Shortly after Midas PR Group being named Thailand’s first PROI (Public Relations Organization International) partner, the global PR organization will be holding its first ever APAC conference in Thailand this week. It will be the first time so many award-winning PR practitioners come together in the Thai capital. During this event, leading public relations firms from around South-East Asia, New Zealand and Australia will gather to discuss how the industry is moving forward in the age of ever-accelerating technological development and quickly changing trends in communication. Some of the conference’s main points are outlined below to highlight how they impact PR agencies and their clients.
Artificial Intelligence in Public Relations
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become more prevalent in day-to-day business operations and more and more companies are being influenced by it. While some industries see this as a threat to jobs, experts predict that in public relations and communications the effects of AI will be very positive for agencies as well as their clients.
As AI develops into a more powerful tool, it will make it easier to collect and evaluate big data. This will help PR professionals better understand their target markets in terms of how they search, consume and interpret the media and what their needs and interests are. That way PR agencies will be able to create perfectly tailored solutions that can be easily adapted to specific subgroups within the target market. Based on feedback received, campaigns and content can also be updated in real time, keeping them relevant and engaging for longer periods of time and removing content which proves unproductive.
This will save agencies significant amounts of time and give them more opportunities to focus on other tasks and issues that can’t be attended to by AI.
Development of Online Communications Channels
In recent years, online communication channels such as the various social media outlets have been gaining traction among companies around the world as they began to understand their importance. However, recent studies suggest that some corporations are shying away from creating too strong a presence on social media as they fear reputation damage from trolls or hacked accounts. Those businesses that do engage with their target market online have been found to lean towards image-heavy content and videos to connect with their followers.
Monitoring how companies feel about their online presence and which types of content they are most comfortable and successful with will help agencies understand and address their clients’ needs and concerns. This, in turn, will make it easier for PR professionals to understand how the media landscape is developing and which new skills they need to acquire to offer clients a complete range of services and help them achieve their goals.
PR in the Age of Disruption
It is widely known that today many new channels are disrupting the traditional media landscape and how people find and process information. While some companies still see the many recent changes as a threat, today’s PR professionals have come to see them as opportunities for their clients to reach their audiences in a new and more personal way. At the same time, it has become possible to get to know target markets and their desires more intimately, making it easier to address them in a relevant way. By embracing these new trends for and with their clients, PROI members help them take advantage of the new technology and the new possibilities it brings.
These were some of the PROI APAC 2017 Conference’s main topics in a nutshell. For more information and news about the event, stay tuned for our post-event report and summary.