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My man Sean Howard has a short and sweet post on BMA about Edelman’s new video site Edelmanfilms.com. He raises two great questions:
- Why would they brand this Edelman instead of using a vanity URL that would promote their clients and provide some transparency for themselves?
- Who in their right mind would take the word of a public relations agency?
I think this is a great example of when a company starts to believe they are bigger than the game itself. A PR company’s sole responsibility is to promote the company they work for, not promote themselves. How does this video site help their clients at all? Who would actually watch these videos when they are obviously totally self serving?
When I was thinking about this, I thought that this had similar overtones to the great deal of discussions that we have had here as well as across the blogosphere recently on A-List Bloggers. A number of articles and comments have discussed how when a blogger hits the elite of the A-List, at times there seems to be a tendency that the blogger forgets what got him or her to the A-List and now it becomes all about them. Is it me or do you get the same impression from Edelman’s site?
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Technorati Tags: Sean Howard, BMA, Edelman, public relations
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Cord,
This line — Who in their right mind would take the word of a public relations agency? — made me giggle.
I think you’ll like the post I just wrote, Note to PR Flacks: Lighten Up, at http://www.10kmarshmallows.com/2007/04/04/note-to-pr-flacks-lighten-up/.
It would be nice if public relations would concentrate on actual RELATING to the public.
-Steven
Steven - great minds seem to think alike. I had already read that post before you had joined my MBL community. And I could not agree more with you. I think the problem with PR agencies is they still market to the lowest common denominator which in today’s world, in my humble opinion, just does not work anymore. Thanks for coming by, I hope you come back.
So… I get an IM from a colleague here at Edelman saying that two people don’t like edelmanfilms.com.
Honestly, I’m trying to figure out the point that y’all are wanting to make.
For one thing, the site isn’t all that new.
For another…
> A PR company’s sole responsibility is to
> promote the company they work for,
> not promote themselves.
You’re assuming that the two are mutually exclusive. To succeed in the marketplace, any service organization needs to do both well.
Following the logic in this post, why should an agency have a Web site at all?
> Who would actually watch these videos
> when they are obviously totally self serving?
Another question: What’s *wrong* with putting case studies up there in a form that is, essentially, incorruptibly opt-in? If someone wants to consume (clearly labeled) marketing from an agency, fine. There’s stuff to be learned from these case studies anyway. If they don’t like to watch that kind of thing, it’s not like they’re being spammed with it.
From my perspective: Some folks have asked me about some work Edelman has done that I wasn’t a part of. Now, I *could* relate my outside-in recollection of that work. *Or* I can show them a place where they can get the story of that work pretty much first-hand.
Again, no harm. In fact, it fulfills a need.
As to the veering non-sequitur into the topic of a-lister arrogance (an opinion we seem to share, by the way: http://www.philgomes.com/blog/2006/02/why-i-hate-a-list-mentality.htm), I’m not sure how it applies here or how edelmanfilms.com could be reasonably considered “evidence,” but I’m open to hear the reasoning.
Steven, I could not disagree with you more on Edelman. Come over to my new blog and read this post on Samsung.
Phil - I cannot speak for Sean who originally posted his thoughts on BMA, but I can speak for myself. I absolutely agree with you that Edelman along with every other company out there can and should have a web site that speaks to the work they have done and what they accomplished.
But that is not what your copy says on the edelmanfilms.com web site. The site says:
“We’ve created a mini-site to showcase today’s pioneering communicators-people and companies that embrace authenticity, transparency and involvement to build their brands and reputations.”
So are you showcasing Edelman’s work or are you showcasing your clients as the copy seems to say?
If you created this site to showcase Edelman’s work than I have no problems whatsoever. But if that was what this site is meant to do, why isn’t there one link from the film site to the main Edelman web site? If you were truly trying to promote Edelman’s work, wouldn’t you have put links to edelman.com as well as many other Edelman run sites on the film site allowing users to see ALL of Edelman’s great work and capabilities?
I believe your copy was ambiguous and not transparent which is why I wrote the article. Phil, I absolutely welcome your thoughts.
Phil, one last thing - i just read your post on A-list bloggers and I could not agree more. How that applied to edelmanfilms.com was based on my understanding that Edelman was using this site to promote their clients and not a showcase of their work. I believe those two things to be distinctly different.
Claire - I read your article and already posted a question about it on your blog. But to be honest, I don’t see how a glamorous VIP event does anything to communicate to the individual consumer or the employee of Samsung?
It sure will get them some great press, but I don’t think it is the be all and end all as you made it seem to be. Just my thought.
Though also maybe this is why I am not in PR
Claire, I’m with Cord on this one. Consumers aren’t waiting for the corporations or the press to tell them what they want to know. I for one wonder just how objective those reporters can honestly be after being treated so wonderfully at the gala. It’s hard to bite the hand that feeds you caviar. And when I was in PR that’s exactly what the entertainment budget was for. To quote Cluetrain: “A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.”
Oooooh Steven, great response… We are definitely going to have to talk. Nicely done..