Kotcher Sees Disruption as Opportunity for PR

"PR has the opportunity to provide value in a "marketplace turned on its head by channel disruption," Ray Kotcher, senior partner and chairman of Ketchum, told 300 last night at the Institute for PR dinner at the Yale Club, New York.

Ken Makovsky, Ray Kotcher, Frank Ovaitt Photos: Sharlene Spingler

Kotcher, who was given the Alexander Hamilton Medal for Lifetime Contribution to PR, said the present "is a defining moment for all of us and we will get it right or we will watch the future recede."

He said that, personally, he is "tremendously optimistic that we will succeed."

Full text of the Kotcher address is here.

The new world, he said, "is a world that is made for us. We are in the business of providing relevance—of igniting engagement. We begin by earning attention. We don't impose ourselves on people. We connect with them by reacting with acute responsiveness to the news cycle and to the cycles of the marketplace. That's what we do."

Communications Has Speeded Up

One aspect of the current environment, he said, is the speed at which communications takes place for individuals.

"We decide what is relevant to us. What we want to engage with. And now we make that decision fast. Right Away."

PR people, he said, are very familiar with such a cycle. "It's all just speeded up, literally, to the speed of light."

Traditional media has lost its "gatekeeper" structure but "it still does matter and we can't lose sight of that," he said.

"It is in fact a measure of the complexity of this moment that good old fashioned news print—even if you read it on a screen—remains very much in the picture. Traditional news sources remain by far the most trusted in social media. But we can and we will reach far beyond that too to all the rest--the multiple, multiplying, and hyper-personalized channels that the great brand names of media now co-exist with."

Dobbs Also Sees Disruption

Richard Dobbs

Richard Dobbs of McKinsey, who gave the Institute's Distinguished Lecture and who has co-authored No Ordinary Disruption, to be published May 12, 2015, also spoke of the upheaval in the marketplace and media.

"Ours is an era of almost constant discontinuity," he said.

"Today and even more so in the years ahead, speed, surprise and sudden shifts in the direction of huge global markets will routinely shape the destinies of established companies and provide opportunities for new entrants."

Business models "can be up-ended in months" and "competitors can rise in almost complete stealth and burst upon the scene," he added.

"Businesses that were protected by large and deep moats now find their defenses are easily breached. New markets are conjured seemingly from nothing. Technology and globalization have put the natural forces of market competition on steroids."

Dobbs has co-authored the book with James Manyika, director of the McKinsey Global Institute, and Jonathan Woetzel, who has been based in Shanghai more than 15 years and has been instrumental in establishing the presence of McKinsey in China.

Ovaitt Retiring, Search On

Frank Ovaitt, president and CEO of the Institute, announced he is retiring Dec. 31 and that a search is on for his replacement.

IPR will look first at individuals connected with it, said Ken Makovsky, president of Makovsky and co-chair of IPR. No search firm has been retained.

"This organization is known for fostering awareness and use of research relevant to PR practice," he said. "The mission is so special that the board will look first to candidates within IPR including current and former trustees, volunteers, researchers and research editors."

Oscar Suris, executive VP of corporate communications, Wells Fargo, and co-chair of IPR, said, "Frank is an iconic leader who has built effective management systems for IPR, restructured the staff including the addition of our first director of research, and strengthened our finances."