Frederic Montin, CEO, Majlis PR & Events, touches on the PR/communications industry in 2018 and offers his thoughts on market trends…
It’s traditional to look to the New Year with hope and optimism, however, as communication and PR professionals, we cannot ignore the high tide we could encounter this year.
“The holidays are over and we are truly back to reality. With 2017 technically in the rearview mirror, I think this is a good time to sit down and share with you all the market trends, which could have the greatest impact on the PR Industry this year.”
Nothing is better than a good PR Story for your brand
Irrespective of the thousands of trends in our industry, to market and publicise your brand, a good PR story will always help one prevail long term. My intensive experience in this industry has helped me understand that a brand is best marketed through public relations. Your audience will know you and it will stay only through PR.
Finding new life in the fading press release is crucial
In the last few years, owing to the stiff competition from digital techniques, press releases have not been so effective in earning quality media share. This being said and with me being from the old-school PR generation, there’s always a way to bring new life to the ‘press release.’ As I say, “don’t give up, but reinvent.”
In 2018, video will stand as the most powerful tool of the year
Even in the last year, some of the most powerful PR campaigns have incorporated videos into them. The logic behind this is simple. Graphs, bars and numbers are not enough to grab the audience’s attention. People love to see, feel and understand the information you are sharing. It is important to help more clients understand the need for video content marketing.
Social message driven campaigns could kill the brand or make it stronger
Let’s be honest, there are tons of strong messages, groups and campaigns online covering intense, as well as worldly issues of climate change, immigration, child labour, etc. In the past several years, big brands have decided to take up multiples of these topics for use in corporate social responsibility (CSR) or simple sequence repeat (SSR) campaigns. Historically speaking, it would never be a good idea to be dragged into social-political drama, but today you cannot stay out of it. This has two sides to the coin, it can either backfire on your brand or help it increase the credibility of your brand. In the end, as navigators of communication, it is part of our job to help drive these issues in the right direction.
As the CEO of Majlis PR & Events based in this wonderful, historic city of Dubai, I have witnessed a variety of PR trends come and go in the MENA region. This only motivates me to say, ”take control of your communications plan. If we work hard now, we won’t merely be reacting to these trends, we could be the ones formulating them.”
