DIGITAL PR REPORT 2015 #PRCADIGITAL Lisa Elliott MPRCA Board Director and Partner, Lansons @lisaelliott82
METHODOLOGY YouGov partnered with PRCA to survey 280 agency and in-house PR professionals Across business services, finance & banking, technology & telecoms, charities & NGOs, Government and other sectors In-house respondents include directors of marketing/comms, heads of marketing/comms, head of press/pr Agency respondents include CEOs, MDs, Partners and Directors
KEY LEARNINGS In-house PR staff surveyed are now far less likely to point to negative reasons for embracing social media, instead pointing to general marketing and customer services The mean percentage of in-house marketing budget spend that goes on digital activities is 16 - no change since last year Investment in blogger outreach for in-house teams continues to grow and PR agencies increasingly entrusted with this work Top platforms remain Twitter and Facebook, but with growth in LinkedIn and less use of Pinterest and Google+ Agency and in-house people still need training. For agencies, top need is SEO; For in-house, top need is blogger outreach
CHANGING IN-HOUSE ATTITUDES In-house leaders are now far less likely to point to negative reasons for taking their brands online, instead pointing to general marketing and customer services. 100 80 60 40 20 0 General marketing Customer service Being attacked on social media 2014 2015 Responding to disgruntled employees
CHANGING IN-HOUSE ATTITUDES But the main reason for not using social media more often remains the same as in previous years 55 Lack of staff/budget/time to manage social platforms or digital campaign elements
IN-HOUSE BUDGETS 16 64 In-house Mean percentage of in-house marketing budget spend that goes on digital activities (no change since last year) teams that expect digital budgets to rise in the coming 12 months
IN-HOUSE BUDGETS The main digital areas of in-house budget spend are 66 Online advertising / PPC 55 Web design and build 59 Content creation
IN-HOUSE BUDGETS Over the last two years, we ve seen the biggest growth in spend on blogger outreach, while the biggest drops in spend have been on SEO and web design and build. 100 80 60 40 20 0 Blogger outreach SEO Web design and build 2013 2015
PR AGENCIES AND HOW THEY RE BEING USED The main digital service offerings from PR agencies are 91 85 Content creation Social network strategy 82 Blogger outreach 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Biggest growth as a service offering Web design and build 2014 2015
PR AGENCIES AND HOW THEY RE BEING USED 80 60 40 20 0 100 50 Huge growth in in-house PR staff expecting PR agencies to be able to deliver many digital service areas, with these the biggest growth in expectation: SEO Blogger outreach Online advertising/ppc Online reputation management 2014 2015 Agencies that currently offer these services: 0 SE0 Blogger outreach Online advertising/ppc Online reputation management
PR AGENCIES AND HOW THEY RE BEING USED There has been some growth in digital services as a percentage of PR agency revenue over the past year: 2014 2015 22.1 22.9
PLATFORMS Twitter and Facebook remain the leading platforms for usage by in-house teams and agencies 96 In-house 90 In-house 98 Agency 77 Agency
PLATFORMS The biggest in-house growth in platform usage has gone to LinkedIn, despite lack of confidence in measuring ROI in this platform. Most agencies expect further use in coming year. 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 LinkedIn 2014 2015 In-house growth In-house confidence of measuring ROI of LinkedIn: Agencies that expect to use LinkedIn in the coming year: 36 93
PLATFORMS The platforms that have lost most usage by in-house teams over the last year have been Pinterest and Google+. 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 48 46 44 42 40 38 2014 2015 2014 2015
ROI 72 67 In-house confidence that they can measure ROI of traditional PR In-house confidence that they can measure ROI of digital / social media PR activities
EDUCATION AND INSIGHT In-house Main sources of training rated the highest: 52 48 46 Expert blogs Training courses Conferences and events Need for more education/insight: 36 34 32 Blogger outreach Social network strategy SEO
EDUCATION AND INSIGHT Agencies Main sources of training rated the highest: 76 50 41 Expert blogs Training courses Conferences and events Need for more education/insight: 50 43 26 SEO Online advertising / PPC Web design and build