Edelman, for decades a public relations powerhouse, has been expanding its offerings, reports AdAge, which added that “its paid media team has cemented its work in the space with an official name, Edelman Digital Performance Marketing, and a growing list of media clients and leadership talent with pedigrees from the media agency big-leagues.
“”It used to be we were getting paid-media assignments as part of our social engagements,” says Kevin King, digital global practice chair at Edelman. “Now, we’re actually winning and becoming a paid agency of record, and adding other capabilities and things to that. But it’s really become a first-line response for us.”
“The firm got into the social media and digital space in earnest in the mid-2000s, and over a number of years, says King, “we became one of the largest … social media agencies in the world, managing 850-plus brands in the social media space. As the platforms like Facebook and Twitter and everyone else made that migration from organic to paid, we found ourselves suddenly managing a pretty significant amount of media buying on behalf of our clients in the social space.””
The company, which has a major D.C. office, now bills itself as a “communications marketing firm”.
This makes a ton of sense to me. Smart marketers have to adapt with the times including how they consitute and market themselves. With digital marketing becoming more integrated than ever, PR teams that don’t incorporate digital marketing strategies into their core offerings are more likely than ever to get pushed out.