The document discusses the changing priorities and interrelationships of communications channels for in-house PR and communications teams. It finds that online news sites and print newspapers remain the highest priority channels. While social media priorities depend on budget, Twitter is most prioritized. The value of influencers is complicated by "pay for play" promotions. Stories are broken across multiple channels requiring an integrated strategy. Measurement of outcomes lags adoption of new channels requiring new skills from PR professionals.

1. Executive summary
Business communications today are fast-paced. Both customers and consumers have multiple touch points with
organisations. These ever extending and expanding points of access cross numerous channels such as digital, social,
and video accessed through multiple, often mobile, devices as well as traditional print and broadcast.
This increase in channels has coincided with a broadening in the core purpose of the public relations function to
include reputation management, employee retention, crisis mitigation, impact on sales, stock price, and stakeholder
engagement, amongst others.
So how have priorities changed for in-house PR and communication teams, has social media become the dominant
channel? Where does print fit in? Based on the quantitative results from over 75 in-house professionals alongside
in-depth interviews with senior communications executives in the public and private sector, this report outlines
channel priority changes of in-house PR and communications teams and highlights their views on the complex
inter-relationships that exist.
In truth it’s complex, and trying to rank them in order of importance misses the inter-relationship between
communications channels; stories are broken on one channel and then followed up with a related theme and
different content on another. Additionally, the importance of paid activity with both influencers and social media for
achieving reach has further confused the overall picture.
Changes in the way we communicate and consume information still represent a huge opportunity for the industry,
the question is are we ready to grasp it?
Changing Channels? How have media priorities
changed for communications directors?
1kaizo.co.uk
The key findings of the report:
• The inter-relationships between online, social, print and broadcast channels have changed the nature of
public relations work
• Online traditional news sites are the highest priority channel for senior in-house communicators with,
surprisingly, print newspapers the second most prioritised channel
• With the growth of ‘fake news’, national journalists are still seen as the most critical influencers of public
opinion, but specialist bloggers and influencers are also highly prioritised
• The value of social influencers is complicated by the increasing level of ‘pay for play’ promotions
• Social media priorities are dependent on budget availability due to ever diminishing natural reach for pure
earned content
• Social media is still managed separately by over 40% of respondents’ businesses and Twitter is the most
prioritised by respondents
• Less than half of respondents measure outcomes such as awareness, yet 95% have it as their number
one objective
• Public relations professionals are required to develop new skills to thrive across digital and social
media platforms.

2. The channel priorities of communications directors
This report highlights channel priority changes of in-house PR and communications teams. It uncovers the
inter-related nature of the channels across digital, print, broadcast and social. It is far too tempting to think
of these channels in competition, to try and rank them in order of importance but this is not the reality of the
relationship between communications channels; stories are broken on one channel and then followed up with a
related theme and different content on another.
The achievability of coverage also comes into play. For example, BBC News may be a high priority but how
achievable is it on a regular basis? One surprise of the research results is the retained priority of the print media,
especially when considering how content is shared digitally.
Alex Aiken, executive director of Government Communications argues: “Public relations is developing all the time,
identifying new approaches to reaching audiences with new tools and techniques. And this expansion means that
it is converging with other disciplines such as marketing, for example, in the use of ‘nudge’ techniques to change
behaviour.“
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Have channel priorities changed for in-house communicators?
The priority of channels for communications professionals has changed in recent times. As Joe Hanley, vice
president, communications EMEA at Medtronic points out: “We live in a world where people consume content and
information over various different channels from traditional media through to online, social, shares and search – thus
your communications strategy has to respond to that diversification.”
The insight into how the channel diversification has impacted the day-to-day activities of PR and communications
professionals is interesting. Paul Wooding, director of public relations, EMEAI at Western Digital, says, “There is a
lot more focus on multi-channel, rather than each individual team concentrating on their own channels. That can
be difficult to communicate internally because of some company structures, but companies have been forced to
become multi-channel, and that’s a good thing because it has meant that internal teams are not able to defend their
turf, the nature of the comms landscape is driving the integration.”
Digital has changed the practicalities of public relations as Tania Littlehales from Marks and Spencer points out: “The
PR team has always served multiple channels, but there are even more multiples now! Print media, long and short
lead, some broadcast and obviously offline and online magazines and blogs. So how you divide a story has changed,
including where you break it.”
Santander prioritises traditional and online media; although social is becoming more and more prevalent, but it is still
important to have editorial newsworthy earned media from a third party.
Andy Smith, head of media relations at Santander UK, says: “The amount of noise out there means that earned
content is more important than ever because it signposts to consumers that this is something they need to
engage with.”
‘Ten years ago social media didn’t exist. The digital media
was in comparative infancy. So all communications channel
priorities have changed and they had to change.’
Alistair Smith, Managing Director, Corporate Communications Group, Barclays.

