Telecoms PR: What a good PR needs to know about the telecoms industry

This week the attention of anyone in the tech PR industry was focused on the telecoms market. And indeed, the news from Mobile World Congress abounded with stories about technology innovation and thought leadership. With new developments happening on a daily basis the telecoms sector is a fast-paced environment that needs to be carefully watched. We wondered how these new trends and technologies are affecting telecoms PR and what are the key skills required to deliver successful PR campaigns in this space?

The complexity conundrum: The telecoms industry is a very complex market. With plenty of players across the hardware, software, and service provisioning space, it is no wonder that people are often finding it difficult to understand who is doing what in the telecoms world. From companies offering video broadcasting satellites and telephone handsets , to internet and network service providers, to software vendors delivering data and equipment management tools, the telecoms industry offers a diverse range of issues and technical challenges that need to be taken into account when devising a PR campaign. Therefore PR agencies need to have a broad understanding of a wide range of industry and technology issues across multiple sectors to keep up with the fast pace of this complex and demanding market.

The convergence issue: The increasing convergence in the telecoms space is blurring the boundaries between consumer electronics, computer hardware, and telecom services, with technology vendors increasingly finding themselves competing with CSPs and internet service providers for a lucrative share of the telecoms market. For instance, today’s telco organisations are partnering with media companies to offer video-on-demand for mobile devices and other content-based services that were previously considered outside their domain. PR consultants need to understand the intrinsic relationships between the key players in the telecoms market and be able to effectively communicate their client’s messaging to different market segments and audiences.

Understand new trends: As a fast moving market, the telecoms sector ushers in innovative technologies almost on a daily basis. Understanding the key trends behind these technological developments will play a key role in creating and executing creative issues-led telecoms PR campaigns. The role of 4G, for instance, will enable a whole new set of services for consumers and businesses within the telcoms space. This will impact the tariffs and data sharing plans offered by telco providers and the access to data-heavy mobile applications. Another significant trend in this space is the evolution of M2M services and the role of telco providers in provisioning connectivity to enable communication between M2M devices.

Broader reach across vertical markets: The growth of M2M will enable CSPs to partner with electronic and equipment manufacturers as well as network management and wireless solutions providers to deliver new services to consumers across a range of vertical markets. The automotive industry is a good example of how this trend is going to affect the telecoms space. Car infotainment systems will enable drivers to interact on social media sites, get live updates about traffic jams on their route, find the nearest gas station and benefit from many other new services that were not possible before. The opportunities for all players in the market seem to be very promising. For PR agencies this means broadening the scope of telecoms PR campaigns to reach different vertical markets and establishing strong relationships with key media across all vertical sectors relevant to their clients. Therefore leveraging sound industry knowledge and deep understanding of key market issues across vertical sectors will be key to ensuring a telecoms PR campaign is a success.

European PR campaigns: Mind the Cultural Gap

In our recent blog about running EMEA PR campaigns, we provided a few tips on how to manage the communication process for Pan-European PR projects. This post is going to focus a bit more on how cultural differences across Europe affect PR campaigns and what are the essential things we need to consider when planning a large scale campaign that spans different countries:

• Mind the cultural gap: While it might seem pretty obvious, ignoring the cultural differences between countries can have disastrous consequences for your PR campaign. If you are planning a media outreach campaign around Valentine’s day, for example, have in mind that many European countries do not regarded it as an important holiday and your idea may not deliver the expected results. Therefore involving all local agencies at the very start of the PR planning process is essential for the success of your campaign.

• Make sure the timing is right: Different cultures have different lifestyles and different daily routines. Consider local countries cultures for breakfast and lunch briefings as we all have different timings for these at local level. Same thing applies to evening events such as vision dinners or product launches where the right timing is essential for reducing the number of last minute drop-outs.

• Different cultures, different holidays: If you consider organising a European PR campaign around Easter or Mother’s Day, don’t automatically assume that all holidays fall on the same day. Some Eastern European countries celebrate Easter a week later than the UK and the Spanish Mother’s Day is in May, not in March as you would normally expect.

• Cultural differences are reflected in the media: Handling media relations across different countries is a tricky game. While talking to or meeting with UK media usually requires a more relaxed and informal approach, in Germany you will be expected to adopt a more ‘formal’ behaviour. So downing a few pints after work with a UK journalist might be a great thing to do, but it may not do you any good in Germany.

• Beware of the language barrier: While it’s quite tempting to assume that all journalists in Europe speak English, the reality is that they don’t. Therefore speaking the local language is essential when pitching stories across Europe.

• Think about the right type of content: German IT journalists are quite technical and are more likely to be interested in pitches or spokespeople that can provide a lot of technical detail. This may not be true for the UK or French media, for example, and the list of differences can go on and on.

2013 PR Trends: What the New Year Will Bring to PR Professionals

With the approaching of the New Year, we decided to take a look at some of the key PR trends that will impact PR professionals in 2013 and beyond:

A converged world of real-time communication

Social media and mobility have transformed the way we engage with information and consume media content. As online content is constantly being ‘updated’, modified and exchanged across multiple media platforms, PR professionals will be looking to deliver more interactive messages that are evolving in real-time. This will create a trend towards incorporating social media and video into traditional press releases and shifting content towards interactive conversations with audiences, rather than focusing on one-way press announcements.

