The Power of the WORLDCOM PUBLIC RELATIONS GROUP The Local Advantage. Worldwide. A Global Perspective on the Trends and Challenges Facing PR Professionals in 2015 and beyond

Background  Worldcom PR Group  Worldcom Public Relations Group is the world’s leading partnership of independently owned public relations firms, with 140 offices employing some 2,400 staff in 111 markets across six continents.  In total, Worldcom partners reported combined revenue of US$281 million last year from 3,323 clients.  Corinna Voss  Managing Director and Partner at HBI Intl. PR & MarCom in Munich  Over 20 years of experience in international communication  Former Regional and Global Chair of the Worldcom Public Relations Group  Marketing Chair, Board Member of the Regional Board EMEA and Global Board Member of the Worldcom Public Relations Group

„The fading significance of traditional media and the rise of social media and corporate media at the same time is the biggest challenge for PR….“ Thomas Mickeleit, Member of the Management and Director Media and PR at Microsoft Deutschland GmbH “Traditional media accelerates its decline. Some media brands will figure out that their new role in the media landscape is not provider of information, but curator and qualifier. A few brands have already figured this out, that what they dispense is not information, but credibility.” Shift Comm. UK „The rise of social networks in recent years has been one of the greatest agents of change in the media and PR industries. Not only have sites like Facebook and Twitter affected the content strategies of journalists and PR professionals, they've changed the way effectiveness is measured as well.” Business News Daily

The Survey  Defined six key trends in PR based on what we experience and learn about every day  Partners were asked for a ranking  Asked Worldcom agencies to describe their individual key challenge for 2015  Asked about 100 partners on six continents  Got 60 qualified answers from all Worldcom regions  Americas, APAC and EMEA

Six Key Trends  PR Firms will expand services and resources as the borderline between PR/Advertising/Marketing/Social and Digital is blurred.  Competition for clients and share of budget will be greater with more than just "PR Firms" competing in the same space for the same or expanded work.  The social media landscape changes so fast that it is hard to remain up-to- date.  Importance of direct customer engagement is changing the roles of agencies - in many cases we do not have the interface media/blog anymore.  The trend to tie in communications programs in sales figures (registrations, downloads, online purchasing).  How content and content creation has become key etc.

Key Trends – Worldwide  The three top choices are linked with each other:  Service offering will have to become broader and resources will have to be differently planned  Content and its creation – connected to the widened service range  New competitors – expansion of services

Key Trends – By Region – Americas (Mostly North America)  Direct Customer engagement top trend:  Social Media is further developed  Still - expanding the service offering and resources of PR companies is a key trend

Key Trends – By Region – APAC  Ranking of top trends is identical with worldwide results  Expanding services/resources, content and its creation and competitive landscape

Key Trends – By Region – EMEA  Similar ranking to other regions  Again service range and resources is a central aspect but also the pressure on on agencies to tie their campaigns into actual sales results

Key Trends – Selected Countries – Hungary

Key Trends – Selected Countries – Germany

Key Trends – Selected Countries – UK

Key Trends – Selected Countries – Japan

Key Trends – Selected Countries – USA

Key Findings on Trends  The trend for PR agencies to expand their services and resources and move into new areas (social media, digital etc.) for their business has been ranked under the top 3 trends worldwide.  Whereas in the Americas region direct customer engagement is the top trend  Agencies in EMEA seem to feel the pressure from clients to tie in their programs and budgets directly into sales that they generated  Reason is the different stage of development of social media platforms and also that the decline of the influence of classical media is more advanced  Content creation is key  The competitive landscape has changed tremendously in all regions

“In our country we have to face very fierce competition in the agency market, while clients want more services for the same or sometimes even smaller budgets.” Andras R. Nagy, Probako, Budapest “Digital will be more important and the goal is prepare the agency to provide new services in this arena.” Angelica Consiglio, PLANIN, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro “The biggest challenge for us will be competing with marketing/ advertising firms for clients. We will address that challenge by strengthening tie-ups with marketing/ad agencies that lack public relations expertise, making our services complementary.” Daniel Fath, Total Communications System Inc. (TOCS), Tokyo Challenges – What PR professionals say “In many cases, putting on the "sales hat," not the "marketing "hat." The PR hat is already long gone. The way to overcome is to invest in education of yourself and your staff.” Elisabeth Sosnow, Bliss PR NYC “Measurement to make PR more tangible and demonstrate ROI. Requires agencies/clients to work closely together to capture the impact of PR by creating internal measurement processes… and linking PR to online analytics…” Chris Lawrence, JBP, Bristol London

Let‘s get digital!  Biggest challenge in PR work  Need for adaptation to changes in communication and media use  Speed by which information is spread nowadays (i.e. crisis management)  Growing impact of social media, rapidly changing landscape  Breaking the boundary between offline and online media services

Compete with your new competitors!  Marketing and advertising agencies are our new competitors  Need for diversification and multitasking beyond PR work  Integrated Communication

Find new ways to proof your success!  Need for valuable statistical data to make PR work more tangible and proof value and impact  Requires tools for campaign and customer perception measurement

Brand Awareness is good, Sales are better!  Position public relations as a key player in marketing  Integrated approach blurring traditional boundaries

What shall we do now?  Ways to look at the findings  Understand these trends and challenges as chances  PR professionals can become the central hub of various communication strings  Who, if not a communication professional can lead the way  Be open and invest!  A new set of high quality services and the chance to educate your team  Open the possibility of additional revenue streams  New ways of communicating and the chance to create valuable content is not a threat but a creative process  Think integrated and how you can measure and reflect the value of your work  Yes, there are more competitors but if you are good, you are as much a threat to them as they to you

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