Volvo has sparked a furious debate in public relations circles on how the industry should embrace the shift in emphasis towards digital media after the car maker appointed a media agency MindShare to handle its digital PR and social media strategy.
The car manufacturer gave MindShare the brief because it felt that the agency was better placed than a PR consultancy to handle its search engine optimisation (SEO), digital PR and social media campaigns.
Volvo favoured the services of a fully integrated marketing company because it doubted whether a PR agency could compete with a media agency's expertise in SEO.
But sceptics fear that many companies are increasingly attracted to media agencies more by their digital know-how than by their PR expertise and believe that they do not have what it takes to manage their clients' reputations online.
Yet some practitioners are more interested in the long-term significance of the deal, especially in view of MindShare's decision to draft in PR specialists to handle the work.
The big question for the PR industry is whether it should adapt to the digital age by providing an integrated set of online services.
However, for many smaller agencies this could prove impracticable and the PR industry may instead have to evolve into becoming more of a commodity within bigger, multi-disciplined media organisations.
hello@octopuspr.co.uk 
01785
229530 
