The lesson from this finding is that PR needs to provide continuous education to the CEO, balanced with proven performance.
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The 2019 Global Communications Report survey shows there is a lot of homework for public relations (PR) to do in order to be able to answer the industry challenges in the future. Especially in convincing the CEO to place PR as a strategic management function.
JAKARTA, PRINDONESIA.CO – The results of this survey were conveyed by Sari Soegondo, Deputy Chairperson of APPRI, at the APPRIentice Workshop held by the Association of Indonesian PR Companies (APPRI) on Monday (10/12/2020). According to her, although the survey was conducted by an agency from the United States, the USC Annenberg Center for PR, it is quite relevant and can become a reference for public relations (PR) in Indonesia.
The findings from this survey are also expected to provide an overview of the future of PR, the challenges that will be faced, as well as innovations or tools that can be used to support PR work. Thus, their existence can have a bigger impact on the corporation/industry.
The survey was conducted by involving respondents from two categories. Namely, CEOs and PR people from both corporate PR and PR agencies. Sari said the result was quite concerning. When asked about the communication agenda that is considered the most important for the next several years, for example, 44 percent of respondents from the CEOs category agreed that sales and services are the most important.
However, both CEO and PR respondents agreed on the importance of brand differentiation so that they stand out in the midst of intense competition. Unfortunately, only 4 percent of respondents from CEOs have the awareness to defend a brand when it is under threat.
CEO awareness was also still low regarding the importance of overseeing data and analytics to provide insights for the company when building opinions, trends, let alone shaping the position of the company amid social issues. In addition, both CEO and PR respondents were still not too focused on utilizing data and processing information analysis. In fact, Sari, who is also the Executive Director of ID Comm, said that data and analysis are the heart for companies and PR to get deep insights if they want to build and communicate their brand differentiation.
In addition, as many as 60 percent of CEOs were not interested in communicating social issues related to their business. On the other hand, 69 percent of respondents in the PR category recognized the importance of communicating this to safeguard ecosystems and strengthen safety nets for companies.
Furthermore, will the PR industry experience any significant changes in the next five years? As many as 61 percent of respondents from PR agencies said yes, but corporate PR was not entirely optimistic. This also appeared in the question, will the budget for public relations develop in the future? Only 69 percent of the corporate PR group said yes. Meanwhile, 26 percent answered that there was no change, and 5 percent answered that it was decreasing. However, both of them agreed that in the future PR and marketing would be more integrated.
Continuous Education
The lesson from this finding, Sari continued, PR needs to provide continuous education to the CEO, balanced with performance proofs so that the CEO is aware that PR is part of the strategic management function. "PR is not only a support system for providing information, but it is capable of being a strategic 'whisperer' to direct where corporations want to be taken," she said.
Given that the applied science of PR is predicted to be increasingly integrated with marketing, this shows that CEOs demand that PR is not just about maintaining reputation and networking. More than that, the CEO hopes that PR, through its function and role, will contribute to the company's agenda. "If this can be done, it is possible that it will open greater opportunities for PR to enter a deeper realm within the company and encourage structural changes within the organization," she concluded. (rtn)
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.jpeg&w=417&h=289 "Afifudin, IndiHome: Orchestrating Empathic Communication")
The 2019 Global Communications Report survey shows there is a lot of homework for public relations (PR) to do in order to be able to answer the industry challenges in the future. Especially in convincing the CEO to place PR as a strategic management function.
JAKARTA, PRINDONESIA.CO – The results of this survey were conveyed by Sari Soegondo, Deputy Chairperson of APPRI, at the APPRIentice Workshop held by the Association of Indonesian PR Companies (APPRI) on Monday (10/12/2020). According to her, although the survey was conducted by an agency from the United States, the USC Annenberg Center for PR, it is quite relevant and can become a reference for public relations (PR) in Indonesia.
The findings from this survey are also expected to provide an overview of the future of PR, the challenges that will be faced, as well as innovations or tools that can be used to support PR work. Thus, their existence can have a bigger impact on the corporation/industry.
The survey was conducted by involving respondents from two categories. Namely, CEOs and PR people from both corporate PR and PR agencies. Sari said the result was quite concerning. When asked about the communication agenda that is considered the most important for the next several years, for example, 44 percent of respondents from the CEOs category agreed that sales and services are the most important.
However, both CEO and PR respondents agreed on the importance of brand differentiation so that they stand out in the midst of intense competition. Unfortunately, only 4 percent of respondents from CEOs have the awareness to defend a brand when it is under threat.
CEO awareness was also still low regarding the importance of overseeing data and analytics to provide insights for the company when building opinions, trends, let alone shaping the position of the company amid social issues. In addition, both CEO and PR respondents were still not too focused on utilizing data and processing information analysis. In fact, Sari, who is also the Executive Director of ID Comm, said that data and analysis are the heart for companies and PR to get deep insights if they want to build and communicate their brand differentiation.
In addition, as many as 60 percent of CEOs were not interested in communicating social issues related to their business. On the other hand, 69 percent of respondents in the PR category recognized the importance of communicating this to safeguard ecosystems and strengthen safety nets for companies.
Furthermore, will the PR industry experience any significant changes in the next five years? As many as 61 percent of respondents from PR agencies said yes, but corporate PR was not entirely optimistic. This also appeared in the question, will the budget for public relations develop in the future? Only 69 percent of the corporate PR group said yes. Meanwhile, 26 percent answered that there was no change, and 5 percent answered that it was decreasing. However, both of them agreed that in the future PR and marketing would be more integrated.
Continuous Education
The lesson from this finding, Sari continued, PR needs to provide continuous education to the CEO, balanced with performance proofs so that the CEO is aware that PR is part of the strategic management function. "PR is not only a support system for providing information, but it is capable of being a strategic 'whisperer' to direct where corporations want to be taken," she said.
Given that the applied science of PR is predicted to be increasingly integrated with marketing, this shows that CEOs demand that PR is not just about maintaining reputation and networking. More than that, the CEO hopes that PR, through its function and role, will contribute to the company's agenda. "If this can be done, it is possible that it will open greater opportunities for PR to enter a deeper realm within the company and encourage structural changes within the organization," she concluded. (rtn)