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Media planners providing PR services
By Editor on Sep 24, 2006 in mediarelations
Have you heard of media planners in advertising agencies doubling up as PR professionals for their clients? I have heard about it many times from my friends in the advertising industry. Then recently I saw an advertorial of Dainik Jagran in the latest issue of Pitch magazine talking about this, which made me think about it all the more again.
How does it work? As media planners negotiate ad spaces and rates for their clients with the marketing team of media houses, they also negotiate to get a bit of editorial space wherein their clients can have a story.
Is this a threat to PR?
Not exactly, I think. What we do as PR professionals is help develop communication messages and pass on these to the media. If our messages have merit, they eventually get the editorial space they deserve. What the media planners do is the other way round. They buy out the editorial space first, and the messaging comes afterwards. Also, there is dough involved.
But thinking about this left me wondering what if we PR professionals really try to understand the media just as media planners do - the TAM ratings, the NRS, readers profile, etc. Could be a good value addition to the services we provide.
Technorati tags: PR, Public Relations, India, India Public Relations, India PR,Marketing, Advertising,
On Sep 24, 2006, Joseph Thornley said:
An interesting post.
Editorial coverage tied to paid advertising. This is dangerous ethically.
Unfortunately, we also encounter this “suggestion” from vertical trade media and small town community newspapers in North America. As an ethical PR firm, we cannot provide this type of surreptitious “payment for coverage.”
What’s the ethical problem? Well, unlike the conventional paid advertisement, the newspaper runs this additional coverage as if it were purely “earned media.” However, in this case, the newspaper is motivated to run the story by commercial interests, not by independent journalistic judgments. And the reader will never know this.
Dangerous territory to be avoided.
On Sep 24, 2006, hobbit said:
Rightly said, Joseph, this is a territory we should avoid. But how much can we avoid is a thought we need to discuss. In India, the Times group, publishing the largest read mainline daily, The Times of India, started some years back a division called Medianet that sells editorial space for its supplement, Delhi Times, Bombay Times, etc. Though it received a lot of criticism over this, Medianet still continues till today.
Then there are rumours of financial papers selling editorial spaces in certain pages, though we can’t say for certain if this is true. The CNBC TV18 channel’s marketing team constantly approaches PR agencies to tie up with companies to work out sponsored programmes. You can imagine that the editorial content in these sponsored programmes will be skewed towards the sponsorer’s messages.
There are certain developments at which we are not comfortable, but the fact that these developments have indeed taken place demands we should be open to rethinking and readying ourselves for the changing trends. This is just another personal thought of mine.
On Sep 25, 2006, Anonymous said:
This is a new trend, not only does Dainik Jagran does it, so does Times of India and Amar Ujala. This is a corporised version of ‘Media Net’. But I agree with Hobbit… expertise never does harm, instead it brings fresh perspective to a problem.
On Sep 28, 2006, managinginnovation said:
Why only media planners, advertising agencies, event management companies, sports marketing companies, everyone is adding a new arm in their existing portfolio tht is PR. In fact, these all are interlinked. To have a full proved communication strategy you need good creative - advertising, various events, strategic PR everyting. These all combined together ensures tht the message reachs the TA. In fact, I also use the latest NRS data to pitch for my stories in different media houses in specific markets same as the media planners do…
On Oct 7, 2006, hobbit said:
Aren’t we glad for the NRS :))
On Mar 1, 2007, Lalit said:
Ad agencies managing paid coverage is something that is in a way encouraged by media only. I run an ad agency and have experienced this. I must prefer to share that Times of India has a special cell called media net, that sells news space.
So, its News Papers and other media who are promoting this culture…The clients are at loss end in this case, as many times the people who are creating communications are not professinally equipped to handle it…
But in any way, we need to face it!!!
On Mar 1, 2007, hobbithob said:
Hi Lalit
Thanks for your inputs.Yes Medianet has been in the discussion many times,and personally is a service I wouldn’t want to take.