Rebuttal: PR is More Than Cocaine and Hookers (Most of the Time)

March 18, 2010 | By Corrie McLeod

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Leela Cosgrove’s most recent exercise in ‘rabble rousing’ caused quite a stir on the interwebs, prompting several unsolicited (and solicited) rebuttals. On behalf of the dismayed and outraged, we bring you a response from Espresso Communications’ Corrie McLeod.

I did enjoy reading ‘Why PR is a pointless waste of time’ by Leela Cosgrove. Everyone loves a smash and grab headline, and it’s always a welcome distraction from the daily grind of a pointless job. A lot of the argument in the post is centered around ROI and uses the central example of Cosgrove’s appearance in a recent Herald Sun article about what women want, or tattoos, or something. The point, as I understood it, was that the article didn’t end up being what was expected and didn’t end up driving business value. Go figure.

‘But this is typical of how PR works out… you get pitched one thing, another thing happens… you generate no business from it… and then wonder why you spent all that time and money trying to get it in the first place.’

I don’t think that a one off inclusion in a general article that’s unrelated to one’s business is the ideal test of whether PR has value. As a communications practitioner I’m used to the broad strokes of opinion that are applied to my profession and usually I’m happy to let them sail past. I know what we do, and thankfully so do our clients, but given the ballsy approach in this piece (i.e. suggesting agencies spend client budget on cocaine and hookers!) it’s probably worth pointing out some other aspects of PR that should be considered.

Many Anthill readers are entrepreneurs in the process of building companies. Growing companies need cash, and as we know in our market, VC or angel investors are hard to come by. How do you stand apart from the pack? Well, a good media relations strategy can certainly help. Editors and journalists are naturally a savvy and cynical lot, and coverage of a company that has passed through this ‘editorial filter’ inevitably has a lot more credibility than a company that nobody has ever heard of.

So say, this small company attracts funding and grows up to be a bigger company, and is vying for the best skills in a competitive market. Luckily they have good PR, because they have a consistent media profile that demonstrates that they are entrepreneurial, flexible and, all in all, a good place work. If you want to talk about ROI, try to find skills in a tight job market and consider those pesky recruiter fees. A couple of good hires will pay for a few grams of cocaine right there.

This company continues to grow and goes on to list on the ASX. Again, public relations – or communications as we might call it here – is an important function that assists the company communicate with shareholders and prospective shareholders. If you want to talk ROI, consider analysis from Precise Business Decisions that shows that PR represents one quarter of the controllable factors driving share price movement. Hum de dum – bring on the hookers!

The thing that has enabled this company to grow is that it sells products. It’s ironic that Cosgrove’s post appeared on the same day as Crikey’s Over Half Your News is Spin piece. While the figures in this study show that between 55 and 70 per cent of news is PR generated, I would argue that the percentage of product coverage that is PR generated is much, much higher.

‘Add value. Be a real human being.’ It sounds simple, and it probably is if you’re a one woman band flogging a set of steak knives. But what if you are an organisation with a small army of people who actually speak to customers each day? Management may have decided to ‘Add Value etc etc’ but how does the customer know? Through the employee of course, and they in turn know this because they have good internal communications.

And finally, what happens when the company has an issue that needs careful management? Well yes – they call us. Every company has challenges, some are deserved, and some aren’t, but good PR can help to mitigate the damage to the business and in this case ROI is measured by what you don’t read.

I’m not going to rubbish Cosgrove’s suggestion that Direct Response Marketing is more effective to reach key demographics. Hell, I don’t even know what it is. But I’ll do her a deal; I’ll keep my opinions off her ‘information product specialist’ patch, if she keeps hers off mine.

Corrie McLeod is the Managing Director of Espresso Communications a consultancy that provides its services to publicly listed Australian and global companies, not-for-profit organisations and new ventures. If you would like to speak to Corrie about PR, contact corrie@espressocomms.com.au. She promises not to blow your budget on cocaine and hookers. You can follow her on twitter @espressocomms.

