Future gazers at Trendwatching.com have coined the term nowism to describe the generation of products, services and experiences delivered on demand.
In an online report Trendwatching.com describes how nowism enables a brand to create an element of surprise and urgency. It is a rich opportunity for retail and marketing professionals.
Here’s what I learnt:
Experience replaces the material abundance and eco-harming potential of consumer goods
Consumers are contributing to and seeking real time experiences online
New content lies a search term away from cumbersome, dull content
Mobile connections satisfy a lust for an always-on connection to the network
Demand for raw content delivered instantly is replacing carefully crafted production
Instant commerce describes a new wave of alerts, pop-ups and vending concepts
If this feels you slightly uneasy, don’t fret; Trendwatching.com has predicted that this is a likely reaction.
“Expect nowism for many to become synonymous with (and blamed for) shallowness, short attention spans, exploding credit card debts, excessive focus on instantly satisfying urges, an unwillingness to face (and build) a better and sustainable future, [and] indifference to the past (and all its lessons).”
Trendwatching.com suggests that while these concerns warrant serious attention there are two crucial benefits to be gained from nowism namely experience over consumption and the democratisation of the individual and the organisation.
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
Another day another report from market watcher Forrester (via Brian Solis) estimating interactive marketing spend over the next five years.
Advertising budgets will continue to decline and interactive marketing including search marketing, display advertising, email marketing, social media, and mobile marketing will grow from 12 to 21 per cent of spend.
The report is focused on the US but the headlines apply worldwide. The only surprise is that the shift to interactive isn’t more dramatic.
I caught up with Branded’s Giles Thomas last week for a Q&A for Speed’s fortnightly newsletter. I asked him about the relationship between PR and marketing disciplines. Branded, like Speed, is part of the fast-growing agency group, Loewy.
Who is Branded? Branded is a brand strategy consultancy run by ex-Marketing Directors and senior agency specialists. It is run by people with real depth of experience offering real advice. We are specialists in helping organisations create or revitalise brands by developing robust, media-neutral branding and communications strategies.
Why is there a chasm between PR and marketing? Where marketing is the dominant discipline the combined function is often overseen by a marketing professional. This means that marketing culture often prevails, and PR considered less important than it should be.
The lack of control over implementation (exactly what appears and when) can lead marketers to feel uncomfortable. Marketing is increasingly accountable, yet PR metrics are traditionally difficult to align to business strategy.
How does PR fit within the marketing mix? PR should be close to the very centre of the marketing mix for reasons which good Marketing Directors recognise. The choice of PR channels and tone of voice should be directly influenced by the brand’s promise/story. This ‘story’ should be a persuasive source of competitive advantage that is easily delivered via these PR channels.
How can PR better engage with marketing? Our experience suggests that PR teams are often fertile ideas generators, but too often these ideas lack a strategy. PR teams need to get involved earlier in the brand development process – they should be at the table to advise the marketers on how the brand should be crafted in order to gain maximum editorial interest – including the key brand messages and language the brand should use to maximise potential interest amongst users/audiences.
There was further evidence (if any were needed) this week of the ongoing marketing agency battle to claim ownership of digital marketing, with the announcement in PR Week this week that Volvo has hired media agency MindShare to handle search engine optimisation (SEO), digital PR and social media strategy.
It’s a warning shot as Immediate Future’s Katy Howell identifies in the PR Week story. I’m not going to revisit the debate – search for the hashtag #prdebate if you’re interested. Instead I’m working hard at Speed to develop our offer and stake out the PR industry’s claim for its share of the market.
At Speed we’ve been tracking the size of the market and the emergence of digital for more than 18 months. Outside the public groups, commentary on the industry is hard to come by even from the trade associations. Probably because no-one has had the balls to do it and reveal their own weakspots. We should wise-up and be honest though – no-one has got this right yet, because we don’t know exactly what the future holds.
What is certain is that conventional PR is having a battle. Redundancy and agency closure news is almost a weekly occurrence in PR Week. In the last two quarters it has reported on almost a 100 positions that have been made redundant at 23 agencies. An undisclosed (so, probably, high) number of redundancies have been made at three agencies and three agencies have closed.
In 2007 the top 150 agencies grew by 22 per cent. The comparative figure for 2008 is due from PR Week any day. The latest number from the IMF predicts that the economy will shrink by 2.8 per cent in 2009.
It’s a tough time for the industry. But it undoubtedly has a strong future which is why I remain resolutely upbeat. Now more than ever companies need guidance to manage the conversations around their brands and modern PR has a lot – much of it tangible – more to offer.
The question is whether the industry has been quick enough to adapt. PR consultancies fall into three distinct camps: consultancies that are embracing and actively creating the digital PR future, consultancies that believe digital is blogger and Twitter relations, and those that have stood still.
The real threat is not the contraction of the industry but the army of new digital agencies that is capitalising on the disruption in the market.
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