Almost every business and every industry will have been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. The growth and success of the PR industry is largely dependent on the growth and success of other industries, and with budgets being cut within many businesses, Covid-19 has significantly impacted the PR industry. However, the PR industry is strong and will eventually recover from this crisis. It’s important to look beyond the economic impact of Covid-19 and look forward on how the Coronavirus pandemic will change the industry in upcoming years.
The challenges that the PR industry are facing are both universally shared and unprecedented. Even once we return to some normality, the impacts of Covid-19 may continue, or even have changed the industry forever. This may mean that PR professionals will need to rethink the purpose of what makes this tool so effective.
The challenges the PR industry have faced…
As with every industry, the PR industry has massively slowed down during Covid-19. As we all know, PR and media often go hand in hand. Despite The World Health Organisation mentioning that you cannot contract Coronavirus from printed newspaper/magazines, people are still reluctant to buy any. Many people are in panic mode and because of that, the sale of newspapers has declined drastically since March 2020.
The media industry has had a huge focus on the pandemic and this has impacted client coverage. Clients who would have usually promoted a PR message in a newspaper have withdrawn, with most of them putting their PR campaigns on hold until the impacts of the pandemic start to ease. This creates a massive stall in the industry, and many PR experts don’t think the industry will ever go back to normal.
Covid-19 has also impacted product launches and other promotional events where PR plays an important role. The question every PR company is asking themselves is, should they go ahead with their plan or hold off?
The ‘new normal’ of the PR industry
The influencer culture
During the pandemic, influencing has caused a lot of discussion about how an influencer brands themselves. With many influencers claiming it’s their job to fly to a sunny, hot destination in order to get good content for their followers, has caused a lot of uproar. These social media influencers still need to ‘influence’, however they are running out of things to promote and say that can add any value to this current crisis. Instead, these times have been about how some influencers have managed to reinvent themselves, rather than chasing the sun, which has reinforced their relationship with their followers as more and more people begin to trust them. They have appeared more authentic and relatable, and so they are becoming a great tool for PR. They are having more of an influence over the industry much more than before Covid-19.
For example, let’s take a look at Alex from Love Island, who has recently been appointed young mental health ambassador. This demonstrates how an influencer has used their platform in a positive way, creating a lot of attention within the media.
PR roles
Discussion around artificial intelligence (AI) has suggested that it has the potential to transform the way we approach PR. AI is a form of technology that enables machines to perform cognitive tasks, like seeing, writing, moving, reading, or analysing data. Whether you know it or not, you use AI every day. For example, your phone’s voice assistant, like Siri, uses AI technology. Smartphones use AI to predict what you’ll type next and complete sentences for you. Amazon Alexa relies on AI to recommend products for you or to skip to the next tune.
It is starting to become the norm to see AI in the job description of any PR role. You may be thinking why? Or how? Here are a few ways that AI could change how we do PR and marketing communications in upcoming years.
- Produce press releases using natural language generation (NLG).
- Convert speech-to-text (or the other way round) – ideal for press conferences, media interviews, and strategy meetings.
- Build a chatbot for your business, that is designed to cater to media questions and searches.
- Identify influencers who are most likely to reach and engage with your audiences.
- Analyse the PR and communications strategies of your competitors.
Here at onefoursix, we’re happy to discuss how the pandemic has impacted your PR strategy, and how you can recreate it. Get in touch here.
