Marc Pritchard, global marketing and brand officer at Procter & Gamble, addressed an audience of PR pros at the Council of PR Firms' Critical Issues Forum in New York City yesterday.
Pritchard used examples from Procter & Gamble's many brands to demonstrate the opportunity for the PR industry to emerge as leaders.
“You earn your way into the lives of consumers," Pritchard said during his keynote address. "You don't pay your way in and you do that through PR,”
An emerging trend and opportunity for PR, Pritchard said, is that it is being brought into the game much earlier. He used Procter & Gamble's Hair & Shoulders Hair Endurance for Men campaign as an example.
Instead of leading with advertising featuring NFL player Troy Polamalu and his famous hair, it decided to lead with a creative PR campaign. Procter & Gamble announced that it was going to insure Polamalu's hair for $1 million. The announcement created buzz and excitement leading into the advertising.
Pritchard also said that PR pros should be staking their claim in social media.
“PR is word of mouth and social media is word of mouth,” he said.