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The following research is based on responses from a survey sent to this year's Influence 100, and when applicable, our own analysis and research. Because of rounding, some percentages might exceed 100%. Some sections of this report were written with the help of AI survey response analysis.
When we asked our respondents about their predictions for the future of the chief communications officer and chief marketing officer roles, the responses were varied, with a real sense that the two functions would evolve in the face of ongoing significant and even transformational challenges for business, linked to much bigger issues outside their own firms.
There was again a clear view that the responsibilities of the CCO role would evolve as a result of an increasing focus on ESG, purpose and social impact – and the knock-on effect on reputation – but unsurprisingly artificial intelligence was a dominant theme this year, after only being mentioned tentatively last year (see also below for more thoughts from the Influence 100 on how AI will impact the communications industry).
Many respondents talked about an increasing integration or merger of CCO and CMO roles – although it’s worth noting that this has been a trend in the responses to this question for some time, and we’re still not seeing many more CMCO roles in industry, or the erasure of either role. One respondent said the roles were “changing quickly and what used to be in a CMO’s role is now coming into the CCO role” as CMOs are now taking charge of new areas such as customer experience, technology, sustainability and business strategy.
What’s clear is that CCOs and CMOs are both expected to play more strategic roles within their organizations. One respondent said: “CCO roles will need to be seen as strategic business drivers for the business, in addition to being strategic advisors.” The expectation is for comms and marketing chiefs to contribute more directly to business growth, with one saying, “CEOs will continue to expect both functions’ leaders to meaningfully contribute to value creation.”
It’s no surprise that tech advancements, particularly AI, are set to redefine these roles; one respondent said: “The adoption of AI will cause a rethink on what can be augmented through technology versus the role of human intelligence”. There is a mix of excitement and caution about AI, with another respondent saying, “AI will enable communicators to create more personalized, relevant, and engaging content for our audiences.”
There is, inevitably, in these challenging times, a greater focus on demonstrating direct business impact, as well as the requirement for effective measurement: “there is an increasing need for communications functions and their leaders to more effectively measure, analyse, and forecast the outcome of the programs they implement,” as one leader said. Another added: “CCOs and CMOs will be evaluated based on the business value they add to the organization, from corporate reputation to crisis mitigation.”
The geopolitical landscape and ESG considerations are also having an impact on both roles. One respondent said there was increasing focus on the G – or governance – of ESG, “particularly defending where, why, and how their businesses operate amid significant geopolitical upheavals and market volatility.” Another said: “Our role has never been more challenging with the global sensitivities around geopolitical tensions, conflicts, and protectionism.”
The impact of artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, on the PR industry has been a dominant topic of discussion since ChatGPT exploded into our collective consciousness just 18 months ago. Last year, for the first time, we asked our Influence 100 about the extent to which their teams were using generative AI tools.
A year ago, the industry was still at the talking rather than action stage, at least in-house, as only 5% said their teams were now using gen AI regularly; 12 months later, that’s leapt to 23%. The number saying they used AI tools a moderate amount went up from 24% to 33%, and those who said they were only using AI “a little” dropped from 57% to 37%. Only 7% said they were still not using gen AI at all, down from 14% this time last year.
We also asked our influencers to comment more broadly on how they think AI will impact the communications industry, revealing a mix of excitement, optimism, and cautious concern.
Many respondents highlighted the significant efficiencies and enhancements AI can bring to the industry. One respondent noted: “It will be a useful tool to scale and improve productivity,” particularly for content tasks that may be moved in-house. AI is also seen as a catalyst for more personalised, relevant, and engaging content. “AI will enable communicators to create more personalized, relevant, and engaging content for our audiences,” one leader commented.
In-house leaders are also encouraged by AI's potential to free up time for more strategic and creative work. “There are huge opportunities to leverage efficiencies and tackle mundane tasks to free up communicators to focus on more creative and strategic challenges,” one respondent observed. Another echoed this sentiment: “It will make rudimentary tasks -- presentations, summaries -- less taxing and allow us to do more strategic work.”
