Has COVID changed the reputation of PR? We discuss the CIPR’s ‘PR in the Pandemic’ report

On this week's podcast we’re talking to Jon Gerlis about the CIPR’s 'PR in the Pandemic' report.

In terms of the methodology, 1029 people completed the questionnaire between 23 March 2021 and 19 April 2021.The online survey was complemented by ten interviews. The research was carried out by Chalkstream.

Thanks so much, as ever,  the sponsors of the PRmoment Podcast The PRCA.

Here’s a summary of what Jon and I discussed, alongside some relevant graphs from the report.

1 min 40% of people surveyed said COVID had had a positive impact on public relations, versus 29% negative. So the COVID Pandemic has been pretty good for PR?

Impact of COVID-19 on profession

Positive impact of COVID-19 on the profession

Impact of business

2 mins What sort of public relations work is more in demand?

How client PR needs changed during the pandemic

Income from PR over past 12 months by organisation type

4 mins Will public relations be able to retain its expanded breadth of influence?

6 mins Why the value of reputation will continue to grow.

6.30 mins More than one in five PR practitioners changed their role in the past 12 months, how does that compare to the churn rate in a normal year?

7 mins Only 13% of PR people changed jobs because of redundancy.

10 mins Surprisingly, the report says only 20% of agencies had a negative financial impact from COVID.

12.30 mins Why there’s been a big churn in the client base for agencies in the last 12 months.

13 mins Jon talks about the impact of the furlough scheme on PR.

Furlough by organisation type

18 mins Jon discusses the significant increase in working hours for PR people and the impact of this rise on mental health.

Working hours over past 12 months by organisation type

Mental health over the the past 12 months by seniority

29 mins What predictions does the report make about the future of public relations?

Mian challenges facing PR over the next 12 months