WASHINGTON, DC — Communications finally has a seat at the top table, but the price is greater responsibility and increasing demand for brands to comment on social issues, PRovokeGlobal summit delegates heard last week.

Speaking on a panel chaired by Ketchum CEO Mike Doyle, Capital One head of corporate comms Carlisle Campbell said “keep your head down and don’t comment” was no longer a viable strategy for business leaders.

Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, agreed: “We have to prepare for the unexpected and embrace authenticity.” Citing ongoing discourse around the price of eggs and bird flu, she added” ‘I don’t think we anticipated we would have political candidates holding up egg cartons in their adverts.”

Doyle highlighted the pace of change, pointing out that it took Netflix 18 years to reach 100 million followers, and TikTok just nine months to hit the same milestone: “In 2020, the average 18-25 year old voter consumed one hour and 40minutes of social media content a day; this election cycle, that number has increased to more than two hours.”

Washington Post CCO Kathy Baird said she would expect this figure to be higher, and added: “I hear you on stats around brands being trusted, but I think Gen Z is more likely to trust a person on social media.” She also said engagement on YouTube and Instagram has increased in the past year: “I’m not sure I would have said that a year ago.”

As a result of this rapid change, Baird said communicators need to be fast, to combine tactics and strategy, to be resilient and to focus on building relationships.

Megan Doern, head of external communications at Deloitte, said that while news coverage was once the aim, “now it’s the midway point. What are we doing with that coverage once it’s secured, how is it a tool for sales, marketing and internal comms?”

And she added data analytics and business intelligence had become part of the communications function at Deloitte: “As PR people we’ve been dependent for too long on metrics outside our organisations.”

The panel all agreed AI was a game-changer. “We have an inherent human nature to react to risk, but one of the things we’re talking about as a team is to embrace the inevitability of the future of AI,” Campbell said.

However, he added that the future would also hold “a craving for greater in-person human touch,” to counterbalance the increase in AI and social media. “Let’s balance AI with the realness of our humanity,” he said.