What does the future hold for PR? What are the trends that will impact our profession and the brands we represent. What do communications professionals need to stop doing?

1. A Star to Sail Her By
PR Predictions
Mark W. McClennan, APR
SVP, MSLGROUP
Chair-Elect, PRSA National
@McClennan

2. Three things to
discuss
What will
change in PR
in 2015?
What will stop
in PR in 2015?
How tech will
change PR

3. Let’s look at some other
predictions
• The world has changed today we are one
intellectual village
• We are one
• This will all amount to nothing
• We are deluged with too much information
• Newspapers must submit to destiny and
go out of business
• It is now the essential means of all
business transactions
• New types of crime are occurring every
day

4. 1840s
The invention of the telegraph

5. The PR industry is at an
inflection point

6. InkHouse Media

7. The next generation
agency doesn’t exist yet
More like ad agency crossed with a
TV Newsroom

8. News Cycles Will
Compress Further
“We are no longer dealing with a 24
hours news cycle. We are dealing
with a 24 second news cycle.”
– Mike McDougall, Bausch & Lomb
Digital media can rapidly escalate and
amplify small crises into major global
issues. Monitoring and managing for
potential crises requires a disciplined,
multidisciplinary approach

9. ICYMI New Word for
2015

10. 5000+
Social Media
Crisis

11. Quest for
experiential will
reach new heights

13. Puppies and kittens will
remain popular

14. Kim Kardashian
will
break the internet
shutterstock Helga Esteb

15. 2015: The year of
measurement and
analytics

16. Global vs Hyperlocal
divide will grow

17. Coding and Chinese

18. The
Future is
Wearable Oculus Rift
HoloVisor
Google
glass

19. Content choices

20. 20
Bright future for PR
• 12%+ PR Growth rates from 2011
– 2016 compared with a 9%
increase from 2006 – 2011.
(Veronis, Suhler, Stevenson)
• Employment for public relations
managers will increase by over
16% and for specialists by over
22% through 2020. (The Bureau of
Labor Statistics)

21. 21
AVE will die,
die die

22. Twitter strategy will die
It’s the business strategy

23. The Natural (1984)
I hate math will
disappear from the
PR lexicon

24. PR is the best
profession
I wouldn’t do anything
else