The New Rules of the Road: How to Navigate the Rapidly Changing Marketing Landscape

INTRODUCTION

The idea for this book came to me during the opening of a museum exhibit we were promoting. The exhibit focused on the Belle Époque era, a fascinating period of transition between the Enlightenment and World War I. This era saw Europe and the United States teetering between the old world of horse-drawn carriages and candlelight and the new age of industrial cities, factories, and automobiles. The transformation was as jarring as it was thrilling. Imagine cities like London, Paris, and New York enforcing red flag laws that required drivers of early motor cars to hire someone to walk in front of their vehicle with a red flag, warning horse riders of the approaching automobile. These laws, while meant to prevent accidents, ironically defeated the purpose of the car by slowing it down to a crawl. By the end of the Belle Époque, however, the red flag laws were gone, horses had mostly disappeared from city streets, and the urban landscape had become faster, louder, and more chaotic.

Was it better? Or just faster? Perhaps it was both. The agrarian age had given way to the industrial age. Today, we find ourselves in a similar period of transition, particularly in the realms of marketing, media, and public relations. At the start of my career, just a quarter of a century ago, most media were either TV or print (magazines and newspapers). Photography was done on film, and a marketer could do their job with nothing more than a phone and the contact info for a few publishers and magazine or newsroom editors. A marketing plan back then was like turning on a fire hose to fill your bucket.

Today, that fire hose doesn’t even exist. Instead, it takes dozens, if not hundreds, of garden hoses set on trickle to fill that same bucket. Earned, owned, and paid media channels all need constant attention. Social channels need constant attention. Affiliate marketing programs require nonstop support. Influencer and creator marketing are effective but demand diligence. Paid media now encompass everything from traditional advertising to paid social, paid video on YouTube, streaming, over-the-top content, influencer shout-outs, and more. Order has given way to chaos, and PR is harder than ever because the traditional media business model has melted down. Magazines have mostly disappeared, and those that remain are either paper-thin gossip rags or subscriber-supported high-quality coffee table–style books. Most newsrooms have abandoned having large salaried staffs and instead get copy from freelancers paid not for context and quality but for click rates and eyeballs. Influencers are happy to work with brands, but are they media? Something else? Meanwhile, getting traditional outlets to cover a business, particularly a small business, is harder than ever, as local journalism has all but vanished.

But don’t worry; all is not lost. Like all transitional periods in history, this one is rife with opportunity. Those who can figure out how to make current and future trends and technologies work in their favor will stake a claim in a new world that will allow them to dominate. Imagine being the first to buy Apple stock during its IPO or the first to secure URLs at the onset of Web 1.0—we have similar opportunities today.

This book is about navigating these turbulent times and coming out on top. We will explore how the landscape of PR and marketing has evolved, the challenges that come with it, and the strategies that will help you thrive. Drawing from my own experiences and the lessons learned from various campaigns and client interactions, we will delve into the intricacies of modern PR and marketing. We’ll discuss the importance of agility, the power of storytelling, and the need for authenticity in an age where trust is more valuable than ever.

In the following chapters, we will journey through the complexities of today’s PR and marketing world. We’ll examine the critical role of data and analytics, the rise of influencer marketing, the shift toward direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies, and the ever-growing importance of social media. We’ll also look at how to manage crises effectively, maintain a strong brand reputation, and leverage new technologies to stay ahead of the curve.

This book is not just a guide; it’s a road map for anyone looking to succeed in the dynamic and often unpredictable world of modern PR and marketing. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting out, the insights and strategies shared here will help you navigate the rough terrain and emerge victorious.

We’re going to explore the opportunities that lie ahead, embrace the changes, and learn how to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of PR and marketing. The road to success may be challenging, but with the right strategies and a forward-thinking mindset, we can not only navigate it but also lead the way.

THE TIMELESS PRINCIPLES OF PR

The three main elements of public relations are practically as old as society: informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people. Of course, the means and methods of accomplishing these ends have changed as society has changed.

