What lessons can we learn from the Trends and Communication Transformation Month 2022?
By Biagio Oppi and Eva Maclaine
The Global Trends and Communication Transformation Month in March 2022 has been an ambitious project.
Three key events informed the month, organised by the European Regional Council (ERC), which is chaired by Silvia Arto, Vice President of the Global Alliance. The first was a survey, sent to all Global Alliance members throughout the world; the second was a webinar, chaired by Biagio Oppi, to compare European trends; the third a global webinar to discover how and if global trends differ from those in Europe.
It is thought that this was the first time the world’s leading public relations network of 320,000 professionals from all continents shared their thoughts on the key trends currently transforming our industry globally and shaking our old ways of working and thinking.
Chaired by Eva Maclaine from the CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations UK), the global webinar, which ended the Trends and Transformation Month 2022, presented a number of trends from around the world. A senior and highly experienced panel composed of the six regional Chairs of Global Alliance from Asia, Asia Pacific, North America, Africa, Europe and South America shared their thoughts on trends affecting their regions.
The global survey revealed key trends overall to be:
· The pandemic and its effects on the working population
· The importance of AI, big data, digitalisation and social media
· The importance of professional skills, including ethical behaviours
· The poor perception of PR and the blurring of lines between PR and marketing
· The influence of external issues, such as politics, the economy, climate change
· Fake news and mis/disinformation
Whilst some new themes emerged, we will see that many of the responses in the global survey were echoed by the key regional themes as described by our six panellists.
Asia Pacific
Jaffri Amin Osman, from Malaysia, the Chair of Global Alliance Regional Council Asia Pacific, highlighted four main trends:
· The impact of digitalization and technological developments, including social media, on PR;
· The importance of listening carefully to the Millennial and Z generations who demand transparency and care about individual rights and social justice
· The increased focus on ESG and on societal issues in general; and the difficulty of recruiting the right talent
· Blurring lines between marketing and PR and the difficulty of recruiting suitable people.
Africa
Almost all the speakers agreed digitalization and online technology had affected the entire profession, in particular in recent years. Peter Mutie from Kenya, Chair of Global Alliance Regional Council Africa, observed that everyone now was a blogger and used many different social media platforms. But he warned that this does not always come with the necessary ethical approach, when you consider the amount of fake news, false tweets and fake Facebook pages that exist. Like Jaffri he believes that due to a lack of human and financial resources it has now become difficult to recruit the right people. He also agreed with Jaffri about the blurring of the lines between PR and marketing.
Finally a predisposition by government and politicians to spin provides another ethical challenge. He thought PR advisors should ensure they don’t promote falsehoods or spin with no basis of substance. He advised that PR professionals have the responsibility to educate and encourage audiences not to share fake news and that this could be limited through the use of various apps such as Test News.
Middle East – South Asia
Amith Prabhu from India is Chair of Global Alliance Regional Council Middle East/South Asia. Amith outlined four trends in his area:
· Video and podcast was becoming increasingly relevant in communication strategies
· Influencer marketing, was often now part of PR plan, due to employees advocating for their companies but also thanks to the use of external influencers
· SEO – search engine optimization as a necessary part of PR campaigns
· Diversity and Inclusion as an emerging aspect, resulting in specialists being hired by organisations.
North America
Our Canadian colleague, Béatrice Guay, Chair of Global Alliance Regional Council North America, outlined three main trends:
· The overuse of social media
· The overload of information and communication
· The key role of environmental issues in public relations and for management generally.
Beatrice said the need for learning was ever more important. We need to understand AI (artificial intelligence) to face the huge overuse of social media that produces big data on one hand, and the indiscriminate dissemination of personal data on the other. To counteract the dangers organizations and businesses we must invest far more on cyber security and education about the digital world.
She reminded us that good communication opportunities still exist in traditional media and we should not ignore it. Many stakeholders and audiences still use traditional media and some use only these. The increased flow of information pushes us as PR advisors to be careful, responsible and reliable.
