Well, at least some of you reading this will recognize the reference to the Grateful Dead, circa 1968. 

Anyway, I don't know if it violates a blogosphere tradition or not, but I can't help but reference my partner's post on this very same blog in order to add a hearty "amen" to his comment that you gotta have a good idea.

In technology marketing, if you don't have an idea, you can give it up. I once worked for a company who had a brilliant, world-changing idea. It was that architects should use computers as more than pencils to design buildings. It was a powerful idea grafted onto an industry that can be described politely as "traditional." (Read flippin' resistant to change.)

Yet because this idea was so right, so powerful, so obvious the Freedom Center at ground zero in NYC is being designed today using that technology. It really did change the way a fundamental aspect of the world — the way buildings are designed.

What's more, finding a community interested in that idea and making them aware of it, evoking passion about it and getting people to talk about it was relatively easy (if labor intensive).

Technology companies that are devoid of ideas are usually the ones that hire commodity PR firms in the vain hope that you can put a gloss on something pedestrian and make noise about it.

Truth is, if you haven't got the goods, you only end up with one hand clapping. Or, like the title of the Grateful Dead song, you just get rounder.

At AgencyNext, we prefer getting edgier as we go faster.

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Dirt is freely available today from multiple sources. You can pay a little extra for name brand dirt; for dirt with fertilizer additives — with an emphasis on fertilizer — but dirt is dirt. Anyone with about $3,000 in cash can open a PR firm, buy MediaSource, make lists, sign up for MarketWire, order a phone, and be in business. They'll make the same lists, write the same superficial releases, assemble the same editorial calendars, wire the same releases over the same distribution channels and make the same press calls as the brand name agency. I know because I owned and operated a leading brand name tech PR agency for 18 years. We fancified our offering; we created so-called 'methodologies.' Didn't matter. I knew what we did was the same as anything two people down the road in a one file cabinet office could do. But we were brand name. That's code for twice the price; two times the team size. Turns out, the one and two man bands were every bit as capable as us. A good story is a good story afterall. Luckily,most prospects didn't realize this. Some still don't.

Some PR prospects have to have name brand. It's a security thing… it's the 'no one ever got fired for buying IBM' thing. No one ever made a name for himself or herself that way either, of course. Some didn't even get to keep their job. Why? Because a new company only gets one chance to make a great first impression. Because time is the all-precious component. Lose time: lose market share. Waste time: waste a once in a lifetime opportunity. Say hello to the revolving door of PR firms at most legitimate corporations. Luckily for everyone in corporate today, PR doesn't really matter much. Yes, it needs to be done I suppose, on some level, but the real action is in reaching prospects directly, talking frankly, eradicating the polished, slippery words with no traction… having a genuine point of view, a real thought leadership passion. At long last, a good new idea can compete with an established, entrenched company for which the old system is rigged in their favor. Why? Because they can buy visibility and market presence.

But they can't buy a better idea.

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Better yet, I’ll just blog it. 

Actually, I don’t think PR is dead. Companies will always need relationships with their public. I do, however, think that the current model is broken and overdue for a reshaping. PR people need to let go of the systems they have in place and realize there has been a flattening of who is important. Because of social media, everyone is now an influencer. In PR, you need to use social media to reach more people because everyone now has world access via the Internet. Obviously, a complete overhaul of a company’s traditional PR platform would be murder, but not finding a way to adapt is suicide. 

Reaching your audience successfully is what PR is all about. You have to know where your audience is and communicate effectively so you can get your messages received, read and understood. The playing field has changed so much in the last decade and it’s only going to continue to transform. The majority of Americans now get their news and information online. Old-school PR spends a great deal of effort pro-actively pursuing press. They get others to say you are great by writing up case studies about a few customers, then pitching them to the media and maybe even splicing them onto websites. I would argue that a new company with disruptive technology will get more ink, faster, with less effort and money through blogging than through a time-honored PR campaign. 

Better, faster, cheaper is the new mantra – who wouldn’t want that?

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