Rishi Seth is Co-Founder of Six Degrees. He is currently a investor and partner at The Practice.
The Impact of Technology on Business
Public Relations is going through a transformation as a profession due to the advancements of technology and how it impacts every sphere of its business. The fact that the medium for communications will be dominated by digital is a no brainer but this would not mean that the importance of key influencers would reduce. It would shift from media houses being the primary source of information to subject matter experts and online content aggregators also being equal participants.
In terms of focus areas, I would imagine that depending on the kind of primary role that the organisation needs a Public Relations person, might seem to be a product marketing specialist in one company, a reputation counsellor in another or part of the talent and people team depending on the needs of the business. We are therefore seeing specialists come out in horizontal service lines also.
Organic media content will no longer define the scope of a Public Relations professional’s intervention. The fraternity will take the lead for all four aspects of content – PESO (Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned) and will use all mediums possible to amplify the communication. In fact, this is already well underway – just that the capabilities and resources in building these services will significantly go up in the next few years. This also means that the next few years are a time of investment for the profession, which might also lead to some consolidation.
Talent requirement for the Public Relations profession will also undergo a sea change. The profession will need a diverse talent base of people including creative talent, visual and design content experts, data and analytic scientists, prompt engineers and many more.
A Public Relations professional will have information, data, insights and creative tools driven by technology which was never available to the profession before. This will add the element of more science/data/analytics to the art of Public Relations. A massive upskill in talent is on the anvil and I think the businesses will compete with many other sectors for people and not just from communication schools.
Newer models of commercial engagement would also emerge in the Public Relations business. We are already seeing performance based variable fee being made part of contracts and fixed fee component might reduce as part of total compensation. Given the nature of work, engagement will be more specific with clear outcome metrics. This means the measurement and ROI evaluation frameworks will also get revalidated.
Read more about their journey and thoughts in the book Surge. Get a copy at bit.ly/surgethebook