AI is also expected to enhance data-driven decision-making and analytics. “Being able to not just provide data and analytics for reactive action but to help pre-empt issues and aid forward decision-making,” one respondent noted, illustrating AI's potential to improve the strategic impact of communications teams. Another said: “AI will help in segmenting communication to specific audiences while also reducing the cognitive load of our teams, making work easier and faster”.
There are, however, accompanying concerns about the implications of AI. “I think it will eliminate the entry-level roles we have today and will completely change how people get their work done,” one respondent said, with another saying “It will be mildly destructive and will entail a serious reset in skills and approaches”. Another expressed concern about AI potentially “initially lowering the average quality of creative processes.”
The ongoing threat of disinformation is another major concern. “There are also huge issues with disinformation, fake content and news,” one leader warned, highlighting the ethical challenges that AI might bring.
AI's role as a ‘co-pilot’ is a common theme, with several of our Influence 100 seeing it as an enabler rather than a replacement. “It will improve rigour through better initial information; structure through LLMs [large language models]; speed by providing first drafts on non-sensitive issues and will become hugely important, but gradually and with human oversight,” one CCO commented.
Diversity, equity and inclusion has been a spotlight theme for the comms industry for four years now, but it has been noted on many occasions that commitment to DE&I seems to have slowed down considerably. This year’s Influence 100 survey bears this out, with the number of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed that their PR agencies must have an ethnically diverse team dropping again to 69.5% – it was 83% in 2022 and 78% last year.
Many more respondents were neutral on this question: 25% compared to 12% last year, while the number of in-house leaders who disagree or strongly disagree that their agencies must have ethically-diverse teams has stayed comparable to previous years, at 5%.
There is a more solid level of conviction when it comes to whether our respondents think the communications industry is committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting people of color: 54% agreed, almost the same as in the past couple of years and compared to just 37% in 2017. A further 32% were again neutral. However, the proportion of our Influence 100 who think the industry is not committed to resolving issues of racial inequity has risen to 13%, compared to 11% last year and 17% in 2022.
When it comes to gender, the number of CCOs who agree or strongly agree that their PR agencies must have a gender-balanced account team has risen slightly to 69.5%, compared to 67% last year after a couple of years of decline, but this is still far short of the 82% who asserted this in 2020. However, only 3% actually said gender balance was not a requirement of their agency teams, compared with 8% last year, and 27% were neutral on this question.
The number of our influencers who agree that the industry is committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting women also dropped to 86% from 97% last year, with 14% taking a neutral stance, but no-one disagreed with this statement.
There is less conviction than last year that the industry is now committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds: less than half (48%) agree or strongly agree, down significantly from 65% last year but still significantly up on 33% in 2020. While 28% are neutral on this point, 24% still disagree or strongly disagree, up from 19% last year.
In terms of whether the industry is committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting people from the LGBTQ community, there was quite a large dip this year in those who agreed or strongly agreed, down to 63% from 78% last year (although still significantly up from 49% in 2019). A further 34% were neutral and only 3% actually disagreed with this statement, compared to 8% last year.
For the first time, we asked our influencers if they thought the industry was committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting neurodiverse people, and those with disabilities, and the answers were far less convincing for the other categories. In terms of neurodiversity, only 27% said they agreed or strongly agreed the industry was committed, while 39% were neutral and 34% of in-house respondents actively disagreed that the industry was neurodiverse-friendly, despite multiple initiatives in the agency world to support and encourage neurodiversity.
Those who think the industry supports recruitment and retention of those with disabilities in the industry were slightly higher, with 36% agreeing or strongly agreeing, 44% being neutral and 20% disagreeing.
We again asked our Influence 100 to delve deeper this year, and come up with practical suggestions for what the PR and communications industry could actually do to improve diversity, equity and inclusion.
Several respondents stressed the importance of accountability and transparency in DEI initiatives. “Publish their DEI stats in the quarterly and annual reports. Nothing helps bring more change and accountability than having to publicly report performance,” suggested one respondent. Another emphasizing the need for measurable targets said “Clear metrics and targets for the industry per region with reporting against deliverables.”
