Brands like Mastercard and Geek Squad are creating their own news content published direct to consumers via channels like YouTube, rather than pitching stories to traditional media, Advertising Age reports today.

The US advertising monitor cites the declining number of media outlets combined with the growth of quick fire customer engagement through online communities as drivers of a new approach to PR.

Mastercard,  for example has deliberately pursued a low tech video route, interviewing it’s executives on camcorders, editing on laptops and uploading to YouTube. Mastercard’s PR agent, Andrew Foote at Cohn and Wolfe says:

“They’re realizing they can comment on issues and get the points of view of their experts out there and on the record. Once the videos are up, the company will often tweet the links and follow up with reporters letting them know MasterCard commented on the topic.”

“The traditional one-way media model has definitely had its day,” added Sam Lucas, of Burson-Marsteller. “So agencies are talking to clients about these engagement models much more.”

Results from a survey of 101 journalists by CIPR student Iain Flemming, published on Friday suggests that a move away from the traditional press release will be welcomed by journalists - 83 per cent of them saying they wanted less material sent to them.

See the full Advertising Age article

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