3 essential PR insights from #CisionWorldTour London
The lively debate surrounding yesterday’s Cision World Tour event extended far beyond the packed auditorium at London’s Ham Yard Hotel.
Members of the audience took to Twitter to share their thoughts using #CisionWorldTour.
Here are three of the most important PR insights explored at the event – from the future of influencer marketing to why it’s essential to measure the performance of your campaigns.
The shifting media landscape has transformed PR
The shifting landscape has completely changed the comms model @cision #CisionWorldTour pic.twitter.com/SNAkBwda44
— Joanna Drake (@thejodrake) June 6, 2017
As Cision CMO Chris Lynch said, the secret to crafting great PR campaigns comes down to three core storytelling principles: be human, be emotive and be original.
Originality is the hardest of these to achieve, but innovations such as competitor insights and social listening tools give communicators ways to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Dove put this approach to great use in its #RealBeauty campaign. The company used the Cision Communications Cloud to discover what people were saying about women’s body image and crafted a campaign that really resonated.
“Dove really gets at a lot of difficult issues about body image,” said Lynch. “The latest part of the campaign, which we supported, was around a creative content study. If you know this campaign, it has all the pillars of creative campaigns that we have been talking about.”
Measuring the impact of communications has never been more vital
Biggest PR industry challenge? “My big thing is trying to get a measure for reputation” says @Telefonica ‘s Nicola Green #CisionWorldTour pic.twitter.com/lg7ZlLM7zD
— Richard Griffiths (@richardgriffo) June 6, 2017
The importance of measuring the performance of PR campaigns so communicators can demonstrate their business impact came up time and again throughout the event.
“Getting in a top tier outlet is great, but what does that mean for the business?” Lynch queried. “That’s a question that’s getting asked more and more.”
Although 81 percent of senior marketers believe earned media is more effective than paid media, marketing budgets are still skewed towards paid. This is an opportunity for communicators and PR pros to ask for meaningful metrics so that they can more accurately prove the business impact of their work.
The way people engage with content is changing
@Trendmeister opens by speaking on how technology is changing the way our brains work + the rise of the attention economy #CisionWorldTour pic.twitter.com/baYOwng6eO
— Allison Adams (@allisonadams405) June 6, 2017
The Future Laboratory co-founder Chris Sanderson used his keynote speech to highlight the way technology is transforming how people engage with content. Consumers live in a state of total distraction, he said, and are constantly bombarded with technology.
“How is it we’ve lost the ability to do just one thing and do one thing well?” he asked. “The average human attention span has fallen, it’s estimated, from about 12 seconds in 2000 to just eight seconds by 2015.”
He concluded that technology is creating fantastic opportunities for PR professionals. But the industry needs to innovate and take full advantage of the latest innovations in order to create bold campaigns that capture the imagination of consumers.
- The Cision World Tour is a series of events exploring the future of communications with leaders and influencers in the industry. The next event takes place tomorrow (June 8) in Paris. You can follow the debate on Twitter via #CisionWorldTour.
