PRSA chief: New report gives PR its due respect

After much talk and years of hope, public relations has finally reached an important milestone. According to the 2011-15 Communications Industry Forecast, from the private investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, public relations and word-of-mouth marketing will be the fastest-growing marketing-related segments in the four-year period ending in 2015.

VSS reports that in 2010 PR and word-of-mouth marketing (WoMM) spending in the United States grew by 12.8 percent, to $5.7 billion, with spending predicted to reach $10.96 billion by 2015.

VSS isn’t the only group singing PR’s praises.

Miles Nadal, chairman and CEO of advertising holding firm MDC Partners, wrote recently that PR has firmly taken its place among advertising and marketing as a vital component for achieving today’s business objectives. In an op-ed titled, “Move Over Advertising—Let’s Talk PR,” Nadal writes that “PR leaders are now just as [essential] as CMOs, and the art of PR is more vital to an organization’s survival than ever before.”