Is The Sunday Times right that Public Relations is now the centrepiece of marketing?
A new article in The Sunday Times put forward an interesting proposition: in an era defined by crisis, disinformation and AI, Public Relations is no longer being seen as “a poor cousin of marketing” - it is increasingly the strategic centrepiece that successful companies build around.
We recently wrote about a new CBI and PRCA report which showed that PR’s “unique blend of strategy and creativity” delivers business value by supporting growth, building trust, changing behaviour, influencing policy and increasing resilience.
However, decades of research shows that these benefits are most likely experienced when companies put PR at the very heart of their business strategies. So what does that look like for health tech, med tech, healthcare and health charity communicators, who would like to put this into practice? Read on to find out.
1. Representation in the C-Suite
The Sunday Times article states that there are more Chief Communications Officers at the boardroom table than ever before.
Academic research suggests that this is a good thing for those organisations, and society as a whole.
‘Excellence Theory’ is an evidence-based framework that was developed by Professor James Grunig to define the characteristics of excellent public relations. Based on extensive research over a period of more than 10 years, it concluded that PR professionals who report directly to the CEO are more effective.
The thinking is that because PR is primarily focused on relationships and reputation management, when PR professionals can contribute to organisation strategy, the company is more likely to produce the products and services that people want and more likely to address issues that could otherwise lead to reputational and commercial damage.
2. Director of a dedicated listening programme
Academic studies have found that effective listening by PR professionals leads to numerous business benefits, including higher levels of trust, increased customer loyalty, improved customer service, improved employee retention and productivity, and reduced crises and conflicts.
However, to listen effectively, organisations must dedicate real time to it and the data suggests that they don’t. One notable academic stated that organisations typically dedicate around 90% of their communications resources to distributing messages and less than 10% to listening.
The modern healthcare PR practitioner has the opportunity to listen at-scale thanks to the openness of social media and discussion platforms (like Reddit), and through the use of monitoring tools and AI, but it requires systems, processes and dedicated resources. A great listening programme should also incorporate real dialogue and two-way discussions for a nuanced understanding.
The good news is that research has shown that PR professionals who do take the time to find out ‘what’s going on out there’, gathering information on their target audiences, including their response to the organisation and what they think about key issues, are more likely to be involved in an organisation’s strategic decision-making.
3. Real influence over organisation strategy and behaviour
The modern communications environment is more complex, more fast-moving and less forgiving than ever before. Doing or saying the wrong thing can trash a reputation in minutes, and can impact on the bottom line - The Sunday Times article points to reputation mistakes costing billions of pounds in some cases.
Therefore, sound strategic judgement, that is based on both professional expertise and a nuanced understanding of the external environment and stakeholder relationships is far more valuable than it used to be.
To be truly effective, PR must have the power to influence how the organisation is positioned, what activities the business prioritises and to drive internal changes to avoid future issues.
At Evergreen PR, we help healthcare organisations to identify their ‘Strategic Ownable Territories’, the rich topic areas where their audience is struggling, the organisation has legitimate expertise and the competition is absent. This provides a foundation for ongoing marketing activity that can be rolled out across channels (you can see examples of our work here).
With its ear to the ground, PR is well-placed to identify potential opportunities and risks before they arise - actively shaping what the organisation pays attention to and how it responds.
4. Chief storyteller, overseeing content production
The PR industry’s storytelling skill has been developed over decades of having to ‘earn’ attention, rather than pay for it.
In the modern world, the audiences we reach - whether on social media, through Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)/Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or advertising - are increasingly sophisticated and aware of when they are being sold to. More than ever, we have to earn their attention, too.
No one is arguing that PR needs to create all the content, but there is a strong argument for overseeing and influencing it.
Let’s imagine a new health tech product is to be launched to the market. If PR is at the centre of the marketing drive, it will begin with detailed research of the audience and the external landscape, using this to build a well-evidenced and emotive argument for why the innovation is so important. From there, real stories of clinicians and/or patients will be gathered. An on-site platform may be developed to provide opportunity for deeper engagement and lead generation.
While the campaign could stop there, to be most effective, further marketing content should be built out. A fully coherent PR-led campaign might include paid adverts that draw on the stats used in the PR activity, video and poster content utilising the same clinician/patient stories, sales packs that follow the same narrative arc. Those things might be produced by specialist marketing disciplines, but PR’s input will only make them more effective.
The Sunday Times article talks about the importance of positive stories to provide a protective buffer against potential future controversies. While the language and stated intent are somewhat cynical, feeding audiences with regular content that deepens connection and builds goodwill is good PR practice - it is the quality that is most important.
5. Holder of key strategic relationships (human and machine)
Relationships are valuable because organisations depend on them for their survival and success.
In fact, establishing and maintaining relationships with strategically important groups (customers, influencers, gatekeepers, regulators and critics) is the whole purpose of communication, according to Excellence Theory.
In this modern communications landscape, the influencer/gatekeeper audience does not just refer to journalists and The Sunday Times refers to the explosion of social media, power of bloggers and complexity of Generative AI as reasons why PR expertise is increasingly valuable.
Best practice for relationship management is about two-way dialogue - taking the time to understand what matters to our stakeholders and using this information to inform our communications and actions.
For machine-based stakeholders, like Generative AI, that dialogue is about benchmarking, testing and tracking changes, so we understand how best to serve those platforms for the benefit of our organisations and the people they serve. We wrote more about that here.
Conclusion
The Sunday Times article argues that PR is becoming increasingly important in a modern landscape characterised by uncertainty, disinformation and pace of change.
While there is a suggestion that it could be the centrepiece of marketing, the evidence suggests that the really important thing is that it has its own seat at the boardroom table. Because, when organisations recognise PR as a key strategic function in its own right, and utilise its expertise in listening, strategy, storytelling and relationships, it drives measurable business value.
Ready to place PR at the centre of your growth strategy? Get in touch with the Evergreen PR team today.
Leigh Greenwood is the founder and managing director of Evergreen PR, the healthcare PR agency that makes health happen. He is a chartered PR professional who has been working in healthcare PR, public affairs and communications for the last 20 years. He has worked across the whole spectrum of healthcare and has won more than 40 industry awards for effective health campaigns that generated measurable outcomes.
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