Where and how to engage your audiences: From IGTV, TicToc and stories to Dark Social How to connect with today’s audiences: Brand experiences and values Why it’s all about touchpoints and personas Speed update: 2019 social media and PR trends brands can’t afford to miss

1. Riding the Next Wave of
PR & Social Media
Trends in 2019
Lars Voedisch
Principal Consultant
lars@preciouscomms.com
@larsv

2. PRecious Communications
We are an independent regional
agency made up of 40 highly
adaptive, responsive, and self-
empowered people.
PRecious Communications was
founded in 2012 and is
considered one of the top 5 Tech
PR firms in the APAC region.
We have received numerous
awards and honourable
mentions for its B2C, B2B and
Startup practices.
2
Inc. is a dedicated team
specialising in corporate,
government, and business-to-
business environments.
Sparks is deeply involved with
an ever-evolving environment
of disruption and innovation in
the startup space.
The Life team offers integrated
business-to-consumer
marketing and public relations
solutions that propel brands
forward.

3. 3
1. Explosion of channels
2. Shift in audience consumption
3. Lack of organic reach
4. Saturated audience
5. Changing demographics
6. Information overload
7. Privacy concerns
8. Increased brand messaging noise
9. Fake influencers and followers
10.Everyone else is doing the
same thing!
WHY ISN’T SOCIAL MEDIA MAGICALLY SOLVING ALL OUR PROBLEMS?

4. The Changing
Landscape

5. 5
THINK YOU NEED A DIGITAL STRATEGY? GO MOBILE FIRST
• An average user spends over three
hours per day consuming digital media
on mobile - a growth of nearly 4x over
just the past five years.
• Mobile overtook worldwide fixed
internet access already in 2014 and the
gap is growing.
• Especially in APAC the trend is strong.
What does that mean for
media content?
• Content has to be short
• Content and headline has to be catchy
• Audience prefers multimedia content

6. UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMERS ACROSS PLATFORMS
Source - www.thinkwithgoogle.com/
• Smartphones and tablets become king
as the share of desktop web browsing
traffic shrinks to 48.7%. That was in
2016!
• Almost 1 million people started using
social media for the first time every day
over the past year – that’s equivalent to
more than 11 new users every second.
• More than 5.1 billion people now use a
mobile phone, with most using a
smartphone.

7. 7
PLATFORMS LEADING THE MOBILE-FIRST REVOLUTION
IGTV, a new standalone video
app from Instagram, dedicated
to vertical video playback and,
therefore, suitable for
marketers and content
producers that are addressing
a mobile only audience.
If you’re still not on IGTV, it’s
time to hop on the train.
But don’t forget the dark
social!
84% of consumers’
outbound sharing from
publishers’ and
marketers’ websites now
takes place via private,
Dark Social channels
such as email and instant
messaging.
TikTok enables everyone to
be a creator, and
encourages users to share
their passion and creative
expression through their
videos.
Tik Tok, was the most
downloaded iPhone app
worldwide, totalling 45.8
million and surpassing
Facebook, YouTube, and
Instagram.
WhatsApp Business
provides business users
to connect with the more
than 1 billion WhatsApp
users. Over 80% of small
businesses in India and
Brazil say WhatsApp
helps them both
communicate with
customers and grow their
business today.

8. B2B MARKETING - INCREASED COMPLEXITY
Source – Forrester and Harvard Business Review
• 74% of business buyers conduct more
than half of their research online before
making an online purchase decision.
• Organisations are 57% of the way
through the purchase decision process
before they engage with supplier sales
representatives
• The number of people involved in B2B
solutions purchases has climbed from an
average of 5.4 two years ago to 6.8 today

9. 9
What?
PEOPLE BUY FROM PEOPLE – EVEN IN B2B
The CEO Will Not be the Only Face of the Brand
2019 will see increased awareness and push for
employees, partner agencies and marketing teams to
be true ambassadors for the brand they represent
The C-Suite Will Become More Relevant But With a
Caveat
Customers, as well as the media, are more interested
in the “story behind the story” and there will be a move
to create “personality profiles” of business leaders
rather than “leadership profiles.”

10. Connecting With
Your Audience

11. 11
WHERE IS YOUR AUDIENCE? – ONLINE OR OFFLINE?
• Who still flips the papers anymore?
• What matters are links, SEO and
shareability
• Connection between narrative and
multimedia content
• Every offline story, events, gatherings, etc.
need to have a connection to online
• Make it Instagrammable and
WhatsAppable!

12. You can not NOT
communicate
12
• What is your brand
promise?
• Do you have a
personality?
• How do you earn
trust?
BRANDING IS FIRST AND FOREMOST ABOUT GAINING TRUST

13. 13
What?
Commodities, features, price
How?
• Start with WHY to describe
your product/service
• Communicate facts – but
reach people by their hearts
• Tell a story and trigger feeling
and desires
Catch the HEART
of the people
Why?
Product
FOCUSING ON THE “HEART”

14. 14
THE DIGITAL AGE – HOW TO HUMANIZE YOUR BRAND?

15. 15
IS IT OKAY TO MAKE A (POLITICAL) STATEMENT
- OR DO YOU EVEN HAVE TO?

16. 16
IS IT OKAY TO MAKE A (POLITICAL) STATEMENT
IT’S NECESSARY TO RETHINK PUBLIC RELATIONS

17. 17
1. Think Like a Social Network
2. Start With Staff
3. Create Access
4. Treat Customers as Partners
5. Reach Out To key Individuals
6. Own Your Mistakes
7. Put Your Fans To Work
8. Be Open to Debate
9. Be Present
THE DIGITAL AGE – HOW TO HUMANIZE YOUR BRAND?

