The impact of social media on the shape and form of Public Relations and Advertising within IMC

Historically, Public Relations and Advertising have been perceived by many as uncomfortable bedfellows, with distinctive roles and identities. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) has challenged this division and demonstrated the advantages of an integrated outside-in approach with emphasis on relationship management and media neutrality. This process has been disrupted again by the rapid increase in digital marketing, more specifically social media. This paper examines the impact that social media has had on the shape and form of Public Relations and Advertising within IMC and questions whether such classifications of tools are meaningful in today’s digital landscape. It utilises the Paid, Owned and Earned Media framework (POEM) to explore students’ identification of marketing communications activities within integrated campaigns and their use of terminology. The findings suggest that POEM is a useful tool to analyse the interaction between various elements of a campaign, although it becomes more difficult to apply when activities overlap e.g. Paid/Earned. The results also indicate that, although there were considerable PR activities in the campaigns, the students often did not identify them as PR. The paper concludes that marketing communications would benefit from new terminology and the implications for tutors, researchers, clients and agencies are discussed.