EXPERT UK BASED PR AGENCY

As things open back up it’s obvious that something’s different. Millions of people are not where we last saw them. Instead of occupying the desk around the corner or the office down the hall, they’re working from the kitchen table or their hastily assembled home office. Casual Friday has thus become casual everyday, and photos of the kids in the background of a conference call have been replaced by actual kids in the background.

Any effective PR message going forward must acknowledge the vast changes that have taken place regarding how and where we work. It should also anticipate where this trend is going based on an analysis of what is currently working as well as what technology companies are promising for future iterations of their hardware and software.

Ephemeral content is an idea pioneered by Snapchat and recently picked up on by other social media platforms, including Twitter and LinkedIn. Ephemeral content is a way to provide updates to an audience or customer base that exists for only a short time (typically 24 hours) and then disappears. It’s the high tech equivalent of leaning out the window and telling your friends you got held up and you’ll be down in a few minutes.

Look for ephemeral content to gain more traction as the year progresses. First, because it’s effective, second because it’s inexpensive to produce, and third because it reflects the “everyday is casual Friday” ethos that is quickly becoming all pervasive.

Traditional brick and mortar retail was already teetering before anyone ever heard of covid19. Now it’s on life support. Yet at the same time, almost no one has lost their zest for shopping. So what gives? Where did everyone go? Increasingly the answer is “social media”. All major social media platforms have been pouring resources into their in-app purchasing capabilities in recent months and any PR agencies worth their salt are tailoring their content to reflect this change.

Zoom and other video conferencing apps saw exponential growth over the past year, but you don’t have to be a behavioural scientist to know that the thrill is gone. These apps played an important role in enabling civilization as we know it to lumber on when everyone was confined to their homes. And business owners everywhere should raise a glass to Zoom’s developers.

That said, now that the outside world is accessible again, distorted heads stacked about a computer screen like so many dingy bathroom tiles, with no indication of hierarchy and often no way to tell who is speaking or should be speaking, is quickly losing its appeal.

As such it’s likely that those who are most effective at integrating AR, and perhaps even VR technology into their video conferencing apps are those who will emerge atop the remote meeting app pile. This will have important implications for PR digital agencies looking to promote live demos, Q and A sessions and the like.