AMEC Virtual Summit 2020 session presented by Ben Chodor, President, Digial Media, Intrado and Katie Creaser, Senior VP, Technology PR at ICR

Intrado’s Ben Chodor and ICR’s Katie Creaser delivered a passionate and engaging presentation of key findings from its recent survey into the evolving PR and marketing partnership.

Discussing key findings of the survey, they highlighted the most interesting emerging trends, as well as their interpretations of them.

• 83% of PR pros say lines between PR and marketing are more blurred than ever before but the departments still continue to operate separately

With a combined focus on supporting strategic organisational goals, it is right that the lines should be blurring. Yet silos prevail because PR and marketing traditionally apply different KPIs and measure using different tools and technologies. Often the two functions even report into different executives.

Our speakers note that there is a perception that the two functions are ‘eating each other’s lunch’, though marketing tools are more traceable so it can feel like it is taking credit for PR-led activity. They recommend organisations to jointly report on the overall marketing and communications effort, using technology available to measure the value brought to the brand and report in a meaningful, collaborative way.

• 75% of PRs think Marketers do a better job of demonstrating value to the C-suite than PR

Creaser laughs that marketing dashboards always look so good in board meetings, but how can PR measure reputational impact in such a clear and data-led format?

COVID has brought the messages between PR and marketing together, proving how important and inextricable external reputation and internal comms have become. Organisational values and mission have become important to the public, and how are they communicated affects how genuine they are perceived to be.

This is where PR can be more attuned to measuring impact and, Creaser emphasises in her closing remarks, we should not be afraid of using data and technologies available to prove the value of what we do!