STILL FIGHTING... AND WINNING

By Nitin Mantri, ICCO Past President & Avian WE Group CEO
Extracted from the 2022-2023 ICCO World PR Report

The last year has been a mixed bag of challenges and opportunities. Hope followed closely on the heels of despair as vaccines followed COVID-19 and recovery followed lockdowns.

The PR industry was no exception. Consultancy heads, across regions worldwide, admitted that Covid-19 hit business, with 43% identifying cancelled or delayed campaigns as the worst fallout while others said new opportunities (39%) and payment delays (30%) were also affected. However, it was not all gloom and doom as the score for perceived growth and opportunity for PR touched an optimistic 7.3, on an ascending scale of 1 to 10. Asia Pacific (APAC) region agency heads were the most confident about industry growth, pegging the predictive score for growth and opportunity at 7.8, a notch above Africa and United Kingdom scores of 7.6 and surpassing the global score of 7.3.

Growing stronger

The industry is expecting a decent increase in profitability this year despite the challenges. PR agencies have been successfully addressing client needs, guiding them through the tricky post-pandemic terrain. The APAC region was most in agreement in this aspect, scoring client needs address an enthusiastic 6.8.

And this in the face of hurdles like fake news. APAC PR leaders gave an agreement score of 6.3 – at par with the global score – to the increasing difficulty in differentiating between accurate information and fake news. However, leaders insist that the PR industry continued to operate ethically, with APAC sentiments (6.6) similar to the global stance (6.5) on this.

Growth Map

APAC region agency heads predict that the biggest areas of growth in the region for the next five years would be IT and technology (72%), healthcare (48%) and financial and professional services (45%). In terms of PR firms’ investment this year, investment in ESG and influencer communication is expected to rise further, while social media security management is taking a considerable tumble from the 2021 data. In fact, ESG appears in the top two areas of investment in every region studied, including APAC.

Overall, PR agencies are taking an optimistic approach to the future in their respective regions. A good sign because optimism, I believe, lays the groundwork for success.

Download the full 2022-2023 ICCO World PR Report here: https://iccopr.com/services/wo...