More science challenges for PR

The other day, I was at the Institute for Engineering and Technology in London listening to Professor James Gimzewski talking about nanotechnology. Having worked in biotechnology for six years was educational, but very few in PR, or even the media, seem to take much notice of the enormous changes that these new technologies are having on society.

Gimzewski, from the UCLA, unlike many scientists, managed to explain the technology in a sufficiently easy way to make the enormity of his tale appealing. Perhaps it was his Glaswegian accent tempered by years in California, but more likely was his own appreciation that nanotechnology was a science little understood (despite the audience consisting of grey-haired professors). Even more noticeable for a PR person was his closing section devoted entirely to the work he did with the Los Angeles community, demonstrating what his work was about.

So, if nanotechnology has a low profile, the NGO world took a very different approach a decade ago to that other science, biotechnology. We will have to see whether they turn their sights now on this micro scale technology.  Prince Charles, the man  with a quote for all seasons, has already ventured into the field with predictable opposition.

Potentially, within the next decade or two, there could be millions of nanotechnology applications, and there will need to be sufficient safety tests before each is implemented.  There will be work aplenty for PR people. But what will the NGOs do? Perhaps the success in the meantime of biotechnology will warn them off. Only time will tell.   

 

Here we go again?

It is mostly comedians who unwittingly create catchphrases.  Sometimes, others also prove adept at the art. I sometimes wish that I had had a pound for every time I heard Gordon Brown, when UK finance minister over the last decade, utter the phrase 'no return to boom and bust'.

For someone like Brown who spent a lifetime studying economics, this was perhaps a foolhardy thing to promise. Just look at the UK's history during the present and last century. Pendulum economics, often created by war, was the norm. For every good time, there was always a reckoning to come.  Desperate to report bad news, the media appear desperate to scream recession from their headlines, but for those in the communications industry, a downturn in economic fortunes can offer both challenges and opportunities.

Recent rises in the cost of fuel and food will certainly have created the need for creative thinking and marketing in those industries. In others, where the accountants reign supreme, it is a fair bet that PR budgets and staffing will now be under threat. Instead of thinking how relationships between business and customers can be reinforced, my experience is that marketing budgets are the first to suffer.

Operating environments might become harder, but what the media minimises is the fact that life carries on. A downturn might provide the impetus for companies to consider how they can still achieve results, but in more cost-effective ways. Once working in a public affairs environment, the budgets were slashed by over 80%.  Events and presentations that cost money were no longer viable.  The alternative was an increased programme of contact with key opinion formers, either in person or even by phone.  The beneficial results, that prepared the way for the inevitable improvement, astonished those who correlated the size of budget to the scale of results. 

At a time of recession, it might appear facile to say that corporate communications need to be tied even closer to what consumers wish to hear, but some sectors either pretend that there has been no change to the environment, or terminate their dialogue with consumers entirely.  This week, I was trying to book some tickets with an airline which had just reported a collapse in profits. After grappling with an inoperative website, I gave up.  A local retailer, rather than responding to a diminishing wallet in the pocket, carries on extolling environmental messages which patently do not resonate as much as they might have done some months ago.  Look at the current success of stores like Aldi and Lidl versus the others.  That tells its own story.

Creating relationships with customers and opinion formers during difficult times might require more effort than in boom times, but in my experience, these tend to produce longer-term dividends. If there was ever a time that showed how PR can work in the medium to longer term, we are now there.

We will soon see which PR people seize the opportunities created by the new economic circumstances. I hope they outnumber those who fail to rise to the challenges.