MediaGuardian "Online communities are leaving advertisers with a headache - but helping PR to thrive through links and recommendations"
Vast communities of online social networkers obessed with sharing recommendations but increasingly averse to advertising have public relations on a high, according to marketing behemoth WPP's chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell. Its host of PR firms are "firing on all cyclinders", he says - and their growth last year massively outstripped that of its advertising businesses.'
Public relations is growing ever more powerful, as companies wake up to the benefits of appearing in journalist's copy - and thereby weaving into the online world of links and recommendations, where products benefit from the viral like recommendations that swirl around the web, their reputation boosted by the seemingly 'independent' source of opinion. In many cases, PR is supplanting advertisers.
Sorrell calls it the "power of editorial publicity".
