Weber Shandwick’s European CEO Colin Byrne was on cracking form as he addressed the PRCA and CorpComms Conference yesterday. He said that he didn’t think that we were out of recession but countered that it probably wasn’t a bad thing as it has forced the industry to get in shape and focus on client service.

“PR has an undeniably important role in business. The recession has forced us to focus on the value that we deliver for clients. Forget talk of reputation, we need to help clients be successful. We need to deliver tangible results and sales,” he said.

Byrne hung his presentation around a series of themes, littered with personal anecdotes, that he believed would set the agenda for the PR industry as growth returned.

• Older generation – Byrne said that the marketing industry got hung up on youth marketing. He said that we should look at audiences beyond debt-ridden graduates towards more affluent elders
• East – like WPP’s Sorrell earlier in the day Bryne said that we needed to look East to find the growing markets were our service are increasingly valued by business
• Multicultural – Byrne said that our businesses need to reflect their customers’ customers. And in the UK they don’t
• Planning – advertising agencies have always planned better than the PR industry. We need to catch-up. “Coming from a political background were a policy cannot be made without being tested by a focus group I find the PR industry’s lack of planning shocking,” said Byrne
• Social media – digital is important but it’s overhyped. Unveiling research by his firm Byrne said that while 31 per cent of consumers are interested in interacting with brands online 43 per cent don’t believe what’s read online and will check mainstream media
• Media – the mainstream media remains important. PRs should immerse themselves in the media. “I fire people that don’t read the papers,” said Bryne. And I don’t think he was completely joking
• Environment – green isn’t a fad. PR needs to help its clients address and communicate around environmental issues