ADPR Connection: The Future for Our Fields

This year Grady College's longtime PRofessional Connection event morphed into "ADPR Connection," organized by both PRSSA and the Ad Club and sponsored by Porter Novelli and BBDO. The day kicked off with a luncheon and panel discussion, which focused on figuring out where are fields are headed in the next 10-20 years. The panelists were Jana Thomas of Porter Novelli, Eleanor Dake of BBDO, and Karen Mawhinney of Erwin Penland.

Thomas focused on her specialty, the future of social marketing, which she defines as using the principles of marketing for social good. She commented that social marketing has always kept our fields together through integrated marketing. She said she uses music and counterculture as predictors of the future, and based on music today she says that we're heading toward a time of an "I'm okay, you're okay" mentality, which would suggest that social marketing will focus more on social justice. It will be less about the individual and more about society as a whole -- issues like the environment or sex trafficking.

Dake pointed out that the massive changes of the last 5 years will continue to shape the next 10 years. We will continue to focus on staying connected, we will expect (as a right) to have access to information, skepticism is building and brands will have to face doubt, and advertising and public relations will continue to integrate. She also said she expects to see big changes in how we shop, such as the wireless wallet, and that as always the fields will need passionate and creative people to deal with these changes.

Mawhinney pointed out that there is tremendous angst in the industry now, that people don't know what's going to happen next; yet, she said, that's not anything new -- pointing to the introduction of radio, then TV, then cable, and so forth. She urged the students to remember that we're in the content business. Because agency of record relationships are breaking up, firms are having to learn to collaborate with each other (partnering with other firms, even from the proposal stage) and crowdsourcing (example: Genius Rocket). We have to learn to think holistically, not just PR or digital or advertising, but with a focus on developing content.

During the Q&A section, the speakers suggested that there will be less in-house and more agency work; said that there is skepticism by clients to believe that one agency can do it all; pointed out that some clients are pushing into digital whereas others have to be pushed; and reported that keeping it on strategy is the biggest problem, whether they are pushing or being pushed.

Great panel and great way to start off the day-- kudos to the student organizers. I'll do a post on the community relations session soon.

 

Comments

[Bob Batchelor]

Hi Karen,

Happy Monday! Thanks for this report, which is insightful in many ways. The primary issue that jumps out at me is that the move toward integration (blurring) continues to proceed at a quick pace, primarily based on technology.

I guess we've all seen this as "the writing on the wall" over the last decade. I'm wondering, though, from your perspective as one of the leading thinkers in the field and as editor of one of the major journals, if you feel the scholarly side of the industry has or will catch up to the stark reality of what's going on in the profession?

In addition, could information such as you've outlined above be considered the beginning of the end for distinct PR and/or Ad majors? I have to admit, we're grappling with this at Kent State. We have a wonderful undergrad PR major, but it seems to make more sense to integrate with Ad to bolster the skills of students across both fields more than what is "normally" required, like each major taking one or two in the other.

[Karen Russell]

It's such a struggle, Bob, for many programs. In our case both the advertising and the PR programs are very strong -- nationally ranked, even, so it's hard to figure out how to blend them without losing the strengths of either side.

But I think we can take a lesson from industry: instead of figuring out how to do it, just start doing it. Next semester a member of the ad faculty and I are team-teaching a campaigns class with both ad and PR students. We *truly* haven't figured it out yet, but we're going to try it and see what happens. We're also combining more informally -- such as the ADPR Connection event described above, or inviting speakers from PR to ad events and vice versa. I think the students are very open to it (perhaps more than some of the faculty!), so I'm interested to see where it goes.

Could it be the end of separate ad and PR majors? I think it *could* be, but academic traditions are slow to move, so I don't see that happening in a hurry-- and that's not necessarily a bad thing, as the old push for "IMC" may indicate.

And now I'm off to check out your post on this topic....

[Bob Batchelor]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply Karen! I hope that you'll write about your experience in the team-teaching class. It would be informative on a number of levels.

One of the ideas we've considered -- and Bill sledzik -- is really leading it, is that whether or not we can/should find a "bigger" moniker or theme for what we do and combine via that. For example, Bill's been talking about a "School of Storytelling" that enables us to teach based completely on the skills students need or could have when they graduate, rather than based on a formula we've created.

From my perspective, our students could benefit from the visual and graphic expertise of Advertising and our School of Visual Design, just like they could benefit from the theoretical/scholarly approach of our colleagues in Communications Studies.

I think it's a great time to be in the vanguard of these changes, particularly if one is student focused and willing to rebuilt to help students better prepare for the future.

Thanks again for bringing this all to light!

[Karen Russell]

Bob, thanks for elaborating -- by the way I tried to comment on your post but your spam blocker didn't like me. Anyway, it struck me that we're talking about the same things, and aren't we lucky to live in exciting times!

I'll definitely post about the Campaigns class. I'm guessing it'll be one of those semesters when the prof learns more than the students.