Photo: sub_lime79

http://www.uniquevaluepropositions.com.au Leela Cosgrove

Urrr …

Wow Corrie.

Is THIS how you make nice with the public and show companies in a good light?

By personally attacking people you don’t know?

If I WAS in need of someone to do PR to make my company look good – I certainly wouldn’t be choosing the woman who makes personal attacks on people she doesn’t know.

I’m a one-woman band selling steak-knives? Shit. Better fire my employees then – all five of them. And the 20 contractors.

Information Products, FYI, are little things you might not be familiar with. Like books. And DVDs. And this website. You think the PUBLISHING industry is a pointless waste of time?? OH PLEASE don’t keep your opinions to yourself on that … PLEASE PLEASE write the article,

“Why PR adds more to the world than educational publishing.”

We’d all love to see that.

You know what, darling – if you want to attack the argument, that’s all good … but you should avoid making personal attacks on people you don’t know anything about (or at the very least do your research before you make false allegations).

I mean, I certainly wouldn’t want to take the chance on hiring a PR person who doesn’t do her research and tells me to go attacking people with false information – I’d end up with liable suit and she’d end up with … oh, look. A stack of money for doing nothing. How very unlike the industry.

It just makes you look sloppy.

And it’s horrible PR for your company.

[Reply]
http://YourWebsite Corrie McLeod

No Leeela,

The ‘one woman band’ wasn’t referring to you, I was just highlighting that your ‘add value, be real’ comment is probably more relevant working with a micro business than a large organisation. Perhaps I was unclear.

This piece wasn’t intended to be personal, so I’m sorry you read it that way.

Enjoy your day!

Corrie

[Reply]
Leela Cosgrove Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 10:10 am
So what you’re saying is that all micro-businesses sell steak knives? Okay, I buy the one-woman band bit – but if it wasn’t personal then what do you even mean by selling steak-knives?

You DO realise that this website is a business website, right? And that it’s full of businesses of many sizes – including micro-businesses?

Are you saying that all micro-businesses are rip-off merchants? Because wouldn’t that put you in that boat too?

I’m really confused by the point you’re trying to make here …

… and that my friends, is what PR is all about.

Make an OBVIOUSLY targeted comment – change the normal wording to “woman” to make it understood that you’re talking about a chick and then talk about steak-knives to make sure that everyone knows you think that she is a rip-off merchant … double enforce that by making it clear at the end that you think that …

And then pretend that wasn’t what you were saying – while still leaving said personal attack there.

Man, you are going SO FAR to changing my opinion of PR people.

You’re RIGHT! I totally need someone in my company to attack people who disagree with us and then pretend like we weren’t really attacking them.

Or you know.

We could just add value and be real.

Even my employees.

[Reply]
Corrie McLeod Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hi Leela,

Relax! you lobbed one over the fence, I lobbed one back. There was a tongue in cheek element that has clearly been lost in your reading. I think God is a woman too

Cheers,

Corrie

[Reply]
Leela Cosgrove Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 10:47 am
No Corrie, I lobbed one at PR. Not at you. You decided to hit it back at me personally.

The rest of your article I have no issue with (well, I do – but I don’t mind you SAYING it) – attack my industry all you like, I don’t mind. Attack my argument with fevered gusto – I love a good debate.

But making personal attacks is just lame.

When I said PR – I didn’t point a stick and say Corrie McLeod is spending your money on Cocaine and Hookers. I didn’t even know you existed until you started making bitchy comments at me on Twitter.

