There’s been a lot of talk about Edelman on my feeds this week. If you missed it, they just went through a restructuring, letting go 5% of their employees.
As a previous Edelman employee, I’m invested in the success of the agency and love to keep a pulse on what they’re doing. The work is big and exciting, and I still think it’s the best, large agency for worldwide brands requiring giant teams.
This week I’ve seen ex-colleagues of mine affected by the restructuring and calls from former co-workers recruiting their friends for new positions. I’ve seen articles about how the effects of this specific restructuring will impact the industry and commentary on how it’ll affect the profession moving forward.
One specific article stopped on a discussion I can’t believe we’re still having and pointed to the reason we started Seedling Communications 15 years ago. It hashed out an inefficiency that made me crazy when I was working at other firms early in my career. It was a conversation about the critical need for integration within communication plans. I saw this conversation bright as the morning sun for over a decade. I’m stunned to see that this idea is still being tossed around and not already 100% fully executed everywhere.
When I was a grad student in the early 2000s, pursuing a masters in public relations at TCU, I remember learning the concept of “strategic communications” and instantly I was fully invested in the idea of a holistic client experience. In fact I cheered TCU on when they renamed the PR degree to a B.S. in “strategic communications.” It was forward thinking and spot on.
An agency should be a place where communications professionals can meet with a client and diagnose the best path forward. Once an individual plan is in motion, in my opinion, all the work should be done under one (proverbial) roof. It makes sense that a team that works together, regularly talking about the successes of a project and intricately working towards that goal, would be more cohesive in their strategy than one that fragments the work. That’s one of the biggest drivers of Seedling Communications, creating strategic communications plans for our clients and their current projects.
There’s a snippet of the article I’ve referenced, below. You can find the full article here, https://www.prdaily.com/what-edelman-layoffs-restructuring-mean-for-the-pr-industry/.
As always, if you’re looking to support for an upcoming, or current, project, feel free to reach out. We’ll tell you if we’re a good fit. Or, we’ll tell you with transparency if we think another agency can better support your goals.
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“We are skating to where the puck will be — everything is interconnected now,” Richard Edelman wrote, calling his company a “leading integrated communications advisory firm.”
Russell views the PR industry as following the same “integration” path advertising agencies have been journeying across for the past three decades – bringing more capabilities in-house to provide clients with a one-stop shop.
True integration can be difficult to achieve successfully because it often requires starting from scratch and developing a new reputation of success in those areas. However, there are definite and obvious advantages to that approach, Matos said, and it’s a natural trajectory for many agencies.
To attract more top-tier clients, agencies need to offer everything clients want in one place. It’s just as much about differentiating themselves from competition as it is efficiency.
“That’s what they’re looking for,” Matos said. “As companies get bigger, and if they’re trying to attract more clients or different top clients, they need to provide everything clients need in one location.”
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Here’s to a great end of 2024 and a wonderful new beginning in 2025! We hope the best is yet to come, for you and your branding!