AI, social networking to influence the future of African PR practice in next 5-10 years, – African PR report 2023
THE top concerns of PR practitioners in Africa include the adaptation to ethical and professional practices, according to the first Africa PR report.
The report dubbed ‘Africa PR & Communications Report (APCR) 2022-2023’, says another concern of the PR industry is the proliferation of fake news. Released and published in July 2023, by BHM Research & Intelligence the APCR highlights the industry’s challenges and opportunities and underscores the work yet to be done on the continent.
Among the many other key indicators, the APCR spotlights African governments’ roles in providing PR with a foundation to thrive, saying 10% of practitioners sampled are concerned that government policies would affect the industry. PR is the acronym for ‘Public Relations’.
“An unprecedented embrace of African culture and creativity across the music, film, fashion, arts, and tech industries globally means demand for reputation and crisis management is on a high, accounting for a quarter of the total services demanded in the PR and communications industry,” says the report.
A sneak preview
According to the report there is evidence of PR practitioners thriving in the trade despite having no formal training. This probably explains the significant dilution of PR and communications professionals.
From the study, we see that ONLY 36% of PR practitioners consider themselves as PR professionals and 9% as marketing professionals. The others consider themselves as experts in traditional media, digital marketing, podcasting, events management, experiential marketing, government relations and influencer management.
There is a drastic drop in talent in countries selected in the study. This is probably why 81.1 % of PR practitioners admit to being overworked.
According to the study 17% of PR agency clientele are from government/ public sector, 15.6% are from tech related businesses and others are from the development world.
The study says that the emerging areas that are likely to matter in the future, for PR practitioners, include media relations and strategic thinking. Most of today’s PR managers practice with no comprehensive strategies for their PR work and campaigns.
Respondents also predicted that in 5-10 years’ time, the top three technologies that will influence the future of PR (in Africa) will include Artificial Intelligence (AI), social networking and data science. In Rwanda social media and digital activation are already disrupting traditional media. Worth noting that country’s leading print newspaper, The New Times Rwanda no longer prints and has since Covid-19 resorted to dissemination of an online version claiming new reader acquisition from a wider online audience. This has solely changed media engagement with PR managers preferring to add social media influencers on the bouquets they offer.
On PR earnings, the study shows that about 32% of PR practitioners earn between $200-$1,000 monthly (common in Rwanda and Kenya), 24% earn above $10,000 (common in Botswana DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa and ONLY 2.5% earn between $30,000 to $50,000 monthly.
Expert views in the report indicate that the adoption of advanced technology to execute PR is happening quickly and is here to stay.
The industry is experiencing a transformation and evolution of new digital technologies to meet consumers’ demands. This means PR professionals MUST now be proficient in utilising digital tools across the spectrum of their work.
“Digital tools are essential for measurement and evaluation in PR and communications because they allow real-time tracking and analysis of metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, and media coverage. This information can be used to understand the effectiveness of campaigns and adjust strategies as needed,” says the report.
“If we don’t review, tweak or reinvent the way we work and the solutions we put forward, we will be left behind or cancelled,” Mary Gearing Deputy Managing Director, Magna Carta quoted in the report.
Challenges of PR practice in Africa
One of the challenges cited in the report is the lack of a metric that PR managers could use to measure successes. “People still use AVE, smart objectives but at the end of the day, there isn’t a clear-cut metric.”
The continent of Africa is home to a wide range of cultures and languages, which makes it challenging practitioners to effectively communicate with different audiences across countries.
In some parts of Africa, access to traditional media such as radio, and newspapers are still prevalent. Even though 80% of Africans own and have access to a mobile phone network (Afrobarometer), only 23% of Africans in rural areas access Internet (International Telecommunications Union’s ‘Measuring Digital Development Facts and Figures 2022 Report’),
which makes it challenging for effective digital PR practice.
In quite a number of African countries, the PR industry is poorly regulated, which has led to ethical issues and a lack of accountability. More so in some African countries, the public has a low trust in PR professionals, making it difficult for stakeholder engagement.
Here are my few observations
“PR is still an art rather than a science,” says the report. The report should have also noted that PR and communications are bound by innovation and evolves quite regularly. Though they need a formal training practitioners today might NOT necessarily need to be PR academics.
Sadly, the report represents only 29 countries (that’s half of Africa). One can argue that the portion of the study isn’t indicative of the whole continent. Also, PR practices are dictated by different market forces depending on the size of the economy, the corporate culture, traditions, quality of population and adoption of technology et al. The findings, while do represent what is happening in some markets, might contrast in others.
The report should have had more voices and insights from those that consume PR and others that activate PR. Testimonials from corporates, government entities and the NGO world would be helpful to future understanding to why the landscape is shaped the way it is.
Lastly the report should have strongly mentioned one of the biggest threats to PR practice, the ever-evolving nature of the trade. The authors seem to have shied away from noticing that communications work best with innovation. PR can evolve effectively unless practitioners are innovative. Today traditional PR has branched off into all forms of specialties like development communications, science communications, events PR etc and newbies and regulators are having challenges adapting to change. Click here to down the full AFRICA PR REPORT 2022-23
The author is a communications expert based in Kigali Rwanda. You can reach out to him on +250 7888 65 917 or on email keziomusoke@inspire.co.rw
