The PR Show 2013 was held on Tuesday 26th November 2013 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. A compact exhibition with three education streams and a CIPR Taster Workshop area, the PR Show 2013 was lively and educational. Over 1000 PR professionals and students attended and exhibitors included news desks, merchendisers and media outlets.
Kerry Savage from Savage Communications was an excellent speaker, talking about the correct way to set PR strategy, she talked through the planning cycle and setting a brief for each project internally, with the same level of detail that you would develop from an agency client. Kerry's Golden Rule was that PR objectives should align with the wider business objectives in order to provide the full benefit of PR for ROI and other goals such as market share growth. Kerry encouraged us to question the root of objectives, such as why do you want to raise awareness, is this to grow market share, and is this to become a market leader in order to gain new investment or to expand in to global markets? Map all stakeholders and consider their value to your plan in order to establish the priority of engagement. Finally strategy must come from insight, which comes from research. Research is the key to a well versed and successful PR plan, but is often the element that lack of time and priority eradicates.
Andrew Smith talked about Social Media and Measuring and Evaluating PR. It was interesting to consider PR from a mobile and digital perspective. Quoting that 90% of all media interactions are screen based and the smartphone is the first touchpoint for 2/3 of the population. Google is moving from search engine to trust engine and Google+ is vital to future content verification. Video is the most visible and shared form of content on Facebook and with the majority looking at social media within 15 minutes of waking up, social media must be adopted strategically for the future of PR. Sites like mention.net and Googles consumer insight, make audience research easier and clearer when choosing the most appropriate channel to meet your objectives. Andrew quoted Lord Kelvin in his Measuring and Evaluating PR talk saying, "When you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind". PR commonly suffers from a lower rate of investment than its cousins Marketing and Events as ROI is often unclear. Andrew suggests forgetting press clippings and AVE in favour of web/mobile and screen driven reality. Using tools such as Consumer Barometer, Google Trends and Think with Google should demonstrate clear outcomes rather than outputs and can be translated into ROI. 
Caroline Black talked about successfully selling in your stories, suggesting that you should build a relationship with the top ten journalists to your industry or target audience. Make sure you understand the journalism process and environment, in order to ensure your contact if quick, efficient and directed at the correct person in the right format. Don't waffle, don't harass and make sure you have done proper research. Good stories are concise, have all of the facts, and contain a human angle, for example triumph over tragedy. Stories should have truth: Topical/timely, relevant, unusual, tension and human interest. Finally prioritise your list of Journalists. Coca Cola have vowed to eradicate press releases by 2015, setting the future of their PR on digital platforms. This is definitely a recurring pattern within the PR industry, at the SPS Group 70% of communication is digital, leaving just 30% for press releases, newsletters and other traditional mediums.
Kate Betts suggests having a crisis plan in place, that can be rolled out quickly. Kate believes that many organisations fail to prepare and this causes irreparable damage to reputation. Ensure the most appropriate spokespeople are selected and are fully media trained. Have an immediate response prepared that shows concern, action and reassurance. Understand the correct channels to use and the needs of the press, so that in a crisis situation your reputation is safeguarded. After the event, is there further opportunity to work with the press, have you kept your promises and are there opportunities for further engagement or CSR?
Top tips from the PR Show 2013:
- Ensure your PR strategy is aligned with the overall corporate strategy, in order to give clear KPI and ROI indicators. You should know the business plan for this year, next and year three at least.
- Have a crisis and a crisis of perception plan in place. Ensure the key spokespeople are identified and given full media training. Ensure your spokespeople are able to confidently and expertly talk about issues in your industry.
- Fully utilise free Google metrics, analytics and consumer insight sites to give your PR plan, a stronger foundation.
- Research, research, research. Dig deep and remove the layers behind the brief's objectives, then understand your audience, leading to a targeted strategy.
- Choose your social media platform according to your target audience, not what is available. Many organisations use the core social media to promote a single message, but this is not as effective as a tailored approach.
The PR Show 2013 was a great arena for knowledge, but did lack a sense of innovation and trends within the industry. The exhibition was small but all stands were relevant and useful. I really enjoyed the CIPR Taster Workshops and would recommend all of the speakers. For 2014 more exhibitors and a focus on the changing face of PR would be my recommendation. There was also a lack of interactivity, which was a shame, a showcase of recent award winners would have been a nice touch, maybe even a virtual newsroom as it was established that the majority of attendees had never visited a working newsroom. With journalist and blogger relations remaining so key to PR practitioners, a stronger link to media relations would have been beneficial.
Maria Parker - Harris
Group Marketing Co-ordinator
The SPS Group
www.thespsgroup.co.uk
The PR Show 2013 - http://www.prshow13.co.uk
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