice on how to
engage with the full range of stakeholders. Also they are traditionally
focused on one-way communication to pump out the corporate messages.
Public relations on the other hand has always been about two-way
communications, reputation and how organisations actually behave. The
PR profession must get its act together quickly and ensure that we are
the ones providing clients with advice and consultancy on blogs.
Bickerton is right when he says that "blogs are just one part of what a
company should consider doing" and that's exactly why ad agencies are
the wrong people to do it.