3. 3kaizo.co.uk
How strongly do you prioritise the following channels?
It is intriguing that in-house communicators still place such a priority
on the established media brands, be those online or in print. PRmoment
asked EE’s head of communications Howard Jones whether he was
surprised by the dominance of online newspapers and print newspapers
and the apparent low priority of broadcast media and social channels.
Jones answers: “As an in-house PR team we spend less time on
broadcast opportunities, but ultimately it is broadcast opportunities
that will deliver the best results. However, you have fewer stories that
are suitable. If reach is your goal, BBC News is your goal. There is no
question of that. But how many times in a year do you have a story with
the potential to be on BBC News? Not very often. Much more likely is
that you build relationships with the media that has that sweet spot of
reach and attainability. And that is online nationals. That is where you
will get the most effective and efficient return on the relationships that
you’ve built and achievable coverage in terms of the kind of stories that
you are going to have.
“For Facebook earned content, as in not paid-for, you’ve got a big
challenge to get any reach. Facebook is geared up for money, if you
don’t have money you are not going to achieve big reach. That is the
way the platform is set up. That limits you to one-to-one communication
with specific customers. That can be a role for PR, but you’d like to think
you’ve set up your customer service team to do that work and PR steps
in when it’s getting difficult or it’s a high-profile individual. Twitter is
quite similar in that if you want to get reach you probably need to put
some spend behind it but it’s quicker and easier to have interactions
and more people are likely to see your posts without any spend.
“LinkedIn is the one where you are likely to have more meaningful conversations, but it’s less likely to be with your
customers and more likely to be with your influencers. “
Daisy Wallace from Virgin Trains argues: “90% of articles read from a newspaper are read from a mobile device, only
10% on a printed newspaper so I don’t understand the preoccupation with the printed form.”
“90% of articles
read from a
newspaper are
read from a mobile
device, only 10%
on a printed
newspaper so I
don’t understand
the preoccupation
with the printed
form.”
Daisy Wallace,
Head of PR,
Virgin Trains

4. Thinking specifically about influential invidividuals with an audience, how strongly do you prioritise each in
your media strategy?
Medtronic’s Joe Hanley adds: “I’m not surprised that the digital
newspaper brands are the highest channel, but I am surprised the
print newspaper channel is so close behind. The way people consume
content, consume news, consume opinions, the ease with which
people will share online content does not transfer to the print version.
Newsprint is important but if you’re talking about channel priority and
extending reach into social and digital channels via shares and likes it’s
interesting that people still value print so highly.”
Santander’s Andy Smith points out that while “Santander still prioritises
national media, national media is different than what it was five years
ago. You’re just as keen to get into The Huffington Post and Buzzfeed
as you are to get into the editorial on the more long established media.
It’s less about the channel, more about the editorial profile of the media
brand. The media brand has to be sufficiently powerful to mean it’s
worth you spending the time engaging with.”
When considering the impact of paid-for posts on consumer behaviour
Smith adds: “Bloggers and vloggers need to be aware of how their
audience will respond to knowing that they have been paid to produce
a piece of content. And this is where you need to be aware of how
different age demographics will behave. As a consumer I switch off
when I see advertising copy, if it says promoted content I just think “I’m
not going to look at it, I want to seek out the editorial views” but other
people, possibly millennials, may not have the same view.“
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“Bloggers and
vloggers need to
be aware of how
their audience
will respond to
knowing that they
have been paid to
produce a piece of
content.”
Andy Smith,
Head of Media Relations,
Santander