Nigel Malone Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Hi Corrie, great post – I learned a lot from your piece – thank you. Leela you should read it sometime – open-mindedly that is.
http://www.howorth.com.au Emilio Robles

And this explains it all: http://anthillonline.com/flame-wars-101-a-guide-to-profiting-from-your-disagreeable-nature/

[Reply]
Stephen Gately Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Ladies,

I am willing for both of you to take on http://www.BuyAustralianMade.com.au as a test case that will allow both of you to apply your skills. I am sure there is a way that we will be able to measure the effectiveness of each approach and methods
applied. And along the way you will both be helping people to more aware of what products are still made in Australia and also help over 30 Australian Disability Enterprises to get more exposure for the products and services they deliver. Regards Stephen Gately BuyAustralianMade.com.au

[Reply]
http://YourWebsite AnneMaree Fitzgerald

Get a room girls! You can’t write provocative, entertaining posts that get published without being ….provocative. But please keep the spatting private as it just reads like a Springer bitch fight. And we know how people love to watch!
AnneMaree (a PR Hack herself)

[Reply]
Steve Sherlock Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
funny summation AnneMaree.

i found Leela original article pretty funny. more entertaining than strategically insightful. and at least gets a discussion going. leela has a knack at this..and then no surprise when others get their back..goes with the territory.

corries’ piece ads some nuance to the discussion to counter balance generalising about pr. admittedly the ‘steak knife’ seemed to take a stab – but that’s what can happens are provocative (people react back and forth)

like for example, this guy nearly ran me over while riding my bike. i kicked his car in protest and he jumped out and threatened to bash me with one of those extendable batons. i shit myself and apologised as self preservation.

point being i took the risk in kicking his car and couldn’t really be surprised by his reaction. (even though i was)

as for PR – like there are spam email and good emails. there is spam PR (like herald sun) and there is good PR that fits with the company’s overall cause and is targeted to where one’s tribe hangs out.

[Reply]
http://peter.evans-greenwood.com/ Peter Evans-Greenwood

Corrie,

We seem to be confusing two issues here: the role of formal PR business functions (either in-sourced or out-sourced), and the value of communication (both within and without companies) to organisations. The two are related, but not the same.

I expect we can all take the need for good communication as a given. As you point out, good communication with within and without a company has a number of fairly well defined positive effects. The interesting question in this what is the role of an (internal or external) public relations function for an organisation.

However, we need to separate the business function (“PR”) from the effect (“communication & engagement”). Social media is radically changing the nature of communication in and around companies. A lot of this change is disintermediation — removing PR from the loop to put customers and clients in direct contact with the employees throughout an organisation. One could argue that PR has a role setting the direction, but many of the more interesting companies using social media extensively (Ubank, Threadless …) don’t have an explicit (or potentially an implicit) strategy. It’s an organic / cultural thing distributed through the organisation, not a managed function.

We also need to admit that PR is in transition. The role PR played ~30 years ago (to pick a number), when communication was much more difficult, is not the role it will play in ~30 years time. (I’ have vague memories of corporate communication involving physical newsletters and all-hands memos.) Change “30″ for “10″ and I expect this still hold true. Change is slow in large, multi-nationals, so the old world will exist for some time to come, and PR has a well defined role for clients who still exist in this old world (think Tiger Woods & Accenture).

So the question is: what value does a formal PR function add in a world dominated by this communication paradigm we call Social Media, and will formal PR functions have a role to play in the future? Leela posits: “not much, and none”.

r.

PEG

[Reply]
http://www.darrenhorrigan.com Darren Horrigan

The best PR is invisible.

I submit the continued prosperity of Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Mining – and the very survival of Big Tobacco – as the finest examples.

For them, PR has been, is, and will continue to be anything but a pointless exercise.

The real practitioners of real PR – the hidden persuaders – know that once you need to shout to be heard, you are not worth listening to. Your moment has passed.

And it doesn’t matter whether you’re flogging steak knives, politicians, or Bentleys.

Tell me a story. Make it plausible, make it compelling and I will help you make millions.

This is PR. Everything else is vaudeville.

[Reply]
Peter Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Well said.

Shouting only gets you so far. (As can be seen with recent posts on this board).

Shouting might get you noticed, but it takes more than that to establish credibility.