Edward Bernays, often referred to as the father of public relations, said that—in 1952! What’s astounding is that these three main elements of public relations, or PR, are still valid today, despite the fact that at the time Bernays wrote them (fresh off PR stunts to promote smoking as a women’s rights movement and bananas as a stand-in for democracy—more on that later), the radio was still considered fairly new tech. Despite the rampant advancement of communication and digital technologies, those who choose to dismiss these key fundamentals make a foolish mistake.

But—and this is an important but—the PR practice today is vastly different from how Bernays and his contemporaries practiced the art of connecting with, engaging, and influencing others. Today we have a mix of old and new communication channels and old and new approaches to how we leverage intermediaries (traditionally, media outlets and now more often influencers and other partners) to reach our audiences.

We have both more control and less leverage over how our messages reach the masses—and what happens once they do. To illustrate, let’s take a look at two vastly different approaches taken by two twenty-first-century CEOs to promote their companies’ electric vehicles—one traditional and one defying tried-and-true PR best practices or, in truth, ignoring PR best practices altogether.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

On one hand, we have Elon Musk, the maverick CEO of Tesla, who threw a massive party called the Cyber Rodeo at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas in 2022. Musk strutted onto the stage wearing a cowboy hat and aviator sunglasses, captivating the audience as he unveiled the latest advancements in electric vehicles and self-driving technology. At the event he announced over-the-top updates for Tesla’s autopilot feature, showcased his vision of the pickup truck of the future—the all–stainless steel Cyber Truck—and teased the Cyber Taxi, a fully autonomous two-seater vehicle. The event was live streamed on Tesla’s own channels, bypassing traditional media outlets entirely.

In fact, Musk had previously fired all his PR staff and invited no PR people or media representatives to the party. And yet, the coverage and buzz were exceptional and positively charged, gaining traction in outlets like TechCrunch, the Verge, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, and a host of others, as well as generating commentary like this brand-supportive coverage by the Wall Street Journal:¹

The party kicked off Thursday afternoon inside Tesla’s factory, where electronic music blared and displays introduced visitors to Tesla’s manufacturing process. Employees, contractors and superfans such as Jen Ragen walked the vast factory floor on self-guided tours of tooling and partially assembled Model Ys. Ms. Ragen, 38, said she bought her first Tesla, a Model S luxury sedan, in 2014. ‘Once you drive these vehicles, you can’t stop obsessing,’ said Ms. Ragen, who drove 1,600-plus miles from Philadelphia in her Model Y to be part of the factory’s public debut.

Contrast this with coverage that was sought and received by Ford and its CEO, Jim Farley, a marketing expert who rose to fame, first at Toyota, where he created the Scion brand to target Gen X American consumers, moving up the ranks until jumping to Ford, first in a marketing role and eventually as CEO. He planned and personally led a road trip with the electric F-150 Lightning during the summer of 2023 from San Francisco to San Diego.

JIM FARLEY: TRADITIONAL PR MEETS REALITY

Farley’s trip was a well-choreographed publicity stunt and an attempt to showcase the truck’s capabilities and promote electrification by visiting dealers and customers along the route. He documented the trip on social media, hoping to create a curated story for the media to cover. But Farley’s trip didn’t go as planned. He faced challenges with third-party charging stations, resulting in long waiting times and frustrated drivers, including Farley himself. The experience—specifically designed for all to see—highlighted the real-world issues with EV-charging infrastructure and generated negative publicity for Ford. Like this from Yahoo Finance:

Owning an electric vehicle (EV) isn’t the stuff road trip dreams are made of, as Ford’s CEO Jim Farley realized recently when he took the company’s electric F-150 Lightning on a road trip from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas.²

The situation got worse. Coinciding with Farley’s trip, a Ford customer’s nightmare journey in a Ford EV that broke went viral on social media. The customer experienced multiple issues with their electric vehicle, ultimately needing to rent a car to get home. They got stuck so many times that it bricked the car, and they finally had to have it towed to a dealership to get fixed. As this issue unfolded and the customer documented it on social media—and because it was happening at the exact same time as the CEO’s similar road trip—the story got picked up by the national media and drove home some pretty tough points for the Dearborn-based automaker.