People are paying more attention to environmental issues and companies sometimes used such issues to look good. That was a danger, however, as it sometimes led to greenwashing. Beatrice felt that these emerging trends made it even more important that we improve our skills in order to take our place as valued advisors in the C-Suite.
Latin America
C-suite and leadership were also among the main themes presented by our Brazilian colleague Hamilton dos Santos, Chair of Global Alliance Regional Council Latin America. He saw the Chief Communication Officer (and the communicators at large) as advisor to the CEO and to the other C-level leaders, who are increasingly required to be visible and to communicate, especially on social media. He also stressed the role of the CCO as digital strategist in a world, which was more and more virtual and digital, in which they had to be highly skilled. Finally Hamilton focused on the new challenges brought by the pandemic that reframed the workplace and workforce. Mental illness was on the rise due to remote working. This was not helped by the fact that some organizations and states in Latin America are still not ready for remote working. For example Brazil is still struggling with legislation governing remote working.
A lot of challenges face Latin America, for example deforestation and climate change, and there is a new interest in ESG. But Hamilton underlined that companies are frequently not supported by governments, which are often an impediment to real change. Gains can be quantitative rather than qualitative. As communicators we should pay attention to the qualitative outcomes. For example in Brazil, in spite of more children attending school, children’s literacy was still low. Communicators must help companies focus on qualitative results, on guiding leaders, influencing public opinion and attracting investors. This brings challenges but also a large number of opportunities.
Europe
Current trends in Europe
Finally, Silvia Arto, Chair of Global Alliance Regional Council Europe, based in France, discussed the main topics which had emerged in the European survey. She stressed how much the geopolitical instability is now affecting business and professional communicators and suggested this is the time for us all to look more widely than simply to what benefits us. Relevant, fact-based information is an essential weapon against fake news and propaganda. Achieving transparency can be a painful exercise for companies but it is an important responsibility. In the long term it is the only way to maintain trust and promote social responsibility.
The collection and use of data has to be transparent and accurate. AI results in a double-edged sword. It contributes to improved product and service delivery, as it simplifies tasks and allows greater automation. On the other hand it presents a challenge for PR with increased reputational risks, its use in misinformation creating doubt and enmity between people. It is important to arm oneself with knowledge, such as the AI in PR guides the CIPR has published, if we are to keep abreast of new information and continue to upskill throughout our lives.
How do the trends compare with last year?
Last year’s trends related very much to the huge impact of the pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. Technology was much in evidence with the digitalisation of the PR profession. We had to master new technology but this led to a wider dissemination of information than previously had been possible with numerous events attracting global audiences. Digitalisation led to new tools, new storytelling and a lightening speed of communication. With an increase in social media use PR professionals strengthened their crisis management strategies and their skills to provide timely and accurate information. Trust and ethics were put into the spotlight in the times of crisis and were invaluable when dealing with stakeholders. Human centric communications grew in importance with inspiring stories highlighting common interests and increased engagement with communities. CSR and ESG found a place in the heart of companies and in their comms strategies.
How can we adapt globally?
Silvia spotlit four key takeaways based on what had been revealed by the 2022 surveys and the two webinars.
1. Ethics and transparency
In times of crisis truth is the first victim. It is essential to use fact-based information to guard against fake news and propaganda.
2. Maintain the trust
Trust will only be maintained through transparent messaging, which is understood by the audiences and which is followed by coherent and relevant actions.
3. Digital, new technologies
The digitalisation of our profession has necessitated PR professionals to master new technologies and new video formats to provide the best user journey. We will also need to understand social media and plan our strategies to maintain our organisations’ reputations.
4. Leadership and people
Now more than ever consumers look to choose the most ethical company and the most responsibly sourced and manufactured product. We have to make sure of a positive impact at the heart of companies and PR strategies and create the necessary links between internal and external and stakeholders by ensuring the organisation does more than simply pay lip service to ESG.
5. The evolving role of communication
It has become evident that the role of PR and communication has developed greatly and in many countries is now valued at the highest levels. In order to make sure we stay at the forefront of business strategies PR professionals must adapt, be agile, upskill and keep learning.