Where's my piece? The PR (aka full-service communications services) version.

Hey, so us online advertising folk don't get our share of the pie.  No mystery right.  TV and print time spent is down overall, yet their ad spend still slightly grows.  Doesn't really make sense in the aggregate, but there are many broken industries out there - how could we actually not buy TV?  That Hawaiian beach shoot would be in jeopardy.  Oh, gosh . . .

I'll plug Joe Apprendi and iMediaConnection for having a timely piece on this; my weekend was filled with it and I've been working on the post for a while.  Joe's an ex-24/7 Media fellow and is off to starting his own online ad network (congrats Joe, btw), so take anything you read with a grain of salt.  Really, all of those "networks" get their inventory from the same exchange(s), but another post all together.  Joe claims that online advertising makes up 7.6% of all ad spend (I've got it at 6.9% globally, but who's counting).  Time spent with the internet  makes up somewhere around 20 - 25% of "media time".  On average people spend more time with TV - debatable on which medium is more effective, but that's a semantic argument that will never have an answer.  The truth is that there is a huge gaping discrepancy in the aggregate for where spenders spend and where their audiences really audience.

Now, enter Public Relations.  Lots of chatter online about communications in general and how companies/brands can and should be using internet stuff to solidify a message, commune a community, get bloggers to blog about stuff, et al.  No question, a significant portion of budget should be shifting here vs. stock pressers, media events, pitching trade magazines, etc.  Well, the reality here is that companies (huge and small) are spending a tiny fraction of the their overall "communications" budget online.  If I had to guess, it would be less than 2% in many cases for companies you are very familiar with.  Talk about a discrepancy!!!  Add to that, the internet is the primary medium "at work" and holds an overwhelming share of time spent there . . . an even bigger discrepancy than online advertising.  Oh my!  The PR machine for the PR industry is missing a big opportunity.