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Your Public Relations Measurement Reading List

PR Ju-Jitsu

Alan Kelly, The Elements of Influence, Penguin Group 2006, 288 pps. Buy it here.

Review by Katie Delahaye Paine

Chemists have the periodic table of elements. Economists have game theory. Those whose work centers on strategy, positioning, and influence have had no framework. That is, until now.

The first definitive system for out-smarting an opponent, managing a brand, protecting a reputation, and orchestrating word-of-mouth, The Elements of Influence ... introduces The Playmaker’s Standard, a new essential language of 25 irreducible plays. It breaks down into precise pieces the moves and counter-moves by which competitive advantage is won and lost, buzz is built, spin is spun, and arms are twisted, and it shows how masters of the game call, run, decode, and counteract the ploys and plans of their marketplaces. Plays are everywhere and everyone is a playmaker... (from the Penguin Group site)

Alan Kelly's The Elements of Influence is one heck of a provocative look into the science of public relations. I can't wait to see how it is received by our industry. It's a little like any other book that takes a whole new look at some very old ways of doing things: It will probably be reviled by some, will horrify others and will eventually revolutionize a good part of our business.

Whether it's good for public relations is another question...

Over a lifetime of public relations practice, Kelly has defined and classified a set of "plays" by which everything in public relations can be classified. His premise is based on the idea that every strategy and tactic in PR is based on a competitive desire to advance your cause and move the cause of the competition backwards.

The book is essentially a cookbook of plays, each with its own descriptive moniker, such as "bear hug." And as a strategy manual it's very good.

The problem I have is with the premise; I'm not sure I agree that the raison d'etre for everything in PR is competitive advantage. It presupposes that there is no such thing as what Grunig would call a "communal relationship," in which two parties cooperate to succeed. Some of the plays in particular feel downright menacing.

The Dark Side?

Kelly's response to my concerns is that I'm looking at life through very Machiavellian eyes. Effective tactics are not only used by the ambitious, the mean-spirited, the hyper-aggressive and the evil. They are also used by the gentle and the good, as well as the non-profits and the noble.

And to his credit he provides Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, Ted Turner's $1B challenge to CEOs, Kraft's handling of the obesity crisis, and the classic J & J Tylenol recall as examples of how playmaking can be used by the forces of good.

Kelly also recommends using plays so that good people can extract themselves from bad situations, build constituencies and effect change.

It Eats Into Your Brain

That said, this is one of those books that eats its way into your brain and, to borrow Apple's tagline (but mangle some grammar), it makes you "think different." As I plan my communications and marketing strategy for the year ahead, I can't help but think of strategies and tactics that fit into his various playmaking categories.

More importantly, when I look at public relations measurement as an industry that can benefit from a few good plays, I quickly become an advocate for Kelly's philosophy. Perhaps we should do a "Bear Hug" in the industry and bring everyone together around a fight for a higher level standard (see this issue's Measurement predictions).

Something else bothers me: If everyone reads this book, and everyone spends time studying plays, will we have any time left for conversations?

Kelly makes an argument that PR should be taught like this in the future, and he may well be right, but he also needs to make sure that if you take this course, you also have to have mandatory ethics training.

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