In this ever-changing world, it’s easy to be distracted by trends and at the time of writing (December 2024), the PR world is awash with blogs about what to expect in our industry in 2025.
Here at Cornerstone, our vastly experienced PR team always has its (cliché alert) ‘finger on the pulse’. But something we never lose sight of is what PR is all about in the first place – to tell stories, in our case your stories to help you achieve your marketing and communication goals.
This is the single most important ‘trend’ of any year, and yet, while reading through the plethora of ‘what to expect in 2025’ blogs we came across one PR ‘thought leader’ who got to number 28 out of their top 30 trends for next year before they included what PR is all about in the first place.
True to our ‘no bulls**t’ mantra, our message to PR clients is loud and clear – we’re agile and we’re here to get the best out of the available opportunities, and/or those we create, for your business, brand or organisation.
We have our eyes wide open and we’re fully aware of what’s changing, and that means we’ll mix and match old and new strategies, so you enjoy the holistic benefit.
And another thing – or two!
Two more so-called trends that caught our eye as we traversed the global landscape of 2025 predictions were these two gems – ‘a more humanised approach’ and ‘authenticity’.
Before we do – eventually – get into the real trends for 2025, a humanised approach and authenticity are up there with storytelling when it comes to PR fundamentals.
After all, PR is about telling and selling your story, sharing your information, amplifying your brand, winning over followers, creating advocates and much more. If your target audience isn’t robots, then it boils down to people (of the humanised approach kind).
And even when you’ve identified your ‘humanised’ target audience, output cannot be anything other than authentic for it to be effective. Those pesky humans are quick to spot it when credibility is lacking and quick to voice it too.
Authentic storytelling to your (humanised) target audience, dear reader, all come as standard with Cornerstone PR, regardless of the year, or what the trendsetters have to say!
1. Trust and artificial intelligence
Let’s begin our journey not far from where we’ve just come from, with ethics and transparency.
Trends often originate from a combination of social and cultural influences, and evolving consumer preferences – of which trust is about as important as it gets.
Greenwashing, for example, is no longer tolerated by consumers. They want the real deal, so don’t try and spin it any other way. Give them the real deal – the targeted authenticity we spoke of above – and it will be repaid with trust and consumer loyalty.
Trust has been thrust into the spotlight by a trend that shows no sign of abating – artificial intelligence.
If AI was human (no cynical comments about it’s only a matter of time), it would have a severe personality disorder, a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, as it were.
The Dr Jekyll version has the potential to be a helpful tool for PR professionals, automating certain tasks, that in turn, creates more time for other important matters such as strategising and building stronger relationships with our clients.
The Mr Hyde version, on the other hand, is where fake news can be created and proliferated. Add in deepfake AI and Mr Hyde can be a really nasty piece of work. At its worst, it has the potential to be a PR disaster, so if your business or brand falls foul, our crisis management playbook is always ready and primed.
2. Social media, video and podcasts
Social media is a perennial favourite with the trendsetters and this year is no exception – with a particular focus on the waning popularity of Facebook and the emergence of BlueSky, the relatively new X (formerly Twitter) alternative.
Indeed, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has set the tone for the industry by ditching X in favour of the BlueSky platform, citing ‘growing concerns over declining engagement, platform governance, and the proliferation of misinformation’.
One platform not waning is LinkedIn, which remains the mainstay of business related social media comms, and one we utilise to great effect for many of our clients, particularly those in the B2B arena.
As PR professionals we choose our target audiences carefully, so Gen Z favourites such as Instagram and Tik Tok are increasingly being utilised for PR purposes.
And speaking of Insta and Tik Tok, that brings us to another trend for 2025 – the growth of video and audio content.
Video and podcasts are already well established tools in the PR toolkit, and we’re expecting that popularity to grow even more in 2025.
Videos are a great method of storytelling, becoming even more popular as the expectations for polished productions values give way to more natural, authentic content.
A survey by Hub Spot has shown that 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a business or brand.
Overall, social media is the new heavyweight champion of the PR world, enabling us not only to tell our stories – particularly breaking news and ongoing situations – but to encourage two-way communication between a business and/or brand and its customers/followers.
3. Influencers and the growth of paid media
Still in the social media and digital arenas, influencers will continue to, well, influence in 2025.
Only last month (November 2024) CNN reported that nearly 40 per cent of Americans under 30 now get their news from influencers, whether they are journalists or not. We’re working on the widely acknowledged theory that where the US leads, the UK follows.
Shrinking newsrooms across the globe, mean we as PR professionals, are always alert to the lateral thinking necessary to disseminate our content. The days of the ‘press release’ are not yet numbered, but the influence of traditional media is in decline, as those statistics from the States illustrate.
It’s no surprise then, that another growing trend is paid media, particularly among to B2B publications. Earned (free) coverage is still a thing, but less so as the paid advertorial becomes more common.
Here at Cornerstone, we ensure our PR strategies include publications and platforms that are both editorially led (you take your chances of earning coverage) and those offering paid-for coverage.
Only time will tell…
Predicting trends is not the easiest of jobs, and only this time next year will we see whether this foray into 2025’s PR trends has hit the target.
What we can say for certain is that the media landscape is forever changing and will continue to do so next year.
That means we have to stay agile, combine tried and tested strategies with new ones, and always keep our heads up, eyes open and PR antennae well-tuned to achieve the best results for our clients.
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Nigel has been a journalist since the days of typewriters (not even electric typewriters)! He has edited several weekly newspapers across Greater Manchester, been the editor-in-chief of several more and edited a daily newspaper in Northern Ireland. He came home to work on the former Greater Manchester regional TV station Channel M. Having dropped the […]
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