Bill Gates once said that if he were down to his last dollar, he'd spend it on public relations.
I'd argue that dollar may be worth even more today.
For a while, PR lost some ground in the marketing conversation. Companies and brands became more focused on SEO, social media and digital advertising. Success was increasingly measured through clicks, impressions and engagement metrics, while PR was all too often viewed as a supporting function brought in after the strategy was already developed.
Looking back, that focus on visibility came at the expense of something even more important: trust.
Today, anyone can create content. Executives have personal platforms. AI can generate articles, social posts and videos in seconds. Content has become easier to create than ever before.
What hasn't changed is the value of credibility.
Everyone Can Create Content. Not Everyone Can Earn Trust.
Over the past several years, many marketing strategies have focused on helping brands get discovered. The goal was to get found, grow audiences and drive engagement.
Those goals still matter, but today's audiences rarely take information at face value.
Before making decisions, people do their homework. They compare sources, read reviews and look for evidence that a company's expertise extends beyond its own marketing materials. Whether they realize it or not, they're conducting a credibility check.
This is where PR creates a different kind of value.
Media coverage, speaking engagements, executive thought leadership and expert commentary provide something organizations cannot create on their own: third-party validation. When an executive is quoted in a high-profile publication or invited into an industry conversation, that message carries a different level of authority.
That's what makes PR so powerful. It doesn't just help people find a company's story. It gives them a reason to trust it.
Discovery No Longer Happens in One Place
The value and importance of PR is directly tied to how people gather information. Spoiler alert: they're not getting it from one central place. People are constantly moving between search engines, news coverage, social media, Reddit, industry publications and AI-generated answers as they evaluate companies and expertise.
That shift really matters for PR and marketing professionals.
A company's footprint is shaped in many ways, and the role of PR is invaluable in each of them. News coverage, thought leadership, speaking engagements, executive visibility and industry commentary all contribute to how an organization is discovered and evaluated. These signals support traditional SEO, strengthen Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and contribute to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) by reinforcing expertise across the broader information landscape. Put simply, AEO focuses on helping brands show up in direct answers from search and AI tools, while GEO helps ensure organizations are represented accurately and credibly in the information that AI systems use to generate responses.
In other words, PR influences far more than media coverage itself. It helps shape how organizations are discovered, understood and trusted long after a story is published. That has become increasingly important as search, social and AI platforms continue to converge.
Why PR Matters More Than Ever
I don't think it's a secret that the marketing and communications landscape has changed dramatically over the past several years. There's also no doubt more change is coming. New platforms will emerge, technology will evolve and the way people discover information will continue to shift.
Through all of that change, credibility remains one of the few constants. The organizations building momentum are not necessarily the ones producing the most content. They are the ones consistently demonstrating expertise, building authority and earning credibility across the places where people are already looking for answers.
That's the magic of PR. It has the ability to show up in the moments and places that matter most, often when potential customers, partners and stakeholders are actively looking for information.
I'd like to think that if Bill Gates were down to his last dollar, he'd still spend it on PR.
