Understanding PR Today - the Train line and Broccoli Models

Let’s face it, the Internet has changed a great deal about how we view and engage with the world. More over, with the advent of Web2.0 everybody now has the opportunity to be both a content consumer and content producer. The barriers preventing information flow (from creation to consumption) have all but vanished and the drastic increase in search volume and new daily content creators is evidence of this.

Ultimately, these rapid changes require a massive review of the mechanisms involved in marketing, PR, advertising and branding. We, as companies, have less power over our consumers than ever before and it is they who are shaping the market. In the book Wikinomics, (published in 2007) this is covered in some detail. It is emphasised that companies can no longer compete with the innovation rates of their consumers. Instead, we need to be flexible to their views to encourage a two way system; a conversation (a similar view to the Cluetrain manifesto of 1999).

In the world of PR these shifts have resulted in a massive change in the mode and model of message distribution. This ranges from the old way (the trains) to the new way (the broccoli), two models for explaining Public Relations in this new and ever changing digital world.

Traditional Trainline Model:

To start, consider the world before the Internet. Corporate messaging happened in one of two ways – firstly, through press/TV/radio and secondly through advertising. Both of these resulted in some Word Of Mouth value but neither allowed for any real two-way conversation and the ability for your message was largely as it was defined by the company itself (i.e. consumers were fed messaging). I liken this to a train (being your message) traveling along its tracks. There are certain points when you can change its track slightly but all in all it’s a pre-determined sequence - formulate strategy, write release, create strike list, seed to strike list, watch coverage unfold. Yes, I accept this is grossly oversimplified but the principle still holds. What this means is that consumers have a very short period of time to be exposed and understand the message before it’s lost forever and the ability to be truly nimble in this environment is almost non-existent. Nobody is going to re-read a newspaper or re-watch the adverts – according to the principles of the attention economy our time is just far too precious. Your messaging literally lasts for a couple of seconds and is then swept away – much like a train hurtling down a train-line. The conversation is pre-determined, unidirectional and unfortunately short lived.

Out with the old and in with the new…

The Boundless Broccoli Model:

Before you think I’ve been indulging in some narcotics consider this: every person who comes across your messaging sees it from their own perspective and therefore should pass it on with their own interpretation and modification of the message. In the offline environment this holds little risk as everybody is exposed to roughly the same messaging – an advert or PR coverage on the TV, Radio and Newspaper will all contain the same brand and all messaging should be the same. In the online environment this is different. As soon as a company communicates with their public that public then has the power to take that message and add their own commentary to and publish it for others to then iterate further – therefore slowly modifying the message.

This results in an entirely dynamic brand and PR model which I liken to a broccoli plant: it has one stem which represents the original message from the company. The message then moves towards the florets where it continually gets diluted, diffused and distributed to many more individuals than ever came in contact with the original message. At each generation the message gets further corrupted until it either peters out or is found by somebody of some impact (including press who use blogs an estimated 84% of the time) at which point they become the stem of a new broccoli plant and so continues the cycle of brand divergence.

In this new model for PR the fundamental concern is to find and extenuate the core points from which others draw their trusted information (“PR activators”). If this is managed then others who are iterating the content will no doubt do the same. These proxy’s need not be company controlled (as is the case with bloggers) and can be both online and offline but it’s critical that brands identify who or what is at the core of this messaging. Here are some tips in correctly identifying your “PR activators”:

1. Track your brand online
2. For each brand mentions determine which sources they are referencing and follow these references until a central position is found.
3. Rinse repeat until satisfied with sample size (it won’t take long to find the main activators but it will take considerably longer to find ALL of them)
4. Use the list of “PR activators” in further PR activities either by seeding content directly to them or managing them to keep negativity off the Internet.

In this environment we are not so much perpetuating PR (which is relatively easy provided the content is interesting) – we are attempting to influence the influencers to ensure that we have a self-perpetuating model which preserves brand values throughout iterations.