This report on Russian PR-trends was prepared and presented within Worldcom PR Group Moscow Fall Conference by Svetlana Malkarova, Deputy Managing Director, Ya-corporation.

1. PR trends in Russia

2. Public Relations Today
PR
Cooperation
Offline On-line
Traditional Social Media,
tools: MR, GR, Blogging, RSS,
IR, CSR, Supplement Podcasts, SEO,
Sponsoring, etc. etc.
Offline and online sectors supplement each other.
% sharing between them is 70/30

4. Offline
The role of offline PR activities in
Russia is still high:
•Russian people opt television and
press to get the information
•Internet is an additional channel for
obtaining news
•Growth in trust to Mass media in
recent years can be highlighted
(Federal television: from 27% (2008)
to 36% (2012), Federal press: from
19% (2008) to 23% (2012)
Based on the research by WCIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center, 2012):
http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=112941

5. Media Relations
• Russian Mass media are under the influence of the government
• Mass media’s attention is mainly targeted at the elites and their
interaction. They take less notice of Russian industry development
• Mass media in Russia are highly commercialized. Publication of articles
costs more expensive than, for example, in Europe. Simple mentioning
of a product can be interpreted as ad

6. Government Relations and lobbyism
Conducting of an informational support programs in Russian business has to take GR
practice into consideration
Lobbyism is substituted by GR tools
GR importance for business in Russia is backed
by the fact that the government shares in:
•Transportation – 73% (including railways and pipelines– 100%)
•Aerospace and shipbuilding – 57%
•Gas-producing industry – 48%
•Oil-producing industry – 23%
•Telecommunications – 14%
The Government especially supports nuclear power and mining industries

7. Investor Relations
IR has been rapidly developing since 2008 and experts predict that this process is not
going to slow down
• Different sectors of Russian economy is vitally interested in investments
• Russian business occasionally carries out IPO on global markets
• Russia has joined WTO and interested in entry on Global markets
Obstacles:
• Shortage of practicing professionals

8. Corporate Social Responsibility
Like in the rest world Russian business pays attention to social, educational and
ecologic problems. Traits:
• Representatives of Russian big business
have initiated long-term CSR programs
(“Gazprom to children”, “Green Subbotnik”
by Megafon, etc)
• Russian business prefer to lend aid directly
to beneficiaries avoiding non-profit
organizations. The overall amount of such
aid is about $500-600 mln/year
• The main reasons to grant any beneficiary
are target-oriented expenditure of aid and
possibility to carry out financial control over
it
• CSR programs is also used in reputational
management

9. Sponsoring
Business readily sponsors sport and cultural activities both in Russia and abroad
perfectly understanding the great significance of sport achievements for Russian
society. For example, Gazprom is a sponsor of FC Zenit (Russia), FC Schalke 04
(Germany), FC Crvena Zvezda (Serbia).

10. Territories image-making
Positive image building is an important tool for investment prospects improvement. Russia actively
competes for the right to host different international events. A number of international
activities has already been arranged for the period 2012-2018 and they will take place in
Russian regions:
• APEC Summit – 2012 in Vladivostok
• G20 Summit – 2013 in St.-Petersburg
• Universiade – 2013 in Kazan
• Winter Olympic Games – 2014 in Sochi
• World Soccer Cup in 2018
These actions are considered as a effective mean for territories image-making

12. Online
Online PR in Russia is an extension of offline PR-activities. Companies use every possible
platform in the Internet to inform Mass media and the audience about recent actions or
relevant information: blogs, corporate cites, on-line editions of mass media, news
agencies, etc
PR in Social Media is on a fast-moving track
•There are more than 70 mln. users in Runet (Russian Internet) today (1 st place in Europe).
38% of them use the Internet everyday*
•71 % of Runet users are searching the information in the Internet, 59% - chatting in Social
Media, 53% - reading news
•Russians prefer to use national Social Media (Daily audience of vk.com is 33 mln. users,
daily audience of odnoklassniki.ru – 29 mln.)
•Sufficient growth of Russian e-commerce segment (+29% in 2011)
*Based on the research of WCIOM: http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=112716

13. Social Media in Russia
Social Network Users Users • Blogging is utterly popular in Russia
(2011) (2012)
• Facebook is only 3d, LinkedIn is
vk.com 56 mln 108 mln known only in professional circles
• Russian Business is actively coming
35 mln 87,5 mln
odnoklassniki.ru in Social Media and prefer to use
Twitter, Facebook and Vk.com
3 ,223 mln 6 066 160
facebook.com
346 819 833 910
linkedin.com
2 400 000 2 611 643
livejournal.com

14. Level of Russian Business penetration in Social Media
• From Top-57 retailers: 35% have an account on Twitter, 35% on
Vk.com, 32% on Facebook
• From Top-40 banks: 58% have an account on Facebook, 43% on
Twitter, 30% on Vk.com, 20% on Livejournal, 10% on
Odnoklassniki.ru
• From Top-40 companies (vol. of sales): 28% have an account on
Facebook, 25% on Twitter, 10% on Vk.com
• From Top-10 consulting companies: 80% have an account on
Twitter, 80% on Facebook, 20% on LinkedIn, 20% on Vk.com
• From Top-10 Insurance companies: 50% have an account on
Twitter, 50% on Facebook, 20% on Vk.com
Conclusions:
• Russian business structures acknowledged preferences of being presented in global Social Networks
• The level of business penetration in SM is especially high in areas of consulting, banking, beauty
industry and IT
Based on: http://www.marketing.spb.ru/mr/media/smm_ru.htm

15. Conclusions
•Offline PR + Online PR = Cooperation, Interaction and
Supplement
•Russians mostly trust to non-web Mass media (Federal TV and
Press)
•Mass media are highly commercialized and more interested in
politics than in economics
• State positions in economy are still strong. GR tools are necessary
• Business development of Russia stimulates IR branch to grow
• Runet (Russian internet) is 1st in Europe with 70 mln users and has good prospects
• Russian Social Networks (Vk.com and Odnoklassniki) surpass Facebook and Twitter in
Russia
• Russian business is coming into Social Media but yet prefer to use global Networks
(Facebook, Twitter) though the role of Russian Social networks is increasing