PR and Marketing Professionals See Responsibilities Overlapping in Near Future

As public relations professionals begin to work closely with marketers, new research suggests that they will become more aligned in the future.

The “Global Communications Report 2017” from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism recently discovered that 45 percent of in-house PR professionals believe public relations will become more closely aligned with marketing in the next five years. About 47 percent of PR agency professionals said the same.

Just seven percent of PR agency professionals said they believe public relations will become a distinct, separate function from marketing. Approximately 12 percent of in-house PR employees agreed.

Their counterparts – marketing professionals – appeared to agree with their projections. Sixty-one percent of marketers said they see PR becoming more closely aligned with marketing in the next five years.

In terms of factors influencing these changes, 88 percent of marketers claim that social listening is playing a large role. Eighty percent stated that digital storytelling will impact the future of PR, while 73 percent pointed to social purpose.

AI and Its Impact on Marketing

One factor that marketers believe will impact the future of their own industry is artificial intelligence. According to a survey conducted by Demandbase and Wakefield Research, 80 percent of B2B marketers believe that AI will revolutionize marketing over the next five years.

Approximately 60 percent believe AI can help them provide insight into their accounts, and 56 percent predict that they can gain a more detailed analysis of their campaigns with it.

In comparison, 38 percent of marketers said they thought AI will impact the future of PR in the Global Communications Report 2017 from USC.