{"id":137541,"date":"2021-12-14T15:10:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T14:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=137541"},"modified":"2022-01-05T18:31:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T17:31:37","slug":"10-pr-and-communications-trends-for-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/10-pr-and-communications-trends-for-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"10 PR and Communications Trends For 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

2022 has certainly been\u2026 a year. At the start<\/a>, hopes were high for an easing of the setbacks caused by the pandemic and that the lessons we\u2019d all learned would help us evolve our purpose and ways of working. Did this happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In some ways, yes. And despite the challenges we\u2019re all still working through, we can do even better as an industry in 2022.<\/p>\n

Here are predictions from nine public relations, communications, marketing and public affairs experts on what the big trends to plan and prepare for will be for the year ahead.<\/p>\n

1) Sustainability and purpose<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018It feels to me like purpose is becoming more and more important for organisations, and communicating it is a really important task. A big plank of that is of course sustainability but we have been talking about the environment for years; a big growth area in terms of messaging is likely to be fairness and social inclusion. Particularly in a time of inflation and with the UK Government still trying to define what it means by \u2018levelling up\u2019, being able to talk about the impact of clients on less advantaged areas is going to be more important than ever.\u2019
\nGavin Devine, Park Street Partners<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

2) Inclusion<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018There has been an increased focus on diversity and inclusion within the industry with many new initiatives launched. As a Board Member of the PRCA\u2019s Race and Ethnicity Equity Board I am keen to see how firms continue to push for greater equality within our industry. It is important to see leaders from diverse backgrounds and we just do not have enough within the PR industry. A key challenge will be moving from talking about increasing diversity to now making it a reality at more senior levels.\u2019
\nEmmanuel Ofosu-Appiah, Mercer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

4) Net Zero<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018We have hundreds of businesses who are signed up to science-based targets\u2026 but there are hundreds who haven\u2019t.
\n\u2018We can\u2019t just do this in 2029 when it\u2019s too late \u2013 this needs accumulative reduction.\u2019
\nLuke Herbert, The Climate Group<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

5) AI + human effort<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018AI will transform the tactical, \u2018doing\u2019 bit of our work even more, leaving space for us to be more strategic\u2026 are we up to it? We need to regulate the social media platforms and ourselves \u2013 the basic business model that drives the social media algorithms needs changing. We have to do something about the polarisation in society. The ESG agenda will become more pressing, too.\u2019
\nAnne Gregory, University of Huddersfield<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) Hybrid working (for good and bad)<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018Finding, keeping and training more junior colleagues looks set to be a major issue in 2022 and beyond. Working from home and even hybrid working is great for people with comfortable home offices and at a more settled stage of their careers; it is self-evidently less so for those at the start of their careers. And honing your skills is so much less easy if you and your senior colleagues are not in the office every day. At the same time, the pandemic has led many people to question their career choices and think about alternatives. All of this means we are likely to see a shortage of high-quality people with a few years\u2019 experience. That will fuel a race for talent; retention will be an issue.<\/p>\n

\u2018One way that this will manifest itself may well be in pressure on pay. This will be part of an economy-wide challenge, the like of which we haven\u2019t seen for years: inflation. Life is about to become more expensive and this will be true for comms agencies as much as it is for anyone else. We will also have to think of new messages for our clients to use in the media and with stakeholders about why prices are going up.\u2019
\nGavin Devine<\/strong><\/p>\n

6) Personal development, with healthy boundaries<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018Working practices and client expectations have changed throughout the pandemic, in part through people working from home, and it seems to have exacerbated the \u2018always on\u2019 culture we\u2019ve been trying to move away from. The biggest challenge for the year ahead will be managing this and re-establishing boundaries so the workplace is a happy and healthy one.<\/p>\n

\u2018PR practitioners can help businesses deliver their objectives in terms of articulating purpose, managing change and communicating with stakeholders. With the right skillset, there are plenty of opportunities to be had but personal development is crucial to success.\u2019
\nSarah Waddington, Astute.Work<\/a> and #FuturePRoof<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

7) Flexibility to new working models<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018Both a challenge and opportunity for the industry will be how we continue to adapt and evolve new working models. A lot has changed in just two years, new social media platforms, media outlets, key stakeholders, and influencers are developing at a rapid pace, the industry is constantly learning, paired with the pandemic and working from home, stricter\/looser social distancing restrictions (depending on what the Government feels like that week), we have successfully made it work to our benefit and for our clients. I think we must embrace this and try not to rush or force employees to return back into the office and rigid working conditions. What the last few years have proven is that we as PR practitioners are resourceful and creative. We must continue to adapt and be flexible.\u2019
\nTolu Rachel Akisanya, Ariatu PR<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

8) Realistic risk management<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018We need to be realistic about the economic situation and the potential for growth.\u202f It is likely to be a challenging year and if growth isn\u2019t as high as hoped then that could affect the spending available to government.\u202f The implications would be enormous.<\/p>\n

\u2018Government will want to continue to be interventionist and any organisation that simply leaves them to it is playing a very dangerous game. Engagement with government should focus on the development of trusted relationships, which needs to be built over time.\u202f For those that choose not to invest in their engagement there could be a lot of emergency public affairs required.\u202f Aside from the obvious failure to manage risk, the success of that approach is much more variable and more expensive.\u2019
\nStuart Thomson, BDB Pitmans<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

9) New metrics and measurements<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018One of the big challenges for measurement is the starting point of any campaign – do we have clear measurable business objectives; do we have data on the starting point or audience insights? In the last year we have definitely moved from impressions\/clicks and likes to measuring engagement and that is going to be the direction of travel.\u2019
\nSudha Singh, The Purpose Room<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

10) Listening<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018You can involve everyone in the process of D&I. I\u2019ve learned about navigating my own space, my own bias and what I bring. And really listening. Taking that time to stop my voice and hearing what people are feeling.\u2019
\nAsad Dhunna, The Unmistakables<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more from the above thought leaders sharing their predictions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

accessmatters with Asad Dhunna from The Unmistakables<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview with Sudha Singh and Mark Webb on fairer representations of disability in PR<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

BDB Pitmans’ Stuart Thomson on public affairs in 2021<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Climate Group’s Luke Herbert on the New Statesman panel Making Sense of Net Zero<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah on PRCA’s Race & Ethnicity Equity Board<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2022 has certainly been\u2026 a year. At the start, hopes were high for an easing of the setbacks caused by the pandemic and that the lessons we\u2019d all learned would help us evolve our purpose …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":137545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7383,7272,3725,7271],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137541"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137659,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137541\/revisions\/137659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}