Appreciation growing for public relations on Madison Avenue

September 9, 2010

More Madison Avenue advertising and marketing giants are increasingly acknowledging the power of public relations. As Stuart Elliott reports in The York Times today, marketers are becoming very interested in using public relations to reach consumers.

As such, MDC (via its Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners) is currently acquiring a majority stake in New York PR agency Kwittken & Company, who boasts clients such as Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and Thomson Reuters. The transaction, which is costing MDC about $10-$15 million, is the third in five months for MDC involving a PR agency — and the sixth deal for MDC since last September.

These companies don’t specialize in traditional advertising like creating TV commercials but, instead, they are experts in public relations, social media, database marketing, experiential marketing and analytics.

Marketers want "to find firms that can deliver performance," Miles S. Nadal, chairman and chief executive of Toronto-based MDC, told the Times. He added that PR agencies are excelling in "understanding the changing dynamics of the marketplace," such as with social media campaigns and that earned media has become as important as its presence in paid or owned media. "We love the PR space — social, blogging, crisis management, events," he said.

And AdAge reports that the PR profession has been rebounding from the past year’s downturn faster than it did during its last decline after the dot-com era.

"PR is taking on a higher strategic importance based on its unique role in amplifying a brand’s message in today’s digitally focused, social media world," Lori Senecal, president and chief executive at Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal told the Times.

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