5. Fake news
Considering the recent publicity around fake news (or poor journalism/propaganda as it has been called previously)
it is interesting the see that in-house communicators still rate the influence that journalists retain on the public:
How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Digital and social media has the potential to
change the relationship between journalists
and their readers. PRmoment asked James
Turner, founder of delineate, whether it
is now more of a two-way street when it
comes to who is influencing who?
“With the news cycle speeding up, online
editorial leads print editorial. Inevitably
digital insights showing the popularity of
specific news content has created a direct
real-time relationship between journalists
and their readers.“
The integration of public relations, communications and social media
The internal structure for managing the integration of PR and social seems to differ between organisations. However,
there are some interesting trends.
Do you manage your social media separately to your earned media activity?
“For EE the comms team does not influence the budget for paid and social, but we do influence the content, we
make sure that it’s aligned“ says Howard Jones.
Barclays’ managing director, corporate communications says the integration between PR and social “varies across
our businesses. In our consumer businesses there is quite a lot of co-ordination. It depends on the objectives of the
communications. At a group level, where we are dealing with corporate strategy and financial performance there is
relatively little co-ordination with our marketing colleagues.”
Social has become a broad channel and it is interesting to consider the priorities of different brands on the various
channels. EE’s Howard Jones says: “From a trends perspective, in terms of the growth, it’s all YouTube. For example,
for EE’s Wembley Cup sponsorship the dominant channel is YouTube. Facebook is big, but the numbers from
5kaizo.co.uk
“From a trends
perspective, in
terms of the
growth, it’s all
YouTube.”
Howard Jones,
Head of Communications,
EE

6. 6
YouTube are phenomenal. For Bafta, as a big piece of sponsored activity, the executions are there in all channels:
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, but where you really drive big engagement and a new segment in terms of our audience
is YouTube. And that’s where we are evolving to focus the most. That said if you’ve got a brand campaign I don’t
think you can miss one of the big four channels: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. And having a view on
how to use Snapchat is almost compulsory now as well. But I really don’t think you can afford to miss Facebook,
Twitter or YouTube in whatever your execution is from a brand perspective.”
Hybrid organisation models seem to be developing that work for specific markets, with specific objectives and are of
course tailored to a particular budget.
Western Digital’s director of public relations, EMEAI Paul Wooding, says “WD doesn’t spend a lot on display
advertising, our sweet spot is the broad sweep of influencer and content. We do a lot of stuff on LinkedIn, not much
paid but a lot of influencer work.”
Wooding adds, “earned media relations for the consumer side of the business is still critical for us. We’re talking
product reviews and these days product reviews bleed into influencers, perhaps paid reviews for example, if there
are opportunities for bloggers to do paid-for objective reviews. Although I should add that at Western Digital we are
exceptionally aware of the compliance and legal rules in this area.”
Medtronic’s Joe Hanley argues that it comes down to the evolution of PR skills. Organisations need “to take a
look at their channels and audience and leverage the investment for paid and take it into earned and owned. The
determining factor may be that if I’m doing a paid-for space it may potentially rule out the earned because if you
are partnering on a paid-for content with a media owner, unless it’s really hot, the media owner’s competitors won’t
want to touch it – competition still rules.”
Which social channel do you find the most successful?
Virgin Trains’ Daisy Wallace sums it up nicely when she says “Different social channels have different goals. Twitter is
primarily a customer services tool. Facebook is for brands and for sales. LinkedIn is for B2B, Instagram and Pinterest
are for creative content. So it depends what the strategy is and what the challenge is.”
Thinking specifically about social media platforms, how strongly do you prioritise each in your
media strategy?

7. 7kaizo.co.uk
Quite how Google+ remains such a priority is a mystery, but other than that priority ranking would seem to make
sense, bearing in mind the survey sample was primarily UK-based.
The inter-relationship between the social channels needs to be considered when judging the priority in-house
communicators place upon each channel. As Barclays’ Smith points out: “A very high proportion of the social media
coverage of large corporates comes from journalists who are writing for newspapers and magazines… when we have
done analysis on the most influential people talking about Barclays in social channels, the majority of those people
are journalists.”
Owned media strategy
The algorithm changes made by Facebook have emphasised the advantages of brands owning their own digital real
estate – owned media. Virgin Trains’ Daisy Wallace believes “there is probably an obsession currently with earned
and paid content, these are valuable, but owned content also needs to be prioritised. Having a rich content mix is
important.”
Alistair Smith adds: “Barclays is very conscious that we should maximise the use of our owned media. Our estate
gets a hell of a lot of eyeballs, so we are always working on ways to make better use of that. I think we make a very
good job of it from a marketing viewpoint, we could be better from a corporate comms perspective. “
The graph below shows the priority across organisations’ own media channels:
Western Digital’s Paul Wooding believes that brands may have lost momentum in this area in recent years: “I don’t
know many brands that are doing it really well, the exceptions being consumer brands like Red Bull and GoPro.
For me it’s more about the channels you own through a third party than the real estate of your own website. I think
LinkedIn is under-played.”

