‘How can PR innovate’ is a question I’ve been asking for a while now. Whether it was helping clients understand digital skills and knowledge at Edelman and Weber Shandwick; designing digital transformation programmes for clients while at We Are Social or now working as an independent consultant the issues of planning and driving innovation within PR agencies has always been front of mind. It’s a subject I’ve thought and talked about and delivered against. A lot.
But, it is fair to say that while pockets of innovation exist [ING Bank communications team for example] the industry isn’t adapting to the changing environment as rapidly or as deeply as it could/should. As 2015 draws to a close I wanted to share some reflections on some of the key factors that are potentially holding back innovation in public relations.
Firstly, although the situation is slowly changing the generalist structure adopted by PR agencies risks making it harder for practice to adapt to the specialist nature of digital. The shift to digital requires research specialists and data scientists to analyse and interpret the vast quantities of information required for effective communication and campaign planning; creative strategists to come up with channel agnostic idea; editorial and design specialists to produce creative content; community managers to engage with brand audiences; paid media specialists to amplify content and so on.
“The shift to digital requires research specialists and data scientists to analyse and interpret the vast quantities of information”
This is a structural approach which PR is slowly coming around to adopting, but the risk is that unless they redesign and reorient their structures soon then PR agencies will be outmanoeuvred by others in the communication and marketing industry, such as ad, creative and digital agencies, who have been traditionally set-up in specialist teams and thus can pivot to a digitally-led practice quicker.
The speed with which these agencies can pivot represents another potential barrier to innovation in PR agencies: margins. My experience working with and within PR agencies often suggested that PR firms run with lower margins and profitability compared to other types of communications and marketing agencies. This can limit innovation. Typically, not having enough spare capital can restrict opportunities to invest in experimental approaches, such as team restructuring or making new and innovative hires. It also limits the ability for staff to step-away from client work to acquire new knowledge and skills or test innovative ideas.
As well as operational innovation, lower margins may lead to a lack of strategic reflection. Anecdotally, one MD of a small agency recently bemoaned to me the inability to regularly ‘take a step back’, assess and evaluate how they work as an agency in order to optimize their ways of working, structure, creative planning, etc.
The lack of reflexivity in PR is potentially a big barrier to innovation. A CEO of an organisation in the sector recently used the analogy of the architecture profession to highlight how PR could learn and innovate from past experience.
They argued that in architecture, it’s common for practitioners to scrutinise the work of other consultants in the industry. With public buildings it is easier to look around, investigate, test and observe. In PR, examining your own work — let alone others’ — is not exactly standard practice (PR Week case studies and awards don’t count as we all know that these are never accurate representations of what really happened!). As a result open and honest reflection doesn’t happen and neither do the attendant industry-wide improvements.
Once again, we could fall back on the low-margins argument. Neither openness and transparency around working methods and honesty about what went wrong with your work are seen as conducive to future success in a hyper-competitive business, focused on — to quote Matthew Freud in his recent PR Week interview “low margin execution.”
However, recent figures from a study into the profitability of PR agencies suggests that when it comes to margins, all is not what it might seem. Research published in November this year by accountancy firm, Kingston Smith, suggests that PR agencies had the highest operating profit out of all marketing sector agencies, including ad, media and digital agencies.
So, if it’s not money holding back innovation, then what is?
One possibility is the organisational culture within PR. While margins may be healthy, the nature of PR practice — engaging in the increasingly real-time world of news and conversation — forces workflows and operational processes into a reactive focus on short-term needs and outcomes. As a result, the adoption of longer-term strategic innovation tends to become overlooked in the day-to-day running of the agency or team.
Or perhaps the problem is more tied up in — ironically — reputation. The same CEO quoted earlier arrived in the PR sector from another profession. He observed to me recently that sometimes he feels that PRs have a need to look busy; they feel a need to fill spare capacity doing ‘stuff’ but not necessarily reflecting on future improvements or innovation and thus adding deeper value. While not entirely representative, this is a portrayal that I have certainly observed in the industry. I would argue this comes from a lack of confidence in demonstrating a tangible value for PR — itself something that could be addressed by more innovation in the sector allowing greater value to be added to PR’s work.
If we can tentatively identify some of the factors holding back innovation in the PR sector how can we go about addressing these?
Firstly, more reflexivity is key. Taking a step back to review, assess and look at how changes can be made to working processes, improvements made to skillsets and new technologies adopted is vital for innovation. If your agency or team can’t find time for reflection (and in the absence of open and honest industry case studies!), finding someone else to observe, reflect and make recommendations is an equally strong option.
“Reflexivity is key. Taking a step back to review, assess and look at how changes can be made to working processes, improvements made to skill-sets and new technologies adopted is vital for innovation”
Secondly, making better use of any margins can support innovation. Using resources appropriately to carve out dedicated time for reflection or using capital to bring in external advisors to help assess existing practices, identify ways to innovate-within-practice or design future ways of working is a highly beneficial use of money.
Finally, recognising the strategic value of innovating and taking steps to address this can help add value to the type and quality of work PR agencies and teams deliver to clients. In turn, this give the confidence needed to ask clients for bigger budgets, in turn enabling reflection and innovation to be embedded in day-to-day practice.
Simon Collister
Simon is an independent consultant specialising in social media research and analytics, strategy development and digital transformation. He lectures in digital communication at University of the Arts London and is a doctoral researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London’s New Political Communication Unit.
Previously Simon was Consultancy Director with We Are Social. He has held Head of Digital roles with world’s largest independent and publicly owned communications agencies, Edelman and Weber Shandwick He has published academic research on: digital strategic communication, computational communication and algorithms, digital culture and organisational change.
Originally published at coveragebook.com.
