I’ve spent the past week putting together 2015 predictions blogs for client’s websites, so I thought it was about time that I put together one of my own. So here goes, my top five PR predictions for next year are:
- A well known brand will make a major PR gaff over twitter, facebook or some other social media channel. It’s safe to assume that it will be either the (mis)handling of a customer complaint or worse, a PR stunt that goes horribly wrong. My favourite from 2014 was Brit Award sponsor Mastercard’s attempt to bribe journalists with free tickets to the event in return for positive tweets about it. The agency involved even told the journalists what their tweet should say! As you can imagine it didn’t go down well and the subsequent backlash from the media resulted in a lot of negative press.
- An unknown brand will make itself briefly famous via a social media. Andy Warhol’s “everyone is famous for 15 minutes” has never been more relevant than in a twitter world. Step up The ALS Association and the ice bucket challenge. It captured the world’s attention by being so inclusive that anyone could take part.
- 88% of B2B PR people will send out a piece of market research. A news generation tactic so favoured by our industry will continue to make headlines. And while journalists groan when they hear a stat being pitched, there’s no denying that it’s a great way to make news.
- The current technology trends will become so last year. Wearables, the cloud, the internet of things and 3D printers (I so want one) will become the norm in 2015. We’re waiting to see what new innovations our clients will come up with.
- And finally, Katie Price’s next PR stunt will see her bra size return to G-inormous proportions, and of course she’ll get married (again).
Claire Lamb is a consultant at Skout. She’s worked in technology PR for 20 years and has survived more bubbles than Michael Jackson.