8. 8
“The ability to analyse
traffic from earned
media from specific
channels is important,
that’s become a key
metric for us.
Paul Wooding,
Director of Public Relations,
Western Digital
Paid media
Twitter, Google and Facebook are the most dominant paid-for channels for in-house communicators.
Thinking specifically about social media platforms, how strongly do you prioritise each in your
media strategy?
Measurement KPIs across prioritised channels
The modernisation of public relations has rightly increased the need for robust resource attribution. Digital channels
enable far greater transparency and reliability into the performance of each channel. As Western Digital’s Paul
Wooding points out: “The ability to analyse traffic from earned media from specific channels is important, that’s
become a key metric for us. It enables us to understand which social media channels are driving traffic back to our
site.”
Clearly measurement KPIs should be linked to the objectives of your organisation’s communications.
The objective priorities of in-house communicators:

9. 9kaizo.co.uk
When considering the impact of influencer relations the following KPIs are prioritised:
How do you measure the impact of influencer relations?
Media analysis – Quality 65%
Media analysis - Reach 57%
Sentiment analysis (from social media monitoring) 56%
Click throughs (to owned media) 51%
Brand tracking (by survey) 48%
Media analysis - Impressions 47%
Media analysis – Message cut-through 47%
Page Views (of the influencer) 44%
Business outcomes (such as sales) 44%
AVE – Advertising Value Equivalent 19%
Other 8%
None of the above 8%
More has been written about AVEs than anyone needs to read, but it may be reassuring that it is the least popular
measurement criteria in our survey, or it may be worrying that nearly one in five in-house communicators still use
AVEs!
Have the changes in channel priority meant a change in communications teams
skill sets?
Has the plethora of channels meant that in-house PR teams have had to reskill or hire new people?
“The comms team now has capabilities that it didn’t used to, particularly in regards social media. But this has been
more about having additional skills than bringing in people with additional skills,” says Barclays’ Alistair Smith.
Medtronic’s Joe Hanley adds: “The digital capability and social media nouse you need in your team has increased.
Even as a generalist you have to have that social and digital awareness as part of your core capability. But as a
comms team you may still have to partner with or employ a specialist to get those that have channel-specific
knowledge – so Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. And those specialists are becoming increasingly important within
the team.”
Tania Littlehales from Marks and Spencer adds: “We haven’t recruited separate digital roles, we don’t have a digital
press officer for example. Our people have a mixture of different types of titles they are responsible for, short lead,
long lead, etc. This would include our Instagram feed, which has been a massive change in recent years. It means
that if we want to we can break things through Instagram and clearly it’s a lot less about words and a lot more about
visual impact. Our team need to know what makes a good photo and what makes a good post.
“Video has changed things as well, everyone must be able to shoot video. Within the PR team people have upskilled
and are able to create great video. And this changes the dynamic of the relationship between the PR team and
the journalists/influencers. Often the fashion press will connect with the Instagram personal accounts of our press
officers and they often use our photography and the videos that our press officers have posted from Instagram or
Snapchat.
“So the line between professional and personal use has got increasingly blurry. There are informal networks and
friendships between the two. “

10. 10
Thanks to Kaizo for partnering with us on this report
“Depending on the
type of work a client
wants, you may have to
go back to a situation
where you return to
retainer relationships
with agencies because it
has to be an integrated
relationship – otherwise
it’s not going to work.”
Tania Littlehales,
Head of Product PR,
Marks and Spencer
Has the role of PR changed?
As social media has matured, the way brands inter-relate with
the social channels has also changed. These trends are still
developing, but Littlehales believes: “depending on the type
of work a client wants, you may have to go back to a situation
where you return to retainer relationships with agencies
because it has to be an integrated relationship – otherwise it’s
not going to work.”
The channel priorities of PR and communications professionals
have changed. But the inter-relationships between these
channels mean that they are not and should not be seen in
isolation, they are not mutually exclusive they are mutually
supportive.
One of the reasons public relations as a sector remains
relatively buoyant in difficult global economic times is because
creating content for most of these additional channels is
something that comms and PR people, assuming they are good
at their jobs, already have the skillset for. That said, the pace
and need for change differs by sector. As Barclays’ Alistair
Smith points out, “Vast amounts of corporate PR have changed,
but a lot has stayed the same. The tools at our disposal have changed and increased, but the objectives of the
corporate communications function of a PLC are the same as they were. What you now have are channels that allow
you to engage with a lot of stakeholders in an unmediated way.”
Western Digital’s Paul Wooding, however, warns: “PR has to avoid being stuck in the middle. PR tends to get the
lower budgets, yet in-house PR is fundamental to most conversations within the business – from reputation, to sales,
to branding. So we have to use that position and that influence. PR people need to be bold, be strategic and make
good recommendations no matter what the channel is. And have the capability to be able to deliver or lead those
recommendations, when required. Otherwise you risk losing more budget and being squeezed down into a purely
earned media role – and that’s not a place anyone wants to be.”
“Vast amounts of corporate PR have changed, but a lot has
stayed the same. The tools at our disposal have changed and
increased, but the objectives of the corporate communications
function of a PLC are the same as they were. What you now have
are channels that allow you to engage with a lot of stakeholders
in an unmediated way.”
Alistair Smith,
Managing Director, Corporate Communications,
Barclays

