Rewind 2020: “After 2020, humankind is surely looking for a predictable future”

As we are set to bid adieu to 2020 – a year of major disruptions, global shutdowns, economic rollercoaster due to COVID-19 – there are several lessons and takeaways from this momentous year. Adgully brings its annual review of the year gone by, wherein industry experts analyse the most significant developments and trends of the year and their implications on the coming year as well.

Till the beginning of 2020 or until March 2020, the PR business was buzzing and every one was very optimistic to end on a good note. But the unprecedented pandemic wave crippled and disrupted the entire industry like any other industry. Gloom started setting in from April 2020 when clients became cautious and tightened their budgets. Hiring came to a standstill and in some cases there where salary cuts imposed in some organisations at senior level. While things have eased out today, but to reach pre-COVID levels it will be a long haul as COVID-19 cases are still existing going strong and there is no clarity on the vaccine front.

Atul Sharma, Managing Director Ruder Finn India & President, PRCAI, recounts some of the challenges and key developments in the PR industry, the major learnings as well as the outlook for 2021.

Developments & disruptions

One of the most significant and positive developments for the Public Relations industry was that we came together like never before. Right from taking out time to share learnings to suggesting ways and means to address problems coming out of the pandemic – leaders across the board came together to make the journey smoother. As the President of Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI), this was beneficial both for consultancies and the industry.

I can safely say that every peer of mine whom I had hardly interacted with or didn’t know, I see each one of them today as friends. I know them as people, I know what irks them, what excites them, and I am sure the entire PR fraternity feels the same about each other. I made new friends in this pandemic, without even meeting them! That’s our collective silver lining out of COVID-19.

Some tough lessons learnt

There’s no doubt that it’s been a challenging year, but tough times are also learning opportunities and 2020 has taught us a tremendous lot. Here are some of the learnings that we’re welcoming 2021 with:

Trust your workforce: The beautiful thing about responsibility is that the more you give, the more surprised you’d be with the results. Through the lockdown and WFH subsequently, we’ve put immense trust in our people, believed in their integrity. So, where they work from – be it home or office, from the mountains or the beaches – becomes inconsequential.

Be empathetic, and it shall be matched: We were empathetic towards them, and we learnt that they shared the empathy with the less fortunate. Our employees across offices came together to donate a day of their salaries to donate PPE kits to frontline workers, and as an organisation we followed suit, matching their efforts.

Power of One Ruder Finn: Ruder Finn has five offices – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. The pandemic has converted these brick and mortar locations into geolocations connected fiercely through technology. Being a firm that’s traditionally known to bank on technology, we seized the moment and utilised the opportunity to bring everyone together on equal footing. As a result, we came together as a firm with a common purpose, goal and vision. Today, we’re significantly closer and stronger as a team, where every team member has a personal rapport with everybody across different offices.

Outlook for 2021

Technology will continue its domination in 2021 too. As a firm that believes in disruption through technology, I predict that we will see more and more sophisticated technologies emerging to simplifying the world of communication. The biggest example is measurement of outreach that has always been a point of debate for the industry, today can be decoded with a handful of clicks.

Future will be more predictable: Especially after 2020, Predictive Analytics as a next gen trend is here to stay. Predictive analytics in tandem with machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to lead the world of communication and hopefully make it way more predictable. After 2020, humankind is surely looking for a predictable future. AI is making huge strides in natural language selection, which the PR professionals should keep a close eye on.

The rise of influencers: Growth of internal influencers – internal influencers will grow in significance as organisations increasingly realise the artificial divide between internal and external comms and make use of advocates in new and exciting ways. At Ruder Finn, when we wanted to push our employees to have a healthier lifestyle, we picked up our fitness expert from one of our employees, and the message resonated loud and clear, prompting our teams to take out their running shoes!

Text is passé, future belongs to voice: The future belongs to voice-based virtual assistants. Voice-activated devices like Google Home and Alexa are becoming a part and parcel of our daily lives, especially in a country like ours where people can converse really well in their native languages but can’t type in English. Banking on this trend early, we at Ruder Finn embraced the future of communication by leveraging voice activated technology with the power of Amazon Alexa. This new frontier of experiential communications demonstrates new ways for brands and leaders to reach millions of customers on a personal level in a medium of their choice and at a time of their choice.

The power of visual reality: Considering most activities around lockdown came to grinding halt, live streaming emerged as a popular medium connecting people around the world. Live streaming that earlier seemed like the neglected cousin of video became the go-to for not only corporates but brands as well. At Ruder Finn, video streaming services kept our flock together. Similarly, every social media platform including Instagram, YouTube, Facebook saw growth in their live streaming services. Brands and companies are taking this further, be it for entertainment or business applications, immersive technologies will make their way into every aspect of our lives.