10 PR trends to watch in 2023

Companies are expected to show more of what they stand for. Their values and standards, their attitude to social trends and not just communicate about their products and services. This includes also more communication to media about a vision and broader category / sector PR.That way you can show expertise and leadership in broader background stories in the press. Social responsibility remains one of the biggest trends in PR this year.

Speed and agility become even more important. PR agencies must come up with pitches and ideas in real time and be able to execute immediately. After all, news is consumed by consumers here and now. The decision-making process at commissioning companies must therefore be accelerated.

Where a medium used to have one podcast, they now have several per expertise. One for culture, multimedia, politics. Every journalist is looking for good content for their weekly podcast. Make specific plans for this.

Do not approach the media only when there is a big announcement but develop a content plan with specific value-added interesting content.

For each message, identify influencers with authority and an opinion. They are usually followed by specialist journalists who monitor them to see what is trending. If your product/service is named in this, you are more likely to be noticed by mainstream media.

Media and PR have changed since Covid, but what remains is journalists’ need for strong stories, interpretation, and a good connection with staff within companies. At key moments where there is a lot of news, we recommend organizing small physical touch points such as informal demos or roundtables. Trusting relationships are everything in PR and that’s how you get to know better what the journalist needs and how you can help them. Media predict that face-to face talks and small informal events like PR-workshops will make a comeback. Stop over-supplying online events only and webinars. It drives journalists crazy. Either the news is important enough, then organise an event and media will come or reach for other PR tools like pitching a 1-1 story, an interview, or a review.

Multi skilled project teams from PR, advertising, media buying, and social media will work more and more closely together on major campaigns.

From media side, journalists will share more articles within one media group and rely on supplied articles from freelancers or foreign media.

The arrival of Web3: in this future form of the Internet, users communicate with each other in a decentralized way. All interactions are conducted without the mediation of tech companies, banks, or other intermediaries. Media, companies, and consumers will interact more directly.

In 2023, media will look for exclusives. They want to deliver high quality and unique content to their paying subscribers, so PR people need to capitalise on this more by doing something extra for certain media or giving them a scoop. Sending embargoed press releases is starting to get out of the picture. Journalists need to be able to write here and now online, because readers expect this too. If they have to wait, your chance is gone.

AI is everywhere and the PR industry will also explore what it can do in the profession in the coming years. The biggest advantage is that technology can help identify journalists and media that may be interested in certain stories. It can also find a pattern in which stories are picked up and which are not. Based on that, AI can then write press releases that meet those criteria. While we are not at this point yet, it is useful to think about how the PR profession will evaluate and how technology can play a role. Because even on the media side, articles in the distant future will increasingly be written by AI rather than journalists.

IM continues its path in the trend of influencers with lower reach but who are more authentic and more engaging. Their role in the PR plan is changing from general awareness creation to more direct conversations with the community and conversion. It is better to get a lot of engagement and ultimately sales with a small influencer, than a lot of reach with a big influencer who has less impact on buying behaviour. We predict (hopefully) the end of mass influencers who are richly paid for reach but do not create engaging and inspirational content.