It’s clear from our in-house cohort that the role of leadership in driving DEI initiatives is paramount. One respondent said: “As a senior leader, it's important that the leadership team represents the type of diversity that we should strive for across the broader organization.” The call for leaders to “walk the talk” came through many responses, with one saying: “Leaders need to role model inclusive behaviors” and another adding: “Commit to hiring diversely and accepting the natural feelings of exposure and discomfort when senior leaders have honest conversations about the (lack of) diversity of their teams.”
As in previous years, improving recruitment practices and focusing on talent development emerged as key themes. “Provide internships and scholarships to encourage youths from diverse backgrounds to consider PR as a career,” one respondent suggested. Others stressed the need for long-term initiatives “that go beyond entry level recruiting” and a more systemic approach to recruiting, retaining and promoting people of colour.
Broadening recruitment strategies beyond communications and marketing background to reach a more diverse talent pool came up repeatedly, with suggestions including (in the US) “recruiting straight out of HBCUs” (Historically Black colleges and universities) while another advocated for closer partnerships with a broader range of educational institutions: “Most opportunities go to those who have connections, which often don't exist in diverse communities.”
As has become extremely clear over the past few years, creating inclusive work environments is even more critical in retaining diverse talent than switching up recruitment. Suggestions including “reverse mentorships with senior leaders to expose them to talent from diverse backgrounds” and underlined the importance of listening to diverse voices from “the street, not the academia bubble”.
Most importantly, respondents also pointed out the need for “more action, less talk”: “Stop doing it for the sake of PR or compliance with societal trends, start seeing the business case for it,” one said, while another added that the industry needed to “actually deliver on the words we use to define our commitments.”
For the first time in the four years we’ve been asking respondents what ‘social good’ work will be important to them in the year ahead, environmental sustainability has dropped in importance, despite the ever more pressing and wide-ranging challenges of the climate crisis. Environmental sustainability was down to 22% this year, far lower than ever before (last year it had risen to 41%).
On a positive note, while DE&I has definitely dropped down the agenda for in-house communicators over previous year, the percentage of respondents anticipating diversity, equality and inclusion being their top “social good” priority for the year ahead went up from 5% last year to10%, though still less than 15% in 2022.
Brand purpose has grown again as the biggest ‘social good’ priority for our influencers: 38% said this was the most important area for the comms function this year, compared to 30% last year and 25% in 2021. Corporate giving rose again, from 2% in 2022, to 5% last year, and 12% this year: maybe we’re seeing a return to good old-fashioned philanthropy as well as the more complex requirements of ESG reporting.
Of our respondents, 17% had other priorities in their efforts to be good corporate citizens, including digital equity and inclusion, social impact, and responsible AI.
Reputation benchmarking is once again the PR and communications metric most of our Influence 100 are measured against, with almost all – 90% – saying their CEO evaluated their performance against this criterion, back up to 2022 levels from 83% last year. The proportion saying their CEO looked at sales and lead generation to evaluate the success of comms doubled on the past two years, from 5% to 10%, while tactical analytics, such as impressions, media reach and social media engagement, were the second most-used metrics, used by 59% of respondents, up from 53% last year.
Advocacy metrics being used by fewer of our influencers’ CEOs this year, down to 38% from 47% last year, but still up on the 2022 figure of 32%. We included the AMEC measurement framework as an option too; only 2% of our respondents said this was a key way their CEO evaluated PR and communications – up from zero last year but down from in 2022.
In top place as by far our Influence 100’s most popular reason for using data and analytics was measuring the business impact of communications strategy and activity, up to 91%, up again from 84% last year and 80% in 2022. In second place was using data and analytics to research and to generate insights that inform campaign planning, at 84% - the same as last year.
Those using data and analytics to allocate resource and spend dropped also remained steady at 38%, and there was a drop in the number using data to alter the course of a campaign in real-time, down to 38% from 57% last year, the lowest number for some years.
This final question helps us establish if a direct link is being made between comms and business leads and results within brands. There has been a great deal of effort within the industry in recent years showing that PR can do just that, but after a leap last year in those who said PR was responsible for demand generation – from 17% to 32% – this has fallen back down to 17%. The number who said PR was not responsible for demand generation increased correspondingly from 78% to 56%, although there were less black-and-white responses from 13% of the cohort.
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