Social media will become more targeted and pervasive

Although Facebook and Twitter will continue to dominate PRs’ social media efforts, in 2013 we will see an increased interest in niche online communities and social networking websites. This niche social media targeting will work alongside established social media channels to reach consumers who may be outside the reach of mainstream social media.

What about mobile?

The importance of mobile will continue to grow in 2013 highlighting the need for more personalised communication with consumers. While marketing professionals will be looking to utilise the mobile opportunity for targeted offerings, PR professionals will be integrating the mobile channel more actively into PR campaigns. There will be a focus on creating and delivering content specifically for mobile devices and leveraging mobile interactions to establish an ongoing relationship with consumers.

It all has to be fun!

With plenty of communication platforms and technologies to choose from, PR professionals will be able to more effectively spread campaigns across channels and engage with consumers using interactive competitions and games. Using the game factor will be particularly important in consumer PR where the agencies that manage to strike the right cord with consumers, will be the ones to deliver the most impactful PR campaigns.

It’s not all about traditional media influencers

With citizen journalism and blogging becoming key tools for generating and driving the news agenda, PR professionals will be more actively looking to engage with influential online bloggers or social media influencers that can potentially become brand ambassadors for their clients. Traditional media influencers will still remain a priority for PRs but there will be a stronger focus on brand engagement through social media influencers within the target audiences themselves.

Changing viewing habits: what’s this got to do with the technology revolution?

One of the key conclusions coming out of this week’s Ofcom report on the attitudes to the broadcast media in the UK was that people’s viewing habits are changing. This is no shocking news for anyone in the media and PR industry, given that there’s been a lot of hype around internet technologies and social media in the past few years. What’s interesting, however, is how consumers’ viewing habits are changing and what will be the long term effect of these changes on the media industry.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of the respondents in the Ofcom survey said they used their mobile while watching TV and almost half of them (47%) used the internet while viewing a TV programme. This trend towards media multitasking is likely to grow in importance in the next few years, bringing significant changes to the way broadcasters, marketers, and advertisers deliver content to their audiences.

Internet-connected ‘smart’ TVs are already available in the market as well as video-on-demand services and interactive smartphone apps that enable viewers to actively engage with TV content. One of the hottest trends in this field is the development of second screen technologies that allow viewers to interact with TV content using their smartphone or tablet devices. These new technologies are heralding the era of social television – an interactive viewing experience that involves more than one communication medium and enables viewers to share and engage with media content more actively.

With viewers increasingly looking to watch TV content at a time that suits them or on-the-go, broadcasters will need to take into consideration these new habits to be able to adapt to the changing market. According to the above mentioned Ofcom research, the growing availability and take-up of new technology is changing viewers’ habits and raising long term questions about the regulation of broadcast programming. Therefore television content will have to be delivered differently, i.e. at a time that matches consumers’ requirements and through the medium channel that best suits their needs.

As the media world is changing, PRs, marketing professionals and advertisers will need to accommodate the evolving needs of their target audiences and reflect the shift towards more interactive and engaging multi-channel campaigns. The convergence between TV, mobile and computing technologies creates huge opportunities for monetising content across different platforms by linking TV content to digital or mobile advertising. Furthermore PR professionals can take advantage of this technology revolution by creating interactive campaigns that deliver consistent messages across multiple platforms. Therefore building engaging campaigns that tap into the full potential of modern media will be the key to success in the emerging world of converged communications.

Thinking of your next social media campaign? What about niche social networks?

There’s been a lot of hype recently about the rise of social networking and its effect on our daily lives and the way we interact with each other. With Facebook already approaching the 1 billion user mark and Twitter gaining popularity, social networks are becoming a mainstream factor that plays an increasingly important role in our lives.

However, as the social media giants are taking the lead in changing consumers’ online behaviour, smaller networking websites are emerging to cater to needs of specific user groups based on their interests, hobbies, lifestyles.

While some of these websites offer specific services aimed at mainstream audiences (think of Foursquare, Instagram, Spotify, etc.), plenty of small social networks are emerging to capture the attention of niche communities.

There are niche social networks for almost everything you can imagine: from starting online travel tribes, to offering networking for homeless people, to knitting and crocheting.

While these examples might come across as a bit bizarre, there is no doubt that niche social networking is taking off. As people are looking to engage in conversations with close minded individuals who share their passions and interests, niche networks are offering a more ‘intimate’ and safe environment to respond to these needs. What’s interesting about this social media phenomenon is that niche networks are increasingly integrated with mainstream social websites to drive more users and offer a more interactive user experience.

Tradesparq.com for example is a website integrated with all major social networks, including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, to provide credibility ratings based on a user’s social media contacts that could be used to determine the reliability of a business partner or service supplier.

This is just an example of how ubiquitous social networking is. With new networking communities emerging on a daily basis and bringing together like-minded consumers, it is important that PRs and marketers recognise the importance of these communities for their social media campaigns. Niche social networks are a great way for brands to engage with audiences that are difficult to reach and who have specialised interest in what they do. This is a great advantage, especially in the highly saturated media landscape we live in where consumers are constantly bombarded with millions of messages.

As with all new things, not all niche social networks will have longevity. However, the ones that stay will play an increasingly important role in the social media space.