What can public relations practitioners hope to accomplish for the organizations they serve and for their own careers next year? Here's a look into the crystal ball.
2009 will be the year in Asia that public relations starts being the part of the marketing mix that consistently drives brand strategy and marketing campaigns, rather than being positioned as a publicity-driven "free" form of advertising.
In their 2002 book The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, authors Al and Laura Ries made the point that public relations is the most effective tool for building brands. Rather than playing a supporting role to advertising, it takes the lead, with advertising following up to maintain interest in the brand.
Looking at advertising budgets vs. public relations budgets in Asia today, it's clear that public relations is not likely to overtake advertising any time soon and reports of the death of advertising are greatly exaggerated.
However, the internet has given new relevance to the Ries' point about the role of public relations in brand building.
In the last couple of years we have seen a barrage of PR 2.0, online public relations and social media campaigns that seem to be re-invigorating the whole public relations industry from clients to agencies. There is a real opportunity for the industry, particularly here in Asia where high broadband penetration enables interactivity, and where there is a profusion of highly-relevant local language platforms with many people participating on them.
So what are the trends for 2009 and what can the public relations practitioners hope to accomplish for the organizations they serve and for their own careers? Here's a look into the crystal ball:
- Social media networks themselves will decrease in importance for brands, BUT the overall use of online will be more important than ever before. Many brands in 2008 raced onto Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn and the hundreds of Chinese social media platforms.
The results were often underwhelming, because once the brands got online, they did not know what to do with themselves, and how to behave and maximize the opportunity. To state the obvious, setting up groups and applications is the easy part; truly joining the conversation and creating a consistent flow of engaging, relevant content or large scale brand-oriented online communities is difficult to say the least.
The smart brands will continue to engage consumers via social media, but will refocus on tools such as microsites, viral video, and clever promotional stunts. Their involvement with social media websites will be driven by campaign ideas and product/service initiatives, rather than simply initiatives to "get online and get out there".
- B2B digital communications will really step up. Much on online public relations to date has been about consumer product marketing, branding, and corporate communications. We're already seeing increasing use of online public relations by web-based marketplaces with B2B dimensions such as Alibaba, Taobao, Global Sources, and eBay, but in 2009 the trend will move ahead further and faster.
Specialist companies that have traditionally been offline and have relied on the use of trade shows and trade media publicity will turn increasingly to the web. They will be exploring innovative ways to connect with highly targeted customers on the internet.
Search engine optimization will be important, as will the development of highly relevant, specialized content that helps build thought leadership and "finadability" online. For example, B2B blogs on extremely specific and often technical topics and in the local language of target customers will become increasingly common, even as dull corporate blogs start to lose their relevance.
- The recession will result in increased online public relations. Traditional budgets will get cut because they are often viewed as discretionary spending. In-house public relations people and marketers will be asked by their management to do more with less. They will need to spend more of their own time developing online campaigns and customer relationships in order to justify their ROI.
Agencies will also devise online campaigns to try to stretch their clients' budgets, and add tangible "direct interaction with customer" communications benefits in addition to the more traditional measurements of communications output. And, as media and content companies find their own budgets under pressure as advertising revenue slows, they may increasingly reach out to public relations practitioners for story ideas and low/zero cost content.
- Mobile will come of age, as there will finally be sufficient penetration of web-browsing smart phones and other devices that will allow marketers to deliver campaigns with the same sophistication that was previously only possible on the desktop.
Mobile in recent years has grabbed marketing headlines with primarily promotion-based gimmicky uses of the technology, and various creative campaigns using location-based services, in-phone cameras, and SMS. Going forward, the mobile and the internet story will become one and the same, and public relations will have the opportunity to make creative use of the medium.
- Strong, compelling points of view and thought leadership will be increasingly important components of building brands online, as consumers become fatigued and cynical about companies that simply push their products and services.
As hinted above, the focus of public relations focus will shift from the use of new media, to driving campaigns across all media. And this process will require more effort than simply devising corporate messages and pushing them out through channels.
Developing a powerful point of view requires stepping back, finding or developing an objective stance, and offering some real insight on the business environment and how it is changing. Compelling points of view provide the basis for a sustainable campaign whether you are reaching out to engage your stakeholders or are joining a conversation that is already in progress.
A powerful, well-substantiated point of view helps grab media attention, and also sparks out to reach your other constituents directly.
That's my look into the trends and opportunities the new year offers -- let's check back in December 2009 and see how the public relations practice in Asia grew and developed.
David Ketchum is CEO of Upstream Asia.