Welcome to 2016: the year of virtual reality, ad avoidance, the talent battle and specialist PRs
Mumbrella asked public relations and communications professionals about the opportunities and challenges the sector will face in 2016 and their thoughts on what defined 2015.
Roberto Pace, managing director Diversified Brands (Eleven and FleishmanHillard) Whybin/TBWA
What was the communications trend that defined 2015?
Integration (again), but this time round, less so due to a desire to work smarter with budgets. With digital and social media at the heart of how most people engage, the need for all channels to work toward a common goal of driving engagement was key….and will undoubtedly continue in 2016.
Roberto Pace: PRs need to “become better planners”
WTF did I just read?
Has communications evolved to a level where it doesn’t actually communicate?
Or… another year of the industry saying ASR doesn’t mean anything only to have more and more clients demand it, scrambling to stay on top of every teeny weeny goddam digital innovation/launch/trend/invention/tool in the world, hunting down interns who don’t ‘love fashion’ and who regard shorts as appropriate office wear, desperately trying explain that spending money on a video to create content that only 12 people will see isn’t a good idea, fending off random bloggers with an audience of 3 who want a crap load of money, explaining constantly that Hugh Jackman doesn’t want to be your ambassador for free, scrolling through Instagram until your eyes bleed, proving that it IS possible to be a functioning alcoholic and eventually, finally, paying lots of money to enter awards that will ever only be won by ad agencies.