The future of communications: How are you doing?
PR News 
Ben Smith
I was delighted to attend ICCOs international PR conference in Helsinki a couple of weeks back. I've never been a huge fan of conference reviews type articles so I'll spare you and I that!
That said, one of the standout sessions for me at ICCO was from Ketchum’s Rob Flaherty. Rob has asked a couple of his biggest PR firm competitors how they were doing on their road to integrated communications and he presented the results of this research.
One of the outputs from this research was what I thought was a really useful and brief tick box questionnaire for all PR agencies and in-house teams. This is shown here. I thought this was a simple and honest way of assessing how all of us are doing on our integrated journey.
Here is Rob's thinking behind why he created this scorecard:
News isn’t a destination that people seek out anymore. The new definition of news is “something important enough to find me.” A company’s supply of news isn’t nearly as interesting to readers as the demand side of news: what everyone is already talking about. The most credible source of information isn’t in an agenda-setting media outlet, it’s a recommendation from a friend or content shared by someone I know.
Add to this that expectations of companies and leaders are changing. People expect companies to be purpose-driven and their polices to ensure sustainability. Leaders are increasingly expected to speak out on social and political issues.
For brands to engage effectively in the jet stream of conversations already happening, they need great social listening and data analytics, better creativity, incredible original content creation abilities, algorithm-savvy paid media strategies, AI-enabled influencer outreach and global measurement of ROI. They also need counselors who can advise on purpose-driven strategy, public policies and social issues.
This scorecard is a simple tool to assess your progress in the transformation. I hope it helps spark a dialogue about your journey. We need all of us in communications to drive change and seize this opportunity.
Rob Flaherty, Chairman and CEO, Ketchum
Article originally published on prmoment.com
If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe for free to our weekly event and subscriber alerts.
Featured
PR professionals share their views on journalists publicly calling them out on story pitches
Auto blogger renders unconditional apology to Value 360 for defamatory posts
Hottest Indian startups of 2020, Paytm, Dreams 11 lead the charge: Wizikey Report
