Marketing leadership ranks will be populated by the most talented, from all areas

Wondering what our community thinks of the story in Ad Age titled, “How Social Media is Helping Public Relations Sector Not Just Survive, but Thrive."

No question, it's a powerful endorsement for PR pros everywhere. And an overdue recognition that the DNA of most PR execs is well suited for a world in which marketers must earn the right to engage in conversation and be a credible, valued member of a community.

But one word of caution. Marketers are pretty smart. They have begun to adapt and will continue to do so. Marketers also tend to be more comfortable with meaningful metrics, and being held accountable for the business impact of their work. Beyond that, expertise in social media is fueling value-added engagement by comms and marketing pros in other areas of the corporation, such as innovation, product design and customer service.

The convergence of multiple disciplines to be the “new normal" in marketing means we'll increasingly see all these disciplines report up to a common individual. After all, if you're the CEO, and this is all blurring, why would you want to maintain separate silos?

As such, we'll likely see fairly dramatic change over the next few years in terms of marketing leadership. I suspect we'll see more Jon Iwatas and Beth Comstocks of the world, meaning communications pros who take on broader responsibilities. But I think we'll also see plenty of CMOs take responsibility for communications.

Few CEOs would appoint an individual to manage the umbrella function because he or she “grew up" in one function or the other. Rather, the assignment will go to the best talent…wherever that is.

That's a huge opportunity for PR pros everywhere, but it would be a mistake to assume we're entering a new golden era of PR. We're entering a new golden era of marketing and communications and, as usual, the best and brightest will rise to the top.