Historians love nothing more than to speculate about the exact moment of a major turning point. We all enjoy that. It's probably interesting because we yearn to have been there, safely of course, at the deciding moment, if such a thing even exists.

I witnessed a turning point today that can arguably be identified as a major turning point in the public relations industry. A long-time professional corporate communications person I've known and worked with on and off over many years told me something today that signals a massive shift in the establishment world of same-old, same-old public relations. I can't give you his name, nor will I identify his company. But I can tell you what he said. It practically gave me a heart attack… not out of anxiety. It felt like winning the Lottery.

Paraphrasing it for brevity, he told me his company had disengaged its agency and isn't going to replace them… they don't need an agency; the prevailing thought inside the company is currently that establishment PR firms aren't all that important or useful.

Amen.

I got off the phone and cheered! Why? Because he's right. The establishment agency he had, and the establishment agencies phoning in to pitch the vacancy, are: interchangeable; all wholly and equally focused on media relations; all expensive; all still very much into 'influencing the influencers.'

Take for example, in this region, the biggest and most powerful influencer of influencers on record: The Boston Globe. It's not a newspaper. It's a journal. It has a set of well-known biases. One of those biases is they don't care very much about small companies no matter how powerful are the ideas at work. It's been that way for years. It's one reason why The Boston Globe is hemorrhaging subscribers. And yet, establishment PR firms smile and dial all day long into publications like this while the meter runs. Ka-Ching for them although few sales are made on behalf of the start-up client organization.

There was a time a PR firm was as important as office space or venture capital. Get money, get space, hire a CEO and Marketing VP and get an agency. Today, it's get customers. That means we're in the influence the decision makers era. Can PR firms do that? Nope. Polished words in news releases go nowhere with online communities of people in the know who want the real story and the unvarnished truth.

Mark this date. Today is the day, perhaps, at long last, that establishment PR and its minions of mouthpieces went south. Today is the day perhaps that legitimacy and authenticity were recognized as the new way, the right way, to influence the people who really matter directly.

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I want to share with you an email I received from an establishment agency. Frankly, I found it deeply offensive. I received this email 60 days ago after sending a note to an individual that I wanted to alert to online community building opportunities. Hardly your traditional PR pitch. I did this because at the time I represented a like-minded gateway security company for which we were successfully blogging. Turns out, the company I contacted was 'represented' by a traditional PR firm called Davies Murphy. They don't have a blog or any other form of online community as far as I can tell. If they did, I'd be doing trackbacks to it tonight so that both of their regular readers of it could stay informed. Here's the email, exactly as I received it on July 9th, 2006:

Sterling,

I appreciate your enthusiasm for business development, but in the spirit of maintaining a good working relationship on accounts like Ipswitch, maybe you could refrain from cold calling our clients? I am sure you would not want us trying to woo your clients.

Thanks,

Eric

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Eric Davies

Davies Murphy Group, Inc.

200 Wheeler Road

Burlington, MA

Thanks? First of all, Mr. Davies, woo my clients to your little heart's content. I want them to know what can be bought from you for the price you charge and for the results you generate. Two, if you're any good at what you do, how in the world could I possibly woo your clients? Have you had your insecurity levels checked lately?

Mr. Davies' reaction to my email was obviously a threat. We shared a client. (Not the one in the gateway security space) His tit for tat was he'd expose me to our shared client as Lucifer if I didn't cease and desist. I wanted to respond to him immediately but knew I wouldn't be proud of my words. At 54 years of age, I have the spleen of a teenager. But now after 60 days my initial reaction to Mr. Davies has been tempered by a reasonable interval of time and distance. The 60-day thing is my new rule: indulge email Napoleons silently for two months before eviscerating them. If after that cooling off period they still deserve it, well, sharpen the scalpels and disembowel away. Here goes.

With the benefit of added time and space I can now say that Mr. Davies has much to fear.

What he could have, and should have, embraced, in my opinion, he instead reacted to like a night crawler taking the hook on opening day. Where he could have fostered a better working relationship beneficial to all, he delivered a serrated, self-preservationist wedge that's going to end up cutting him badly. Why did he react the way he did? Fear and loathing I suspect. He probably hates so-called poachers with better ideas; and he is probably afraid, as many of his ilk are, that web 2.0 firms will replace him. He's right. We will. I intend to. No amount of antiseptic, rubber-gloved emails from a man afraid to pick up the phone and actually talk to me will change that. Here at AgencyNext we don't really care much about or think much about the Davies Murphy's of the world. They can have all the clients they can manage to keep… doing whatever they have always done for so long to their standard of outcome. Or should I say, ' their standard of income?' Honestly, clients satisfied with that are of no interest to us whatsoever. Establishment PR firms can keep manufacturing buggy whips. Some people will always need a buggy whip.

Alternatively, we're into whipping up market enthusiasm over great new ideas. We're into whipping the daylights out of establishment PR firms on large retainers still trying to 'influence the influencers.'

Hopefully, this influences you, Mr. Davies. Get with the program. Get up to speed. Get real. And please, no more offensive emails from the horse and buggy era. Thank you.

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