Survey: Traditional media still play a key role
The Worldcom Public Relations Group has announced the results of its latest PR trends survey in Europe. The results show that traditional media still play a major role, even though social media has gained in relevance.
The study reveals similarities within the European countries. All agencies consider daily newspapers to be important media for product launches. All agencies also agreed that news agencies, consumer magazines, television and radio as well as bloggers should be included in the activity mix for product launches. Bloggers can sometimes be more important than daily newspapers, especially for fashion and cosmetics launches.
If the client is visiting the agency's country for the first time and does not have a local presence, the PR specialists surveyed primarily recommend individual interviews or a meeting for breakfast or lunch with a group of local top media. However, the individual European regions differ here: Agencies in Southern Europe would organize a press conference in a city but advise against social events, while Western Europeans are happy to use the press tour tool. In Northern Europe, PR professionals recommend either a breakfast or lunch or a social event. Agencies in Eastern Europe, on the other hand, advise their clients to organize press conferences in more than one city.
Press conferences at which end consumer products are presented are the best attended throughout Europe (24 participants on average). Events in the pharmaceutical sector attract the fewest participants (less than ten). However, there are major differences from country to country. For example, around 20 journalists attend a press conference in the technology sector in Southern and Eastern Europe. In Northern and Western Europe, the average attendance is less than ten. For consumer products, the number ranges from around 40 participants in Southern Europe to fewer than five participants in Northern Europe.
In Southern Europe, journalists are less willing to attend meetings and trade fairs if the travel costs are not covered. In Northern Europe, on the other hand, 4 out of 10 editors would travel to an event even if the costs were not covered. In most countries, according to the Worldcom agencies, press releases must be translated into the local language. Only Portugal was an exception here: here, journalists would prefer to receive the press release in English rather than in Brazilian Portuguese, for example.
29.4 percent of the agencies surveyed recommend Facebook as a platform for B2B campaigns. This tool is particularly popular in Eastern Europe. There, 75 percent of agencies support such a campaign, whereas this is not recommended at all in Northern Europe. The majority of all PR agencies (70.6 percent) stated that Twitter is used as a professional tool by less than 25 percent of editors in the respective country.
The Worldcom Public Relations Group is represented in Switzerland by L&W Communication AG.
