As the new year approaches, PR pros have finished planning and are putting the final touches on communications budgets for 2013—if they haven’t already.
Just what are they thinking in terms of budgeting strategies and facing the challenges allocating resources? PR News and CAPRSA (Counselor’s Academy of the Public Relations Society of America) decided to find out, by fielding a study to both in-house and agency PR executives, asking them key questions about planning and budget issues, budget trends for 2013 and the biggest challenges they face in the new year. The big takeaways:
• Loose process: Rather surprisingly, nearly 55% of respondents said the process for planning, measuring and executing PR efforts is informal—with some guidelines used sporadically. Just over 10% (11.1%) said they have no guidelines or process.
• Top challenges: Scarcity of resources—i.e staff, budget and time—is by far the top challenge communicators face (80.7%); followed by limited ability to think strategically due to day-to-day execution demands (55.7%); and inadequate amount of research to better understand the target audience (24%).
• Communicator’s top priorities for 2013: Brand awareness (43.8%); achieving or increasing measurable ROI (40.2%); and reputation management (27.8%) are top priorities.
• How communicators can best showcase PR to the C-suite: Relevant measurement rules, with 44.7% saying reporting on metrics of importance to C-level executives; 44.4% delivering results in a manner that’s easy for non-communications/PR executives to digest.
“It’s disheartening that 55% of PR pros go through an informal planning process,” says Mike Neumeier, principal of PR agency Arketi Group and a CAPRSA member.
But in a way, the finding makes sense. In today’s quick-pace environment, people are asking for quick plans, says Neumeier. “This makes long-term, granular planning hard,” he says.
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| The PR News/CAPRSA Planning & Budget survey yields some nuggets: Just 34% of in-house respondents hav a formal planning process (top); achieving higher brand awareness and ROI are top priorities (middle); and scarcity of resources is by far the top challenge faced by PR pros. |
The finding that metrics prove PR’s worth to the C-suite best comes with a challenge, says Elise Mitchell, president and CEO of Mitchell Communications Group. “As an agency, we’ve got to understand what metrics are most meaningful to the client,” says Mitchell.
DIGITAL CONNECTION
When asked about budget allocation changes from 2012 to 2013, 46.3% of in-house respondents noted a small increase in digital/social media efforts—including monitoring and reporting.
Make no mistake, digital platforms are receiving plenty of attention in 2013. The trick is using them to enhance timeliness and relevance of content, and not contribute to data clutter, says Janice Maiman, senior VP of communications and media channels at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). “Our budgets reflects ever-increasing focus on enhancing our digital delivery and quality of our content.”
Steve Cox, VP of public relations at food services and facilities management company Sodexo, seconds the focus on digital. “We’ve weighted efforts more significantly toward digital communications going forward—with focus on more B2C engagement and end-user experience,” says Cox.
Digital, he continues, can promote more engagement focused (listening and dialogue) efforts, as opposed to promotion-based and attribute-focused communications (i.e., one-way communications).
CHALLENGES AHEAD
With the AICPA’s budget essentially flat in 2013, Maiman feels her team must be more fluid, more integrated and far faster in conceptualizing and executing—with the same or relatively fewer resources. “Keeping up with best practices and aiming at the trend that has not yet emerged is the only way to stay credible,” she says. “This requires an increasing level of intellectual commitment, not to mention the willingness to recognize the workplace is any where you are, at any time of the day.”
At Sodexo, Cox says the challenge will be a matter of prioritization of opportunities—applying focus, discipline and rigor the process of staying true to its PR strategy, and thus supporting the business.
At the end of the day, 2013 must be a year of innovation and efficiency, no matter how flat the budget. PRN
CONTACT:
Mike Neumeier, [email protected]; Elise Mitchell, [email protected]; Janice Maiman, [email protected]; Steve Cox, [email protected].
Follow Scott Van Camp: @svancamp01