As we wrap up our reading in Danny Rogers’ Campaigns That Shook the World, think back to the campaigns we’ve discussed throughout the semester. We’ve examined campaigns spanning four decades, from Margaret Thatcher’s 1978 campaign to Dove’s Real Beauty campaign.
Though each one offered unique strategies and tactics, common themes reemerged time and again. We typically start campaigns at the same place: What are we trying to achieve? Why does it matter? What are our objectives? It’s how we communicate and how we engage our audience that can change as we adapt to new technologies and the trends of the moment.
In his conclusion, Rogers states that “it would be difficult to change the world today with a campaign that didn’t understand and test the boundaries of one-to-one communication and digital sharing.” Testing boundaries. Taking risks. In public relations, we have to continually look forward if we want to remain competitive in the industry and stay engaged with our audiences. Why is it so essential as public relations pros to stay aware of industry trends, including technological advances? What are ways we can do this? And as we look ahead to the future, what trends do you see coming in the field of public relations based on your experience to date?
PR 330 
As we have learned this semester, it is crucial to stay with with growing trends if PR specialists want to stay relevant and in sync with the evolving technological advances. Consumers are smart, and can point out when a company or brand is falling behind, and that can mean something simple or silly like forgetting to update their Instagram profile. The reason it is so important to stay up to date with industry trends is to show consumers we know what we are talking about so they can trust our suggestions or press releases as quality content. The easiest way to be aware is being involved in the social media and world, and living out what we preach. Being truthful and staying consistent with what we say will prove we are true to our word. I think in the future, we will see more technological advances, and this will push us to stay up to date to properly communicate with our audience.
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Yes! “Living out what we preach.” Amen. Creating trust through honest engagement is key for PR pros.
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As PR students and eventual employees in the field, it is essential to stay current with trends and technology. Why? It’s our jobs! Being transparent, real, and genuine is such an important part of getting our audience to trust us. If we are behind on our information or are only going from one source, we are diminishing our credibility. Ways we can do this include communication – by building relationships and covering all our bases in our information.
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I agree, Ally. And the relationship-building component is so essential to this process.
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I agree too Ally. We can not diminish our credibility because that will definitely bring ourself and the company down. Our clients would not trust us and that is exactly of what we don’t want to do. We have to establish their trust and our credibility to our clients other wise we will lose them. We have to be on top of our game with the new trends and technology in this fast moving world we live in. Our jobs rely heavily on this as you mentioned.
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By the very definition of our occupation, we have to keep up with industry trends. We are public relations, we work with the public and have to somehow make them like us and want our product. With that in mind, we have to understand what they like, we have to be ahead of the game. We have to understand that we are at their whims and their mercy. Because of this PR agencies need to continue hiring young new employees. employees that are up with the trends and know where to look. They cant train their old employees to care about the new trends when there are young PR students that do this on a daily basis for free.
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Yes, staying ahead of the game is key. However, I believe that all PR professionals, no matter their age, should diligently work to keep up with trends. That said, yes, young PR pros can bring fresh perspective and an awareness of new trends among the younger generations. Best case scenario – partner experienced pros with new pros who can learn from each other!
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A major aspect of PR is keeping up with the trends and technology. Campaigns are about testing boundaries and creating a buzz. In PR, we have to find whats new and what new technology we can involve ourselves in. We need to stay aware of industry trends because we are responsible for showing and exposing what is new, or hip. Because the new iPhone just came out, I think what we will be seeing in the near future is new advances in technology. I always thought a date like 2017 was so far in the distance and by the time we reach this year, our world would be entirely different. Though it is, not the way we thought it would be like.
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Technology is such a significant part of the PR industry. New technology releases absolutely give us insight into its impact on communication and how we need to adapt strategies to continue to connect with our audiences.