Clearly not the narratives that Ford was looking for in support of its product. But, to his credit, Farley transparently acknowledged the issues he faced and didn’t step back from the criticism. Yet damage to the brand—and the future of EVs—was certainly done.

MUSK’S PR SUCCESSES DEFY TRADITION

Despite Musk’s polarizing qualities and questionable social antics, his example is illustrative of today’s new PR landscape precisely because Musk has eschewed what has long been believed to be the gold standard in PR practices. Musk’s contrary approach works.

The Cyber Rodeo isn’t the only example. When Musk launched his personal Tesla Roadster into space on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, manned by a dummy he dubbed Starman, the media reaction was equally significant. The event captured the imagination of the public and generated widespread media coverage and social media commentary. The image of a spacesuit-clad mannequin in the driver’s seat of the Roadster as it soared through space provided a powerful visual that was simply impossible to ignore. As Inc. reported: The Space X Heavy Falcon [sic] launch was a smashing success in many ways. But to me, it was the cargo that Elon Musk sent aboard the rocket that made the biggest impact. It was Marketing genius.³ This unconventional PR stunt showcased Musk’s ability to create buzz and excitement around his companies and their visions for the future, while also demonstrating the power of direct-to-consumer communication in the digital age.

THE EVOLUTION OF PR: MY JOURNEY

I’m fortunate that my career in PR has spanned the evolution of PR from wooing—and often wining, dining, and regaling—media gatekeepers to taking control of the messaging and taking it directly to consumers through the many and varied digital communication channels that now exist. From work as both a journalist and a PR practitioner in agency environments to launching my own firm, Kahn Media, a modern PR firm working at the cutting edge of both the broad market and specialist markets, I’ve truly seen it all. Today, as the agency for companies like Rolex, Maserati, Peninsula Hotels, and Lotus, among many others, we use innovative strategies to form direct relationships with consumers, blending the old and new ways of PR to achieve maximum return on investment for our clients.

In the old world of PR, there were three primary pathways to exposure for brands and their products and service: earned, owned, and paid. Earned media is the coverage brands receive through their PR efforts like news stories in print or broadcast media. Owned media is the brand’s own content. Paid media is advertising.

But the traditional silos of earned, owned, and paid media have started to erode, and today there is more crossover and integration between these categories. Companies, regardless of their size, now have the ability—and the opportunity—to communicate directly with audiences of all kinds with few if any barriers. They no longer need to rely on the traditional multistep distribution model of media and PR. Instead, they can leverage their own media channels and their own content—as Musk and others have done and will increasingly continue to do—to tell their own stories.

NAVIGATING COMPLEX PR LANDSCAPES

New technology and changing consumer habits have accelerated the shift to—and the influence of—a direct-to-consumer media market. This shift has dramatically changed the channels where PR is practiced and has amplified the efficacy of PR while making it more targeted and measurable than traditional advertising in many cases.

There have never been fewer barriers to entry for brands that want to engage audiences. There have never been more tools to measure results or data points to track. But these new opportunities present many additional complexities. Agencies like Kahn Media are uniquely positioned to master these kinds of complexities.

Having looked at the broad trend of how public relations and marketing have changed drastically, we can now dive into the history of PR and explain how the early days of print, the advent of cable news in the 1990s, and the rise of modern spectacle-and-outrage culture have set the stage for clever operators to prosper in the modern media era.

By understanding where we’ve come from, we can better navigate where we’re going. This book is your guide to thriving in this new era of PR and marketing. Let’s explore together how to leverage these changes to build stronger, more