PR has three main advantages. Firstly, WOM marketing is all about relationships – a core competency of PR and its dominant pillar. Brands trust PR people to manage relationships with influential people such as journalists, analysts, thought-leaders and industry bodies. WOM marketing is similar, built largely on managing relationships with influential members within communities of interest. Unlike PR, other marketing disciplines know a lot about broadcasting one-way messages but little about the intricate nature of managing relationships and developing individual conversations.

Secondly, the PR industry has great experience in managing communications where messages are disseminated via unpaid channels such as news media and briefings. PR professionals strategically employ these uncontrolled and, often, participatory avenues to reach and influence target audiences - often more successfully than paid channels.

Finally, PR has fine-tuned the art of dissecting the essence of brands and issues, to position them in a credible way so people will want to talk about them in a certain way. Advertising people are experts at creating positioning in a controlled push-media model but one could argue that PR people are most effective at creating positioning that resonates with sceptical influencers. The latter are the gatekeepers of consumer-generated media, controlling reach and when and how a brand message is passed along to others.

However, PR also has challenges to overcome. Firstly, research and consumer databases must become a core competency as it already is for media planners, advertisers and direct marketers. WOM marketing requires continuous tracking as consumers are in control – often causing messages and perceptions to be fluid and unpredictable. Therefore, continuous research is required throughout a brand’s entire lifecycle to tweak messages appropriately. Moreover, research and databases enable you to achieve scale and track effectiveness in WOM strategies. These are critical elements to justify large budgets and are a primary concern among many brand marketers.

Secondly, PR must move out of its ‘media-relations’ box to include a more holistic grasp of the entire communications mix beyond just journalist relations. WOM is interconnected to all other channels such as advertising, promotions, direct mail, customer service and the product itself. A larger share of the WOM budget pie requires thinking from this perspective. PR must also branch out beyond the corporate communications department because WOM marketing budgets live with the brand teams.

Finally, PR must invest in its digital-media knowledge and capabilities. The Internet is multiplying the value and impact of word-of-mouth at a rapid pace and resulting in a massive reservoir of consumer-generated media that continues to become a greater source of the content people consume in their daily lives. The big opportunity for PR lies in leveraging its existing competencies; to pair them with a commitment to the methodologies, tools and concepts to keep up with this rapidly evolving landscape.

By Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst, Nielsen Online