2016 Predictions For PR

Public relations is often a hard industry to predict accurately; big events that impact our everyday workings can happen in the blink of an eye, which, let’s be honest, is why working in this industry can be so exciting. There are some trends and circumstances, however, that can be taken into consideration from last year to help predict some of the likely trends and happenings for 2016.

The traditional public relations campaign has begun to lose its flair for clients and journalists alike. Instead of sending releases week after week, clients are now hungry for bigger, better and broader stunts. Campaigns in 2016 will continue to move away from what we’re comfortable with and start integrating various different media platforms, from video to graphic design. This will mean we will see bigger, more creative campaigns that require planning and days out of the office, with less writing hunched over your desk.

Rumours that 2016 could see the death of the press release were running rampant at the end of 2015 and while releases still have a prominent role as we enter March of 2016, they could be on their way out. Journalists receive hundreds of press releases every day, many of which are often not even opened and thrown straight into the trash, or junk folder if we’re being specific. Industry professionals are predicting that instead of press releases, we will soon be sending out short but sweet snippets to entice journalists to write about our clients. According to social networks like Twitter we should be able to tell a story in 140 characters or less; 2016 could see PR moving in this same direction. Attention spans seem to be getting shorter and newsrooms busier so it’s time to start appealing to them.

Being able to measure success has always been a PR struggle; clients are often confused as to how they can measure whether a campaign is successful or not. Public relations industries will have to start implementing clear measuring objectives, not just for their clients but also for themselves. Expectations need to be realistic, while also remaining optimistic.

PR agencies will also start encouraging clients to be open to influencer led campaigns; in fact the good ones are already (us, of course). As we go further into 2016 it is becoming increasingly obvious that getting a link on a website is not enough, readers won’t always feel compelled to check your client out. Influencer outreach is a great way to compliment your PR campaign as influential YouTubers, Vloggers and Bloggers will all have a loyal following that will happily check out or even buy a product if their favourite internet personality is telling them it’s something they should be doing. There is a humongous amount of untapped potential with influencer outreach which clients need to be told about. These influencers often ask for money now and they will only take part in a campaign if they are interested in the product, but convincing your client to put budget aside will pay off in the long run.

Pigeon holing demographics has become a big no in regards to who you are aiming your campaign at. Terms like ‘millennial’ will die out as they have just lost all meaning. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly which demographic it even refers to now, but trends suggest that in 2016 it shouldn’t even matter. Instead of restricting your campaign by going into writing or filming with an age in mind, it’s best to go into each fresh campaign with a more qualitative approach, bearing hobbies and passions in mind. Appealing to the life someone chooses to live over a number will broaden your audience and stop you from sounding so 2015.

As briefly mentioned earlier, video will continue to grow in importance. Facebook video has now overtaken YouTube in unique videos as of last year, which means we’re all still craving short, snappy and easy to watch videos we can show our mates. It is so important for PR agencies to get on the video hype and keep brainstorming to come up with shareable content if they haven’t already, although it could be a little too late to jump on this train with constant developments from live streaming platforms.

Finally, the last prediction I’ll be bringing up, is that PR will need to be even more instant then it was before. Each and every demographic is impatient and journalists want to please them. We all need to be quicker on our toes and bigger with our ideas.