“Thanks to Elon Musk’s challenges in keeping brands on X (formerly Twitter), brand safety has become a mainstream concept. More people than ever understand that ad-supported media might be subject to advertiser pullbacks if the content or experience could be detrimental to the brand. Twitter is a clear example of this and has been in the news daily for its brand exodus. Interestingly, brand safety has largely been the domain of paid media and marketers, who grapple with when to pull ad spend due to a news event and which publishers make the most sense to align with.
PR teams will become more central to brand safety conversations in 2024. PR teams are more attuned to the evolving news cycle to identify brand-threatening conversations—they’re often smarter about publishers and are hyper-aware of brand sensitivities that could become news fodder. PR will become a key stakeholder in brand safety conversations in 2024, regardless of whether they’re about paid media spend.” —Chris Harihar, evp, Crenshaw Communications, a Mod Op Company
“Aside from AI, 2024 will be a big year for LinkedIn. Where once Twitter was a great platform to connect with journalists and even land stories for clients in the national press, since becoming X, it’s just not the same. I’ve seen the migration of journalists to LinkedIn to share their work, post requests for leads and even source stories based on the posts of employees, and I only see this increasing. For PR it means increasing the time spent monitoring and engaging on the channel, but beyond that, there’s also an opportunity to help clients tell their stories better and connect them with journalists in their sector when a relevant opportunity arises.” —Karolina Throssell, founder and PR consultant, Iden
Flexibility and versatility are critical
“The boundaries among earned, owned and paid media will evolve. Gone are the days of earned media alone driving impact and value. Enterprises and brands alike will see an increasing need to expand their PR strategies to include the entire B2B marketing ecosystem, from editorial coverage to paid content to social marketing to owned events and stages to executive visibility programs. The real impact will come from messages being reinforced across all these channels.” —Samantha DiGennaro, founder and CEO, Sam DiGennaro Communications
“Funding was limited across industries in 2023, leaving many business leaders reconsidering budgets in the year ahead. We’re seeing far smaller to medium-sized businesses swapping out the traditional agency model for smaller comms partners and freelancers with a strong niche in their area. While you get less people power, the benefits of downsizing can be huge cost savings, faster turnaround times and far fewer strategy meetings.” —Hannah Martin, founder, What Follows
