Public Relations Global Market Report 2021: COVID 19 Impact and Recovery to 2030

Major players in the public relations (PR) market are IPG, Publicis, Omnicom, WPP, and Prezly.

The global public relations market is expected to grow from $88.13 billion in 2020 to $97.13 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $129.35 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 7.4%.

The public relations (PR) market consists of sales of public relations and related services.Public relations services’ companies manage, design, and implement communication between an organization and its customers.

Activities of PR firms aim to promote the image of their clients and encourages favorable relations between the client and its stakeholders, such as consumers, government, the general public, employees, and investors.

In April 2019, Publicis Groupe, a multinational advertising and public relations company acquired Epsilon for a $4.4 billion deal. This transaction benefited Publicis Groupe to add Epsilon’s innovation, technology, and creativity in its products or services that will help clients beat the competition and grow profitably. Epsilon is a marketing company that provides unique data and customer insights. Epsilon was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas, US.

Globally, governments have enforced data protection laws in order to bring enforcement actions to protect consumers against unfair practices.For instance, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in European Union protects the personal data of individuals in the EU.

For PR companies to ensure compliance with GDPR, they must publish a data protection policy that explains the kind of data they hold, what they do with it, and with whom they share it.The policy should also explain how subject access requests such as requests to reveal, change, or delete data are handled and give an overview of how they intend to keep the data secure.

These are referred to as a privacy notice/policy. Also, a regular review is required to ensure that the IT systems and internal security processes are updated to current good practice.

The rising need to gain a competitive advantage is driving the public relations market.Public relations can unite all functions with a single vision as per the mission of the organization.

A well-made, integrated PR plan can connect customers and clients with the organization and creates a competitive advantage for organizations.It helps to attract attention and raise visibility for the product/service.

In a PR Campaign, beverages brand Tropicana set out to show that even a small 150ml glass of Tropicana orange juice provides 60 percent of the daily Vitamin C.They set up an interactive billboard in London and showed an animated character, Little Glass, which discussed the health benefits of Vitamin C, of orange juice, specifically Tropicana and Tropicana representatives gave away 150ml glasses of orange juice.

A research report in The Telegraph following the campaign showed that 88% of respondents said the campaign drove them to buy Tropicana more often and 100% of the respondents said that they had come away from the campaign believing Tropicana is worth paying more.

Public relations (PR) companies are increasingly investing in programmatic PR in the digital medium.Programmatic PR refers to the automation of advertising.

The increasing volume of global digital communications led to hand over the manual tasks to artificial intelligence.Programmatic PR increases transparency and control and is more efficient as it has better targeting capabilities for audiences.

The area of reach is also greater in programmatic PR.For instance, Accenture Interactive entered the ad-buying world will incorporate the planning, buying, and management of programmatic advertisement campaigns.

It will also help brands in developing a strategy for attacking programmatic buying. These technological advances will help PR and drive the market further.

Stringent data collection regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) prove to be a restraint on the market.These regulations strengthen the data protection and privacy of a country’s citizens, regardless of where they live or work.

For instance, the companies that collect personal information from EU customers, receive web traffic from the EU or do business with EU citizens, fall under the ambit of GDPR.
GDPR helps customers be aware of the type of data being collected and thus can opt-out or decline to opt-in.The market for PR focuses heavily on the collection, storage, and use of personal information for media relations.

The data must be collected more cautiously and individuals have the option to not provide their personal information, which could restrain the market for public relations.