The fragmentation of media and consumers' increasing control over their media consumption is causing marketers to shift dollars away from traditional media like TV, print and radio towards 'new media.' According to McKinsey, by 2010, TV advertising will be one-third as effective as it was in 1990.

According to the Council of Public Relations Firms, which represents the nation's leading agencies, 87 percent of its members project revenue increases for 2007 averaging nearly 14 percent. In a survey of marketers conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Public Relations ranked number one in terms of its overall value to the enterprise.

There are ten main reasons that money is being shifted from traditional advertising to PR.

1. The Consumer is in Control
The classic strength of advertising - control - has greatly eroded. Media have reconfigured themselves to accommodate consumer-generated content. CNN.com now has the I-Report displaying videos and images from consumers. Each night Anderson Cooper features one as "The Shot." Similarly, Nickelodeon has created ME:TV, which incorporates content contributions from kids.

2. Deep, Credible Content
In this Age of Information, content is king. And credible content is especially valued. Third party credibility - the classic strength of PR - is now more highly valued. Here's how Anthony Rose, Associate Director for Global Beauty Products at P&G puts it: "As media inflation proceeds unchecked, and marketing noise increases, the credibility that PR and editorial provide cuts through the clutter."

3. Impact of Issues
Today, issue management is an everyday phenomenon. And hands down, public relations people are the 'go-to experts' on steering brands through the ever-more contentious, critical, skeptical and confrontational world of issues. Dealing with these challenges is of extraordinary importance to brand marketers. And PR people are the best - and only - communications professionals specifically trained to do so.

4. The Burgeoning Blogosphere
According to research by Gartner, blogs will 'top out' at 100 million soon. Bloggers have created an immense new field of media - one in which PR people are uniquely qualified to play. However, reaching these "new influencers" requires the abilities and expertise of a PR professional.

5. CEO Alignment
A few years ago, Booz Allen and the ANA did a survey of chief marketing officers' top priorities, and then compared those results with a similar survey of chief executive officers conducted by the Conference Board. There was a stunning disconnect. The CEO's were concerned about growth, innovation and adaptability to change, while the CMOs were buried in tactical issues like maintaining brand guidelines. CEOs are keenly aware of the importance of maintaining and enhancing corporate reputation. And they routinely turn to their public relations professionals to help them do that.

6. Intelligent Integration
For decades, brand managers and agency executives have been talking about the importance of integrated marketing. PR people are ideal for the role of campaign integrators because the public relations discipline is inherently media-agnostic. It embraces every type of medium and addresses all audiences. In fact, at the 2007 SABRE Awards, one of the largest categories of entries was integrated campaigns with over 60 entries - all of consistently high quality according to the judges, and all inspired and executed by broad-thinking, creative PR people.

7. Employees as Brand Ambassadors
Marketers are realizing that employees must be brand ambassadors, who themselves believe in and help evangelize a brand's values. One of PR's most basic functions - communicating to employees - is actually turning out to be a powerful component of effective brand marketing.

8. Newsworthy Creativity
PR creativity - unlike the creativity of other marketing disciplines - has to meet a very high, built-in standard. It must pass through the skeptical filter of producers and reporters before it can reach the public. For years, marketers have tried to assess PR's impact by equating it to advertising value. In the future, perhaps they should do the reverse - evaluate advertising's impact based on its news value!

9. Speed to Market
In today's fast-paced business environment, speed-to-market is a must. PR - like the news media we work with - can be extremely fast-moving and opportunistic:

• We monitor the news with online tools like Factiva, Google News, LexisNexis and ProfNet.

• We spot opportunities for a client to engage and comment.

• We issue a press release or 'expert available' media alert.

• And within hours, we can help a company become part of the news cycle and part of a local or national dialogue.

In fact, there's probably no other marketing communications discipline that can act as quickly as PR in getting a message into the marketplace.

10. It's Measurable!
PR has gotten a bad rap versus advertising on the issue of measurability. The fact is that both disciplines have access to the same measured media metrics like Neilsen ratings, Arbitron and Audit Bureau of Circulation. PR messages are embedded in program content. They appear during newscasts and entertainment shows. PR content is being measured by the rating service, while advertising content may very likely not be!