Rewind 2022: Communications industry saw a course correction this year - Tarunjeet Rattan

It’s time to review the most significant industry developments as the year 2022 draws to a close. Adgully is reviewing the year 2022 for the M&E, advertising, digital, marketing, PR and communications, along with leading names in the industry as part of our annual Rewind series.

Recapping the year 2022, Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner,  Nucleus PR, shares in depth about the key trends and developments in the PR and marketing communications space, including making some hard choices in terms of the business model, rise of the hustle culture, deepening of the talent crisis in the communications industry, and more.

PR & marketing communications in 2022

2022 has been the year of balance. With the pandemic years, the budgets, SOW and teams were a see-saw gone haywire. With teams over-delivering and pulling rabbits out of their hats, brands demanding more than was humanly possible and yet no empathy in terms of contracts or compensation saw its way through to 2022. The entire communications industry has seen a course correction this year and for the better. This means making some hard choices in terms of the business model, but it is well worth it if it steadies the boat in the coming year.

Key trends and developments in PR

The times ahead are going to be interesting. Some of the key trends that have emerged and are here to stay in the communications industry are:

Business Model: Less retainers and more projects that will be won by generalists in the fields. Budgets, hence, will have to be streamlined to accommodate the uncertainty giving rise to more of the hustle culture.

Work Model: The definition of ‘office’ has changed forever. WFH, WFO, WFA and more of the ‘Work From’ will evolve. The accountability clause will have to be re-thought on many levels.

Talent Spread: This was always a crunch, but the crunch is beginning to pinch everyone now. With more and more professionals preferring the gig rather than the job in the industry, the team structure has been forced to evolve towards collaboration rather than hire. This also implies that the HR policies of the agency world need to change.

Experimentation: The year can also be defined as the one where maximum switches happened across verticals, including journalism, PR, marketing and advertising. Everyone tried everything to figure out what works for them. Keeping up with the new job/ posting updates was a challenge.

Taking it in-house: The scope of work versus the remuneration also went through a drastic change. Job expectations skyrocketed and were matched against smaller experience and an even lower price bracket for professionals being hired across corporates developing their own in-house teams. They sense the uncertainty of the future and are future-proofing themselves as best as they can.

Overall performance of Nucleus PR

The year 2022 has been kind to us. We lost a few clients during re-negotiations and gained a lot more when we corrected the course. We lost a few team members who were fatigued with city life and gained a lot more with senior experts based around the world who collaborated with us for projects.

As a boutique firm, we moved to the senior counsel mode and won a lot of brands on our side based solely on the innovation we created in their communication outreach that moved beyond media. To create deeper consumer engagement for brands we work with, we also dipped our toes into digital with the launch of our ‘REELS team’ that now has several projects to its name – a niche we enjoy within the ecosystem and adds a fun dimension for the younger members of our team. We also evolved the PR editorial model to the PESO model, creating more value for our brands across the entire ecosystem.

However, one of the major steps that we took to ensure growth was champion communication consistency and innovation for brands spread across PR, advertising, digital and consumer outreach.

Consumers are tired of the same thing being shown everywhere. You have to think differently. We worked with clients to help them create a different approach towards communicating with their target audience. That intention and innovations cemented growth for us within our client bouquet.