Life would be so much easier in PR if we could clearly see what the future holds. However, there are ways to make more educated guesses, for example, by asking what other people in the industry think. Recently, Newsroom specialist Mynewsdesk, conducted research into what PR, communications and marketing professionals believe the future has in store for the communications industry.

Although one in four respondents predict the death of impartial, independent journalism as a paid profession within the next 50 years, the research corresponds with the rise of “brand journalism” as a communications function.

47.9 per cent of respondents said they expect employers to prioritise journalism skills over data analysis skills (26.3 per cent) when recruiting communications employees. This is backed up by the majority of respondents (64.4 per cent) who believe brands will in-source content development, rather than relying on external agencies. Again this demonstrates a real need for PR, marketing and communications professionals to possess strong journalistic skills and commit more to the brand journalism approach to communications.

Interestingly the results show PR and communications professionals place a greater value on creativity than those in the marketing practice area when it comes to making decisions on the content for digital campaigns. 55 per cent of marketing professionals said they believe content for digital campaigns will be based more on previous performance than creative ideas – perhaps showing a greater reliance on the use of data, metrics and evaluation than the PR industry, where just 27.8 per cent thought the same.

It’s worth bearing this in mind when looking at the findings which reveal 45 per cent of marketing, PR and communications professionals do not seem to know whether brands are currently getting value for money from using external agencies to manage their social media. This demonstrates the need for guidelines or metrics to help them better understand the return on investment in this area and better understand where resource should be best spent.

Brands using external agencies to manage their social media are getting good value for money

The role of large agencies was further questioned with 75 per cent of PR, marketing and communications professionals believing brands will question the value for money large agencies offer due to the results small agencies can achieve using communications technology. However, respondents from the marketing practice area predict greater cynicism from brands than PR and communications professionals, with 93.5 per cent of marketers believing brands will question the value for money of large agencies compared to 77.36 per cent of PR and 67.6 per cent of communications professionals.

The results small agencies can achieve using communications technology will make brands question the value for money large agencies offer

Methodology

Mynewsdesk conducted a survey of 196 PR, marketing and communications to gather their view on the future of communications. The responses were gathered from social media and emails to their database.