Is the PR industry continuing to grow in a harsh economic climate?
March 19th, 2009 by Lloyd Gofton
In case you missed it on Tuesday, there was an interesting PR story on Press Gazette, titled: the indiscreet charm of Lord Bell: Boom times continue for PR industry by Peter Kirwan.
Unlike many other recent articles that have prophesied a long downturn for the PR industry, this piece cites examples of positivity. An example quote from Jon Slattery’s recent Guardian piece on redundancies in regional press, confirmed that journalists are turning to PR as a safer bet for employment, most specifically former regional journalists going to PR jobs in local councils.
Furthermore, Lord Bell is also quoted from an original FT piece confirming that Chime Communications reported organic growth of 10% last year. Lord Bell commented: “In 2008 we clearly had results that were extremely good in an environment that most people said was extremely bad. January and February have also seen growth.”
At Liberate Media we have also seen continued positivity in the PR sector, although decision making around new business seems to be greatly extended. However, the opportunities are still very much there and we are optimistic about the year ahead.
In fact, just the other day I had this very discussion with a client who asked how things are in the PR industry. This was before I had seen the Press Gazette piece. The client mirrored the points in the latter stages of the piece confirming that although advertising budgets are being cut, PR investment and especially investment in social media will continue as the value proposition is much clearer and can be translated to the ultimate decision makers with increasing ease.
So, do I believe the PR industry will continue to flourish in the current economic downturn? Well, yes and no. As I’ve said on many occasions previously, PR needs to change. The traditional PR agency will find the current economic climate puts additional pressure on an already threatened profit margin. However, those agencies and consultants that embrace more suitable working models, open communications, and as a result social media, or at the very least the theory behind social media, will benefit in the long term.
PR isn’t recession proof, far from it. But those agencies and consultants that are evolving their services inline with the developing communications environment will fare better and come out much stronger when recovery begins.
Tags: economic climate, growth, PR industry, Social media
