Just read David Reich's blog post about the title changes at Golin Harris. It seems that new titles, like Strategists (people who devise PR strategies for their clients), Creators (people who write, design or produce materials), Catalysts (account people) and Connectors (social media types) were created to denote specialization.
A rose by any other name?
Is this news? Apparently the New York Times thinks so.
In the Mesozoic era at the Big Agency where I worked, we had your Account Executive (Catalyst in the new PR Speak), who did virtually everything: wrote copy, developed PR and ad campaigns, supervised the design team. The creatives (Creators --which makes them seem somewhat Godlike) were upstairs, creating and trying to fill their portfolios with good samples. The Strategists were the honchos -- the VPs who made us stay over the weekend thinking of Big Ideas and then pitching them to clients and prospects. The only ones missing were the Connectors, who didn't exist in the pre-Internet age.
There should be specialists at a PR agency. Some folks can make copy sing; others are great persuaders. But they ALL should be pretty proficient at PR and that includes strategy, copy, social media, client contact and at least recognizing good design when they see it. By creating specific niches for everyone, you limit your employees' ability to move around the agency and learn new skills; by keeping tasks isolated, you limit their view of PR and how campaign elements intersect to get the right results.
PR agencies should have better ways to garner attention than to devise new titles for jobs that have existed virtually since PR's inception.
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