After the Covid-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine and the general disruption in the market, 2023 was definitely a good year for the domestic PR scene. All agencies have grown linearly and adopted new standards, as well as corporate responsibility, or CSR, in which more investment has been made, certainly stands out, as well as ESG reports, which are slowly but surely becoming a standard in every company that cares about itself and its reputation. However, this is where the upgrade comes in, so more and more clients are looking for the adoption of DEI policies so that their clients feel inclusion, equality and inclusion. This part is most evident in internal communications – teams have never worked more on adopting positive practices, and I would dare to say that this is becoming an industry standard (depending on the sector in which you operate). This story has become particularly interesting in that the leaders of green policies are the ones who pollute the most – paradoxically, but true.
Techno PR – create what they want to hear and post it on TikTok
This year’s new best friend of PR experts, or public relations experts, is definitely technology – to be more precise – it is AI which, including various data, makes the content more interesting.
There is no conference without AI being mentioned at least a million times. I believe that as a minimum every third campaign at the Days of Communication will contain some percentage of artificial intelligence, even if used just for colour selection in the key visual. Data-driven PR also belongs to this dimension, although it has certainly been around for a long time, but it is no longer mined by a junior account that searches for data and adds it up in Excel during a week’s time, but the ‘machine’ does it for him. One colleague even suggested to me that I should count the number of times AI is mentioned at conferences in one lecture, purely as a fun fact and an indicator that some new winds of change are blowing.
Of course, new social networks are knocking on the door, so we can say that on the national scene this year marked the establishment of TikTok among the wider masses, and it has thus become an unavoidable social network, just like Threads, which shyly entered the scene a week ago. I would also single out the trend of politics that has decided to enter TikTok in a modern way, so now we also have a digital opposition that spreads its ideas through new channels. I believe that this fight will be intensified when the digital political showdown begins, because everything is allowed, even fake news that usually starts just before the elections.
Youth and media
And then there is the core of the media problem because, according to analysts, we notice that young people get their information from ‘wrong sources’, while the power of the media is constantly declining. For example, the viewership of the daily newspaper among the younger generations is decreasing, radio is reaching its lowest points, while the press is dead and we are expecting the announcement on the date of its funeral any time now.
In reality, the situation looks like this: social networks are the beginning and the end of informing young people. As new generations come, so do new social networks. I notice that young people found out that the war in Ukraine began through TikTok, and not through some television channel that broadcast an extraordinary program for two weeks.
We digitized everything and moved it online. In the traditional question in surveys, “Where do you get your information most often?“, the most frequent answer is – on the Internet, more precisely on a social network, and even more precisely on someone’s private page that deals with current affairs.
The line has been crossed and there is no filter in the form of a journalist who would confirm, deny or question something from the point of view of their point of view. By doing so, we have actually given the microphone to various quasi-political clowns who suddenly become relevant due to their high numbers, even though they pose a potential danger to the development of society and democracy.
What awaits us in 2024?
As we all know, next year will be extremely significant due to a series of elections (if we exclude the local elections happening in 2025): the European Parliament, National and Presidential elections. The only respite we will have will be during the European Football Championship and Luka Modrić’s last dance before he ends his career in an American club like Leo Messi. So, the repertoire includes politics, politics, brewers and more politics with a few telecoms in the marketing world. Realistically speaking, we are expecting one of the most challenging years for the public relations scene, a machine that will certainly be on the front line when it comes to communications.
In terms of social networks, I predict the rapid growth of TikTok and Threads, which is increasingly resembling Twitter after X. The departure of third-party cookies will give a push to some new niche media, and the entire scene will be exploring new methodologies from space lease to reporting, all the way to finding new approaches. All in all, we have an interesting period ahead of us when it comes to work and development, as well as an opportunity to establish ourselves.
One thing is for sure, if you are engaged in communications, but you are not digitally present or have not set up your channels, you are not in PR business and the only thing you do is send a press release to 100 addresses – I have bad news for you.
Asking for favours is slowly falling into oblivion, ‘please put some of this.’ simply no longer goes, if you do not have a quality story, and the media no longer let anything in.
In conclusion, I wish you all a budget growth.
Happy holidays and a new 2024!
