With the New Year around the corner, we’re excited to announce a few prominent trends in the field of public relations. We expect these will take over the industry in the coming year.
Experiences Over Messages
We all know that actions speak louder than words. Living in a world full of digital noise, it is difficult for brands and campaign messages to stand out. Many brands have taken action on this phenomenon by going above and beyond the status quo.
- Glossier is a millennial beauty brand primarily relying on e-commerce. They recently made a shift to brick-and-mortar storefronts in three cities nationwide. Their storefronts, or showrooms, are unique in concept compared to traditional retail stores. Specifically, the showrooms focus on providing consumers with unique experiences. They can not only try products in person, learn from the store representatives but also immerse themselves in experiences such as the “Antelope Canyon” in Glossier’s Los Angeles location.
- The Midterm Elections this past week garnered worldwide attention as we saw a record number of millennials head into voting booths. Gold Front, an agency in San Francisco, had the brilliant idea of making voting into an epic pop-up experience, “Museum of Voting”, in order to attract younger generations to exercise their civic duty. The campaign centered around the idea of exclusivity, timeliness and social media aesthetics. The campaign goal is to promote “FOMO” on voting.
- Augmented Reality has become increasingly integrated into various industries including public relations and marketing. For example, Ikea’s Place mobile application utilizes augmented reality. It allows you to see the furniture in your space before you purchase it. It not only allows you to visualize the style but is also true-to-scale, allowing for accurate measurements through the application.
Measurable and Shareable Content
Although public relations has a reputation of being immeasurable with ambiguous ROI, the industry is certainly moving in the direction of integrating new measurement tools into campaigns. Specifically, the concept of blockchain is applied to the public relations industry.
Blockchain is based on the concept of decentralization. Digital information is distributed in a large shared database. Differing from traditional databases, blockchain is publicly accessible and safe. Blockchain can solve the problem of ad fraud and create ownership opportunities for content creators. Marketing and advertising opportunities will become more clear, creating more methods of measurement and reducing lag in pay time.
Building Trust
There are two ways to interpret the current direction media is taking. On the one hand, media is becoming increasingly integrated so that content organically reaches consumers. On the other hand, brands are finding it difficult to build trust through their campaigns and outreach efforts. Especially with the rise of influencer marketing, anyone has the power to share their voice. We predict that brands will need to invest in building trust by exercising honesty, consistency and reliability.
For a list of important public relations events to attend in 2019, click here.
