Once Compartmentalized Worlds of Public Relations and Traditional Media are Merging

As a public relations professional who recently joined a “traditional" advertising agency, I found myself nodding along as I read Stuart Elliott's New York Times story about the acquisition of PR shop Kwittken & Company by MDC Partners. In fact, it's entirely congruent with how I envision the future of the communications business.

In June I attended my first International Advertising Festival in Cannes, and wasn't surprised to see so many entries infused with one might call “PR thinking." While viewing case studies, the myriad references to earned media garnered by Lion-winning work made it quite obvious.

I witnessed the same thing in Warsaw last month during my firm's global product committee meeting, a quarterly session during which our agency's output is evaluated by a panel of top creative directors. Again, the point was evident: our once compartmentalized worlds of public relations and traditional media are merging. And the reasons are clear – what works is what truly and completely engages people.

Acquisitions of PR firms by ad agencies will continue, but I also think we'll see entirely new types of agencies formed. As we've learned at Leo it's the power of ideas, period, that will keep driving the very best work. And, ultimately, ideas that transform behavior don't care which discipline thought them up!