Advertising, PR, digital are merging very fast: Maxim Behar

The business of Public Relations (PR) has the three most important elements of advertising, public relations and digital, which are merging at a very fast pace, said PR expert and M3 Communications Group Inc CEO Maxim Behar.

Speaking during a session on ‘The Evolution of Modern Day PR’ at the 13th edition of the annual India Public Relations and Corporate Communications Conference (IPRCCC), Behar threw light on the importance of swift reaction and decision-making on the part of PR professionals.

Behar, who connected with the participants from Bulgaria through a video call, said, “We are no longer consultants but decision makers because the time of reaction and response and taking decisions is the most important criteria of our profession. We might be the best professionals in the world but if we don’t react immediately to a post concerning our client, or companies, then we cannot be professionals."

He said PR professionals must research and study social media in a way that they really know how to react from that perspective.

“We are not anymore abridged between our client and the media,” he said, adding that these days people are very active on social media themselves.

“We are chemistry between publishers, editors and reporters. There is a merger of three important elements of the public communications business – advertising, public relations and digital. These elements are merging very fast into one and there is a fight over who will be the leader of the future business,” the veteran PR expert said.

He also observed that after COVID and the advent of artificial intelligence, PR has completely changed.

“Maybe instead of public relations, it is called real-time relations or real-time media management or social relations. It is not public relations anymore because everything is public and this is the main change,” he said.

Referring to a book he wrote on public relations, Behar said that even if a PR professional takes the worst decision, it is still better than taking no decision.

“According to my book on public relations business, rule number 1 is that the worst decision is better than no decision at all. That means you must make a decision now. Time of reaction is the best and the most important criteria for our professionalism,” he said during the session.