Public relations has seen major change over the last 10 years, driven by digital communication and summed up in one word: disruption. This was the major talking point at the inaugural Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA) networking breakfast, succinctly titled PR: Today, tomorrow and the next five years?
By Adam Wakefield
Industry veteran Gavin Moffat opened the breakfast at The Peartree conference centre in Craighall, Johannesburg, asking industry leaders and professionals present how the world of PR should cope with disruption.
Moffat suggested that the answer to disruption is flexibility, and ensuring, as an industry, PR adds value to the big picture.
He was followed by four industry leaders, who engaged on different challenges affecting the industry in South Africa, the first being principal consultant at VMA Group, Daniel Munslow.
Munslow’s remarks focused on five trends affecting the industry, informed by survey data. The first was top concerns of communicators in South Africa; number one being a shortage of skills, followed by a shortage of budget.
Munslow said, according to a survey of industry professionals, the communications industry in South Africa focused on tactical concerns such as creativity, while overseas, the focus fell upon communicators having business acumen and possessing writing ability.
The other four trends Munslow spoke about were digital communication, why PR professionals change jobs, research and development, and what financial return of investment a PR firm was having on a business.
Munslow was followed by deputy general manager at WE Communications South Africa, Sarah Gooding Kobus, who expanded on the subject of professionals changing jobs in the PR industry.
Gooding Kobus said South Africa needed a new approach to retaining industry talent. Doing so involved talking about what opportunities employees had to grow into in their respective jobs, skills development, time invested by and with their managers, and offering flexible packages that did more than just tick the box of remuneration.
Up next was Kevin Welman, the managing director at Fleishman-Hillard‘s Johannesburg office. Welman immediately focused on what Munslow had raised earlier; the importance of business acumen.
When it came to dealing with CEOs, COOs, CFOs or “anyone with a C in front of their name” as Welman put it, what is most important to them is their company’s stock price. He even suggested going as far as asking for high ranking office holders’ key performance indicators, so, as a PR professional, you knew exactly what is most important to them.
The fourth speaker was Ingrid Lotze, managing director of join.the.dots communication, PRISA president-elect, and a judge for the Loerie, Sports Industry, and PRISM Awards.
Lotze told the breakfast attendees that creative thinking make brands stand out, and re-emphasised the importance of business acumen in the PR space. She then broached several topics affecting the industry, such as running integrated campaigns, customer care being non-negotiable, and hiring staff who are ambitious and want to learn.
Lotze’s remarks were followed by an open-ended conversation, guided by Moffat. Matters raised included training for skills but hiring for ambition, the importance of curiosity, the value of internships, PR firms not rewarding failure but encouraging their staff to not be afraid to fail, and managing student expectations as they entered the market place; where empathy is often in short supply.
The first of what will be a quarterly event, the PRISA networking breakfast proved to be a space where honest conversations were had about the state of the PR industry in a world of constant change.
This piece was first published here
