Comments on: PR Agentry Is Broken

By: maxkalehoff

maxkalehoff — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:49:12 +0000

Edward: I'm not sure it's what the big agencies teach, but it's definitely
what most of the big agencies tolerate. This is especially true because very
few of the senior execs at big agencies actually do any of the
nuts-and-bolts pitching -- the junior account people do. The senior execs
are mostly worried about dually managing the expectations of the clients
while managing the output and profitability of the junior people. That's
what enables the top guys to keep the big salaries, and what leads to the
problem I describe. It's somewhat of a pyramid model, to be sure.

By: Edw3rd

Edw3rd — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:53:38 +0000

Most aren't real pitches, they're young folks “filtering” a Bacons-like database and SPAMMING everyone that remains. No relevance, no personal understanding. It's deplorable. But, that is what the big agencies know and teach.

By: maxkalehoff

maxkalehoff — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:31:09 +0000

Brian,
Your perceptions of the PR industry are not incorrect, though a little
stereotypical. But your point is correct: ” building relationships with
bloggers one at a time is way easier and more effective than pitching them
en masse…” In fact, that's a good rule whenever you're trying to
persuade anyone to do anything.

By: briancarter

briancarter — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:27:21 +0000

I'm just wondering if it's the model that broke. I'm not a PR person - I'm a blogger, an SEO, a PPC, social media geek, whatever.

As I understand it, PR used to send press releases to the media, and they'd follow up on the story... media welcomed press releases, to some degree, right? There wasn't a huge GOOGLE to search for stuff then.

Now, not only do journalists and bloggers have too much info at their fingertips, they definitely value authenticity... and seems to me you're all talking about press releases that are inauthentic-

I'm not a PR person so I don't have this problem to solve, but seems to me that building relationships with bloggers one at a time is way easier and more effective than pitching them en masse...