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Technology and industry trends should be two of our top priorities. As PR pros, we are the ones to expose and push those trends into the world, and maybe even set the precedent for campaigns to follow. Technology is meant to make our lives easier, and honestly it makes everything cooler. It opens up a world of opportunity for creativity and engagement. Being professionals at technology is incredibly important for us to do our jobs. Industry trends are what keep people paying attention and engaged, which is exactly what we want. We need people’s interest and staying trendy is the best way to do this.
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Every day, there are newer, better things developed and different stories being told. It is crucial that PR practitioners are current because they are the ones who are working on the relationships between brands and their audiences. One cannot really stick to the older approaches in a world that is ever-changing. An easy way to stay on top of trends is to actively read, watch, and hears news from different credible news outlets. Another way to keep up is to look at other brands and analyze their approaches in order to pick up on industry trends and see how one can fit into that picture if it is genuine. The more knowledge gathered by doing personal research, the better one is able to think creatively about how their clients fit with their consumers.
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The industry will never stay in one place. As people, technology, and understandings change, so will PR and the way it is managed. This means that there are always new ways that we can pitch to the world around us. As future members of the work-force, this is something we need to be ready and aware of. I think the best way that we can be up to date is to keep our eyes open. We should not only be looking for ways to innovate and change the way things are done, but also, we should look at the ways that other brands are doing this, and what we can learn from them.
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It is essential to keep up with the trends as public relations professionals in order to be able to best reach the audiences we are targeting. It would be silly to try to connect with a specific group without knowing what it is they are passionate about, what they do, or how they are functioning. In knowing these trends and predicting them it gives the public relations department the opportunity to be ahead of the curve and connect with others well. It is more than just marketing a product, its creating the trends rather than just following them.
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Keeping up with the industry trends as well as technological advances is vital for people in our field because our efforts and creativity can only go so far, if we are not keeping up with the consumer’s needs. I think what we also are trying to navigate is figuring out what those needs are, even if the consumer does not know it yet. We ultimately have to give the consumer a reason to pay attention, and often times we can do this by giving them less information overload. I think I have taken away this main theme from the book, campaign slogans, and media alerts. People have more and more distractions by the second. I think we can expect people wanting ease of access (new technology) and simplistic content delivery that is worth their valuable time.
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In the PR world, we are definitely “sitting on the hot seat” when it comes to staying up to date and being in tune with trends if we want to remain in the flow and succeed in this fast moving industry. Media never sleeps, and with media as our biggest platform for communication and gathering information, we don’t really have the choice to “sleep” either as technology advances. I think a big opportunity that we miss as a generation is not trying to gain all of our information and media intake on our own, but rather taking advantage of the community around us to gather more information and to gain different perspective on media and industry growth. In PR Management this past monday, we were given an amazing opportunity to hear from a young women working in the music industry as a marketing manager. She works closely alongside influencers and bloggers and has seen the first hand impact and growth of their takeover and power in the media. The best advice she gave to us was that in this fast paced and never stagnant media growth period that we are in, we have to “take on opportunities as they’re handed to [us] and run with it”. No one in our past has dealt with the technological advancements they we are learning with today, so we can’t rely on others to hold our hands, but rather trust our intuition and stay in tune with this growing industry.
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Staying up to date with current trends is a crucial part of public relations. Following and analyzing trends makes sure that PR strategy and campaign is never out of date. One of the worst things in the PR field is seeing a brand make a push for something that is out dated. By analyzing trends, PR professionals can be the first to harness new opportunities that come their way. I think we will see a rise in company apps for mobile devices—ones that integrate gaming and brand experience to create brand positioning in the minds of the consumer.
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Public Relations is a profession that would not be in effect without trends. Communication between masses create trends and Public Relations interprets those trends. If we did not follow trends as Public Relations professionals we would simply be out of business. In order to create credible content that we produce as PR professionals, we need to remain knowledgeable in all trends and new technology. Achieving this is simple, stay connected with all generations all media and all knowledge. Never stop reading books and use your previous knowledge as a base for new knowledge. Future trends could be anything from a new media platform or the death of print media (praying that’s not the case). It is impossible for us to know for sure what trends will come into effect all we can do is remain reading and searching for new content.
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