WPP’s Mark Read has issued his take during this ‘summer of discontent’: “I’d advise clients to stay close to their customer. Stay close to the agency.”<\/p>\n
I’d go one further than Mark Read and say: “Stay close to the media.”<\/p>\n
For those that have been here before, you will be aware of the drill. Recession is on the horizon, purse strings are being tightened, and in this industry, we\u2019re re-thinking exactly how important that press release about a new fridge really is.<\/p>\n
Recession talk is like a run on the bank. Fear strikes, the chatter gets louder, and before you know it, it\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n
\u2018Reading the room\u2019 is a big part of our remit, more than ever right now. Considering every facet of consumer spending is the universal strategy across every press office.<\/p>\n
And the coming few months are going to be challenging in the extreme as we face a crash in consumer confidence.<\/p>\n
Deeply depressing for sure, but what do we do about it? And, remember, you\u2019re being paid to promote that new fridge.<\/p>\n
The simple truth is this: we must play our part in turning things around.<\/p>\n
While marketing must adapt to this new landscape, and adopt an appropriate tonality amid the crisis, the biggest mistake it can make is going quiet.<\/p>\n
Consumers will still spend their hard-earned money, but will turn to brands they trust and value.<\/p>\n
Publishers are not immune to the downturn. Advertising spend, already damaged by the pandemic, will take a further hit.<\/p>\n
The cost of the very paper that print editions are made from has soared. Last November, The Economist quoted one newspaper boss saying: “It’s like tasering an elderly person who is already on a pacemaker.”<\/p>\n
Fewer pages means fewer stories. The move to online will gather apace.<\/p>\n
But it is tough to monetise digital news. Those behind paywalls with fare better, but their audiences, by design are niche. The free to air publishers are using a variety of strategies to turn this around, almost all aimed at driving mass audience numbers based on page views and engagement. This presents a huge challenge to PR.<\/p>\n
Bleak, right? But these challenges are not insurmountable. Great ideas will always cut through.<\/p>\n
The litmus test for every project must be this – would you read it? If you cannot answer that question with a resounding yes, you’re on the wrong track.<\/p>\n
I am reminded of a conversation I had some years back with a publicist from an agency that shall remain nameless.<\/p>\n
Relating that a former colleague of mine on The Sun was receiving 800 press releases daily when they used to receive less than 100, and that, as a result, she had stopped reading any from someone PRs she didn’t know, the publicist replied: “But that’s her job.”<\/p>\n
Except it isn’t. Journalists do not care what our clients want. They only care about what their readers want.<\/p>\n
In these straitened times making our work interesting and relevant isn’t enough. We must make it matter.<\/p>\n
By Chris Pharo, Managing Director<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WPP’s Mark Read has issued his take during this ‘summer of discontent’: “I’d advise clients to stay close to their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":96630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-72point-news"],"yoast_head":"\n