The rise of public relations as a strategic advisory role

by Sarah Waddington CBE; CEO, PRCA:

Back in 2015, I edited the very first #FuturePRoof book, with the bold ambition of asserting the value of public relations. 

Crowdsourced and featuring some of industry’s pre-eminent domain experts, the intention was to signal to practitioners and business leaders alike the role of public relations as a strategic management function – and how to achieve this.

This first edition was so successful, five further books were written and published by the #FutureProof community over the next five years, each continuing the discussion around key issues facing public relations, from convergence and skillset to boardroom recognition and the pace of change. 

I’ve thought a lot about these books recently, having just returned from the Cannes Lions. The conversations on La Croisette demonstrated that a lot of the thinking covered in each edition is just as relevant now when it comes to the future of PR. 

A tale almost as old as time

Inspiration for the #FuturePRoof series came from a discussion with researcher and consultant Dr Jon White, who – back in 1999 – presented a paper to the Swiss Public Relations Society about the opportunity for our sector.

This was dependent on practitioners recognising ‘the opportunities presented by the environment and management needs’ and taking ‘steps to educate and train themselves’, as well as making ‘full use of communication technology, to provide reliable, if not indispensable, services to managers as they seek to deal with complexity and manage successful businesses.’

Jon’s thinking is just as relevant today as it ever was. All I’d add is the importance of adherence to a Code(s) of Conduct, to help practitioners build credibility through demonstration of the highest ethical standards, as we offer through membership of the PRCA. 

Challenges and opportunities

In a challenging market, and if we wish to improve the industry’s prospects for the years to come, it is important that we, as an industry, pay attention to his thinking.

We should also look to the excellent work of our public affairs peers, who have long occupied the role of strategic advisor and can teach us a lot. They have the ears of and influence with Government, policy advisers, think tanks and the business community, in a way that I believe many across the PR sector can currently only aspire to. 

Why is this important? Well, the transformational impact of AI is well underway, changing how we all operate and the nature of our workforce. AI is not quite the death of the account executive, as has been reported, but it is already changing the nature of the role, as you’d expect. 

Management and legal firms have cottoned on to how intrinsic public relations is to organisational success and are fast moving into this space. We need to shore up our services and hone our skillsets to ensure they don’t eat our lunch, as we’ve previously seen with advertising and SEO. 

The current agency model is no longer fit for purpose and commoditised services are making it increasingly hard to make decent margin. So where to move to next? The answer lies in elevating to the higher value strategic work where we become trusted partners to management teams and directors.

Show PR the money 

If we want to increase investment in our sector and to really make the most of this opportunity, we have to make a wholesale move to strategic advisory and we need to do it soon. 

It means retraining to align with and speak the language of leadership and management, understanding business and governance and greater engagement with those at director level.

It’s why I spent two years training to become a Chartered Director with the IoD, one of the most impactful pieces of personal development of my career. 

Some of the readers of this piece will no doubt be thinking ‘hang on, we’re already doing this.’ You may well be providing valuable consultancy through futures and foresights work, strategic planning, risk and resilience, crisis management, data and insights, measurement and board reporting and much more. 

If so, it’s great to hear and I applaud this. However, the PRCA is here to build and champion the industry of the future, and across the UK there is still a widespread reliance on media relations and ancillary services. We’re here to support that but also the transition to the higher value management services that form our natural space. 

As the industry’s voice, when we work with government, policymakers and business leaders to help them recognise PR and public affairs’ vital social and economic impact, this will give us even more grist to our mill.

Written by: Editor