Ornico's SA PR Measurement Landscape Report has revealed interesting trends in the PR industry (Image source: © Ornico
Ornico"Communication in South Africa has forgotten one important element, and that is that it flows in both directions," says Dr Tersia Landsberg, (PhD) communications specialist, Co Communications, who presented the report findings on Thursday, 27 November.
“For example, the in-house practitioner who is campaigning to be at the (C Suite) table is often stuck thinking, What can I get from that table? What information can I get to make my job easier, better, faster?
“But there are not many cases in South Africa where they are asking, What can I add to that table? Yet, that is the absolute goal of PR and communications.
“All PR practitioners want to engage with the C-suite, but we need to start saying, I want to be here not because I want something but because I want to add something.
“And that’s when we can restart communications to go bottom up and top down."
Oresti Patricios, CEO, Ornico, comments further on this, “The key thing to ask is what value am I adding? What am I bringing to the table when I'm invited? And that takes a lot of understanding of corporate strategy.”
He ties this back to measurement because he says if we are doing what the C Suite is looking at, then we need to take measurement more seriously as an industry.
AI: the elephant in the room
The report found that AI adoption in PR has soared.
In 2024, 45% of practitioners started using AI, with only six percent having no plan to adopt AI in their roles. Last year, that figure was 21%. This can be because practitioners are realising they do not really have a choice in this.
Of practitioners, 80% are using AI for idea generation. Other applications include content creation (65%), media research (62%), and measurement and evaluation (66% planning to use).
The most significant benefit: 92% of AI users report time savings, followed by improved efficiency (24%)and reduced costs (20%)
Landsberg says AI has both positive and negative effects on the purpose of PR.
“There has been quite a lot about how AI is rebirthing PR because PR feeds the content machine that AI needs for its generative AI responses.”
But she says there is something else happening with AI that will have an almost existential impact on the PR profession.
“AI and generative AI are stopping the clicks going to the media that we're trying to influence to write about our organisations.
“If this continues for too long, those media won't be getting any clicks, and they rely on those clicks to power their advertising. If there are no clicks, maybe advertising will stop.”
She adds as that it is none of us are paying for this media anymore.
“Where we used to go and buy a print newspaper, we don't anymore, and we expect our digital content to be provided to us for free.”
This is something she feels that the industry needs to have a serious conversation about.
“AI is a bit messy at the moment, but it's both exciting and frightening at the same time.”
Tshegofatso Lebethe 1 day Those annoying AVEs
The report shows that AVEs are starting to leave the conversation.
In 2022, 63% of practitioners were using AVEs to report on their PR efforts. This year, that number is down to 36%.
Patricios spoke about how, over a decade ago, he hosted an event on measurement in the industry, but the industry was only interested in AVEs.
Those days are long gone - at least they should be. It was agreed that AVEs are outdated, and even the discussion around them should not be happening in this day and age.
Patricios adds, “Measurement helps us with strategy and strategy is the most important part that we need to play as communicators, but you cannot do that if you do not know what you are measuring.”
Panel member at the report presentation, PR Powerhouse MD, Lebo Madiba, adds that her agency does not use AVEs, while Landsberg states that these are not in use much globally.
This is the fourth year of the report. Find out more at Ornico