18. WE ARE ALL FIGHTING FOR ATTENTION
Nearly 3 out of 4
(73%) respondents
agreed that a fear
of missing out
(FOMO) often
drives the need to
seek out new
activities and
experiences.
Events and
experiences are
being shared on
social media, so
FOMO means more
millennials spend
on experiences
over possessions
to be a part of the
conversation.

19. PR is Dead,
Long Live PR

20. PR is Dead..
• Digitization changes media, audience and
companies
• “Old school” PR like traditional press
releases alone for print publications don’t
work anymore
Long Live Public Relations
• To rethink PR and create new opportunities
• To use technology and creating to thrive in a
changing and fast moving world

21. 21
There are no shortcuts
A good story is a good story
Beat the goldfish
Focus on the “So What”

22. Make it SIMPLE for your audiences –
and CONVENIENT for the intermediaries
Options. Options. Options
THINGS THAT MATTER
• Catchy headlines
• Interesting content
• Good imagery
• Establish media relations on a personal and
professional stage
• Infographics
KEEPING THINGS SHORT AND SWEET

23. 23
BEAT THE GOLDFISH

24. 24
FASTER NEWS CYCLE
• Digitalisation brings up new
information faster and faster
• Attention spans decline more and
more
• Always be up to date and follow the
happenings
• Opportunity: News & Trend
Jacking!

25. 25
MEMES ARE THE NEWSJACKING OF SOCIAL – MAKING A STATEMENT
Zomato’s take on the 10 year challenge – the ten minute challenge The #TenYearChallenge we should really care about.

26. 26
SO WHY PR?
• Essential tool for business growth
• Reputation and credibility as important as product and
support
• More cost effective as compared to other forms of
communication
• Third party validation -> TRUST
Strategic PR is connecting with sales,
not fighting it anymore

27. 27
DEVELOP INTEGRATED CONTENT THAT SPANS DEPARTMENTS AND CHANNELS
Earned media in Vertical, Tech and
business dailies
(Online & Print)
Repost to Twitter
Repost to
Facebook
Repost to
LinkedIn
E-Mail
Marketing
Whitepaper
Downloads
Demand Gen
Campaigns
APAC Trends
Owned content, eg.
videos, blogs,
infographics
Repost to
Facebook/Twitter
Repost to LinkedIn
Repost to YouTube
Paid Media (Boost)
LinkedIn Sponsored InMail LinkedIn Sponsored Updates
Facebook Post Boost
Amplifying Your Narrative

28. • What are you selling?
• What’s your ultimate PR objective, the end
goal?
• The outcome
• The “So What” ?!
• Do you know how your PR strategy is
contributing?
• Are you optimizing vs. (re-) targeting your
efforts?
• Do you want to drive awareness or gain
leads?
THE SALES PIPELINE – IT’S ALL ABOUT BUSINESS

29. 29
ALIGN COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES TO BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

30. 30
CREATE A PORTFOLIO OF OPPORTUNITIES

31. © PRecious Communications 2017
31
It’s about compelling, editorial (= not
advertising) content by your brand as an
authority that adds value to readers.
The biggest opportunity—and challenge—is
ensuring that consumers discover the content
Good Content
• Good SEO
• Good Search values
Build
Credibility
• Authority in
Media
Trust

32. 32
HOW TO STAY ON TOP OF SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS
See what's trending on Instagram's Explore tab
Instagram's Explore tab lets users search for terms and
hashtags to see what content people are sharing on the
platform that day.
Join Groups on LinkedIn
Discussions on LinkedIn about social media for business are
extremely lively.
Make a Twitter list of influencers in the industry
Whenever there is a new announcement or update in the
social media world, you'll find influencers discussing it on
Twitter.
Set up Google Alerts on terms and influencers.
Now that you have a list of influencers and hashtags that you
can follow on social media, you can set up a Google Alert for
some of them.
And finally, attend a conference… or follow our blog!

33. 33
SPEED UPDATE
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Industries from fashion to B2B marketing are embracing this technology. Brands are putting customers in a virtual product
simulation and using a “virtual space” where marketers can address questions, as if they’re in the same room with the
viewer.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence marketing solutions offer ways to bridge the gap between data science and execution. The process of
sifting through and analysing huge dumps of data was once an insurmountable process and is now not only feasible, but
it’s actually easy.
Internet of Things / VOICE !!!
IoT devices will help marketers to connect the offline world with the online world, track consumer intent, behaviour, needs,
and desires. This makes it possible to serve contextually relevant marketing messages at the most optimal place and time.
Blockchain
Blockchain technology has the capability to cut the middleman out. For instance, website owners wouldn’t have to go
through the Google Display Network to find advertisers because each “user” would already be validated and verified. It will
also help prevent fraud.

34. In summary…
• Think Mobile First
• Southeast Asia provides a huge opportunity
• Take advantage of IGTV, Tiktok, WhatsApp Web and the
Dark Social
• Humanise your brand. What values does your brand
really stand for?
• You can not NOT communicate
• Exceptional experiences will create true brand advocates
• It’s all about personas and touchpoint - Understand your
audience and go where they are
• Being a spokesperson isn’t optional
• Amplify your efforts across channels and departments
• Branding is first and foremost about gaining trust
All that or just one thing!
It’s all about your story

35. THANK YOU
www.preciouscomms.com
lars@preciouscomms.com
@larsv
PRecious Communications HQ
4 Ang Siang Hill, 3rd Floor
Singapore 068786