BTW, for anyone wanting a laugh, Stephen Fry’s TV series Absolute Power was set in a PR agency – and the best episodes were very funny.

[Reply]
http://alexavery.com.au Alex Avery – Inbound Marketing Consultant

Nice one Corrie.

I’m a fence sitter when it comes to PR. I just wish more PR was Search optimised, but that’s another story.

Whilst I respect other peoples opinions – like orifices, everyone’s got at least one – I can’t condone mudslinging headlines and smash-and-grab articles that some use promote themselves – and I feel entitled to say so.

In fact, the last time I commented on one of Leela’s articles (http://anthillonline.com/beyond-seo-the-future-of-internet-search) she deleted my comment completely – without so much as a flaming response to dignify my comment. Remember the one Leela? I mentioned “biting the hand that feeds”. Sounds like this is a pattern. LOL.

If there’s gonna be a fight – might I suggest mud and swimsuits. *JOKE*

I’ll be following @espressocomms for more. Thanks Corrie.

peace. alex

[Reply]
James Tuckerman Reply:
March 18th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Hi Alex – I thought I’d let you know that Leela (or indeed none of our writers) are given access to the ‘delete’ button when it comes to comments in their posts. Indeed, the one we have is so rarely used I’m not sure where to find it. Sometimes, however, a comment includes a few key words or multiple links that cause our spam filters to delete or file for a comment for approval. Sometimes the spam filters claim a legitimate post. With respect to your own deleted comment, I suspect that you may have become one of the machine’s innocent victims. Sorry!

[Reply]
Lachy Wharton Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I think James menas Leela does NOT have the power to delete a comment.

[Reply]
http://YourWebsite Simon

Hmm, everything has its place in a total marketing package. What is interesting is the backlash from those with a vested interest, i suspect the original article may have struck a bit close to home…

[Reply]
Steve Sherlock Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
you could be right Simon.

however those you refer to have at least (mostly) had the courtesy to not be anonymous.

for all we know you could be leela

you know seth godin reckons he doesn’t allow comments on his blog because of all the angry anonymous commentators. (he and I have something in common – same hairdresser)

[Reply]
Leela Cosgrove Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Really? To not be anonymous? That’s interesting … because there’s a whole bunch of people slagging me anonymously – as always.

I don’t need to be that lame … and Anthill can back that up with IP address stuff.

So ner.

[Reply]
Steve Sherlock Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Leela – the thing is (for me) when people don’t identify themselves – i assume they have something to hide and are not prepared to be accountable for their comments.

so I don’t take their comments as credibility because i can’t tell if there is a vested interest. (bit like john laws in cash for comment)

so i let them know, and suggest they repost with identity, or to contact me directly to continue the convo. which has happened a few times. (some people are just scared to be transparent)

nothing to do with ip’s addresses – i just like to know who im talkin to.

but that’s just the way i like to do it. each to their own..

also when someone does not agree with me, so long as they identify themselves, I’ll try appreciate the feedback regardless of how well expressed. admittedly it’s a challenge not to react defensively sometimes. i think you know what i mean Leela
http://YourWebsite AnneMaree Fitzgerald

I want to know if there’s so much cocaine in PR, why my careers counsellor didn’t tell me?!?!? I would have signed up!
he he…

[Reply]
http://Congratulations David

Corey, Leela, congratulations on a provacative debate.
I felt, though knowing nothing (almost) about PR, I had to get involved somehow.
Sadly, when I post for Anthill my main weapons of provocation are anger and swear words but Paul takes them out of my pieces (usually) :-b
Teach me how to generate this much comment…actually, don’t.
I am a bit fragile and can’t handle personal attack.
I’m having a nap now!

[Reply]
Anonymous

It is true that cocaine and hookers are two of the most wanted titles on world wide web.People preffer at some point to be athorless because there may be things that they are not proud of and maybe they have friends and other reason to preffer to remain anonymous.

___________________________________________________________________________________
addict rehab

[Reply]

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