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| Some delegates at the Global PR Summit 2014, Miami, Florida. L-R: Oyewole Olaoye, MD/CEO, Diametrics - Nigeria; Kamal Taibi, Director-General, Strateus Group – Morocco; Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, MD, CMC-Connect – Nigeria; John E. Ehiguese, CEO, Mediacraft Associates – Nigeria, and Israel Opayemi, MD, Chain Reactions – Nigeria. |
By now you would probably have heard
- and rightly so - that the 2014 edition of the Global PR Summit was a huge
success. This international conference -
this year’s being the third in the series - is organized and hosted annually by
Paul Holmes, CEO and Publisher of ‘The Holmes Report’. The Holmes Report, in collaboration with the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO) annually publishes 'The World PR Report' – arguably the most
comprehensive and authoritative report on PR practice globally.
Held in the beautiful sunshine city
of Miami, Florida, it was a very impressive assemblage of some of the best
minds in the PR business from all over the world, gathered to share and compare
notes on the latest developments and trends in global PR practice.
It was four-and-a-half days of
insightful presentations, breath-taking case studies and stimulating
perspectives on the business, that began with the Independent PR Firm Forum on
the first day and built up to a fun-filled, grand finale of a half-day Crisis
Management simulation session.
I was attending for the very first
time and for me it was well worth all the time, money and effort invested. The
following are 5 great learning points that I took away from that experience:
# No. 1 :
It’s Time For PR To Take The Lead
As the media landscape becomes
increasingly fragmented and consumer habits and information consumption
patterns evolve, communication has become more social and content-driven. The
contemporary consumer engagement paradigm places him/her at the epicenter of
the brand conversation. More important
today is what the consumer is saying about the brand, and interesting content as well as creative story
telling both help to capture his/her attention and interest. Thanks to social
media, no longer is creativity in communication the exclusive preserve of
advertising agencies, some of whom now choose to go by the exotic description
of ‘creative’ agencies.
PR is now, more than ever, better
positioned and equipped to take the lead role in the communication process. It
is left to us practitioners to recognize this opportunity and seize it, by the
way we approach our clients’ briefs and the creativity we bring to bear in
delivering effective solutions and measurable outcomes for their marketing communication
and reputation management needs.
# No. 2: You
Can Never Have Enough Of Research
Research plays a pivotal role in the
communication process, as an invaluable input at both ends of the value chain.
At the one end, it throws up data, which can be analyzed to extract valuable
consumer insights that drive creative and effective messaging. At the other, it
provides the metrics for evaluating campaign outcomes.
The Global PR Summit featured quite a
number of research reports, from those that were independently commissioned as omnibus projects, to others that were conducted in support of specific
campaigns. And in every instance, it was evident how the data and insights
obtained from research helped shape the strategies and messages that produced
widely successful and acclaimed PR campaigns in various countries around the
world.
# No. 3: Gaming
– An Emerging Platform For Engaging Millennials
The millennials – generally described
as that segment of the population aged between 18 and 34 – today constitute a
very important consumer demographic block, that demands the special attention
and interest of communication experts, especially given their somewhat
‘natural’ affinity with technology.
Just to give you an idea of how
significant these ‘digital natives’ are: in my country Nigeria millennials account
for about 70% of the total population today. You ignore such a huge segment of
the market at your peril.
I had always known music and sports
to be strong platforms for engaging with millennials. The revelation for me at
the Global PR Summit was gaming. Yes, gaming. I had never before thought of how
much gaming – of different and diverse types, from video games to betting - had
become such an increasingly important part of the lives of these young people,
worldwide. Some children have been known to get hooked on it from as early as
two years old! The research results were simply outstanding. It should be
interesting to find out just how pervasively this fever has caught on among the
millennials here in Nigeria.
So there you have it – yet another
‘new’ ground for us PR people to break, as we seek more effective ways of
capturing the attention of critical target audiences in our campaigns.
# No. 4: ‘It’s
Not What You Say, It’s What The Consumer Hears’
The quote above sums up the very
interesting presentation by the inimitable Dr. Frank Luntz. It speaks to our
propensity as communication specialists to think that we know what the consumer
wants to hear, and to proceed to act accordingly. Luntz’s position is that
consumers only respond to content and information that is interesting to them,
that focuses on their lives and problems. He argues that our choice of words
and tone greatly influence the way that consumers react to messages that we put
out to them.
To put it rather bluntly: because of
the array of choices available today’s consumer consumes information
practically on his/her own terms.
# No. 5: ‘PR
Is Changing. Are You?’
Again, I confess that this quote is
not originally mine. I actually lifted it off the corporate brochure of one of
the PR firms that was represented at the Summit. But it aptly sums up the key
learnings from the 2014 edition of the Global PR Summit.
The media landscape is changing
rapidly, and this is inevitably impacting communication in general, and PR,
perhaps more than any other communication function. The PR professional who
will thrive today is one who is abreast of this change, and is adapting
accordingly.
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