11. 11kaizo.co.uk
Who’s responded
This report aims to shine a light on the prioritisation of the increasing breadth of channels that public relations
professionals target and prioritise.
In terms of who took part in the research, the graph below describes the demographic and the methodology.
Which sector(s) do you work in?
Technology / Telecoms / R&D 35%
Media / Comms / News / Publishing 24%
Financial services 22%
Healthcare / Pharma 16%
Food 13%
Transport 13%
Energy / Chemicals 12%
Manufacturing 12%
Education 10%
Energy 10%
Automotive 7%
Hospitality 6%
Construction 4%
Entertainment 4%
Aerospace / Defense 3%
Which of the following best describes your seniority?
Senior Leadership / Director 64%
Middle Management 35%
Executive / Junior 1%
Which of the following types of customer do you serve?
B2B 75%
B2C 58%
Government 39%
Non-Profit / Thirdsector 23%
Other 8%
Thanks to our research partner delineate-strategy.com
Methodology:
The quantitative
part of this research was
an online survey conducted
amongst 77 client-side
communications professionals
between 14 December 2016 and
28 January 2017. The research was
carried out by:
Methodology:
The quantitative
part of this research was
an online survey conducted
amongst 77 senior client-side
communications professionals
between 14 December 2016 and
28 January 2017. The research
was carried out by:
Methodology:
Invitations were sent to a mix of PRmoment subscribers and an additional sample of industry contacts from Kaizo
and delineate. The qualitative element of this research included 10 telephone interviews with senior communications
professionals in February 2017.
Report author: Ben Smith, founder, PRmoment

12. 12 kaizo.co.uk
Ben Smith: Thinking about the different
channels available to communicators today,
what are the differences between leading
and supporting content?
Rhodri Harries: The clever brands are the
ones that can understand and exploit the
roles of each channel and how they build on
each other. When is social the lead that needs
to be extended and promoted through paid
and earned media? Versus when does earned
media lead the news that is supported by
information and videos on owned channels
and discussions and debate on social? It’s
less now about how they integrate, but more
about how they inter-relate.
BS: What has been the impact of different
social media platform algorithms on earned
content?
RH: Ironically, we may see a re-emergence,
or at least a reinstatement, of the importance
and reach of earned news as algorithms
increasingly shut out brand and corporate
news. It can also only be a matter of time
before Google and Facebook work out a way
to block or severely limit obviously paid-for
influencers endorsement, highlighting the
need for communicators to develop more
authentic partnerships – previously known as
PR!
BS: What does this research tell us about
the reality of influencer relations as opposed
to journalist relations?
RH: It clearly depends on objectives,
sectors and market, but influencer relations
is increasingly becoming a paid channel,
whereas journalists should be a conduit to an
audience, thus playing a different role. That
said, for many media to survive there will
increasingly be a blurring of boundaries – if
not with individuals then certainly in the way
the publisher will view certain news such as
product launches and overtly commercial
messages.
BS: What channels seem to work better for
B2B organisations?
RH: It really depends on the objectives and
expected outcomes, most B2B brands are
under ever-more pressure to prove value
in terms of immediate impact on the sales
funnel, so content that elicits a lead in the
form of some sort of data (even just a name
and email address) is crucial.
BS: Measurement of digital channels, and
non-digital channels, is utterly achievable
for all communicators. What KPIs do you
see becoming dominant?
RH: It is unbelievable how much work is
still measured on an output-only basis and
how many objectives still are based on
metrics that aren’t really measured – such as
awareness.
A good mix of KPIs is required as, no matter
what the budget, it is always possible to
measure impact in some way; from Google
trends, to web analytics, to measuring
change in search through to simple customer
surveys to measure perceived profile and
significant brand-tracking studies.
PRmoment’s Ben Smith recently
caught up with Kaizo’s managing
director Rhodri Harries to find out
what the plethora of channels means
for today’s communicators