Insight: Study reveals which industries utilise public relations the most and least – 10 Yetis
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A new study has revealed that the FMCG industry is the sector that is most likely to utilise PR, whilst those operating in the communications/media space are the least likely to use this method of marketing; despite many of these offering the service to other companies themselves. A fifth of businesses admitted that they weren’t sure how a PR campaign could be tracked; but half citied the practice as a way that they had grown their business in the past.
Marketing and PR strategies can be crucial to the growth of a company, but some brands and companies still don’t invest in PR in a bid to increase awareness and boost sales. The mainreason stated for not utilising PR amongst those businesses that said they didn’t, was because they believed that the activity was too hard to track in terms of return on investment (ROI).
The team at 10 Yetis conducted the research as part of an ongoing study into how brands view PR. More than 600 business owners from a range of sectors were quizzed for the study.
Initially, all respondents were asked “Does your businessutilise public relations as a marketing activity?”. From their answers, it was found that the industries that utilised PR the most were:
- FMCG(Food & Drink)–82%
- Fashion – 78%
- Technology–77%
- Healthcare–75%
- Insurance – 72%
- Travel – 65%
- Pharmaceutical –63%
- Automotive – 51%
- Hair and Beauty – 50%
- Financial services – 48%
When looking at the other end of the spectrum, it was found that the least likely industry to invest in PRwas, ironically, communications/media (20%), followed by construction (23%) and engineering (25%).
When further pressed on why theydidn’t utilise PR, one in five of the relevant respondents (21%) thought it was too hard to track in terms of the ROI of the campaign. When asked if they consider investing in PR in the near future, more than half (51%) of the relevant respondents said that they would. However, one fifth (21%) of these would only consider PR as an option if they were to experience a crisis.
Despite this, 52% of the total respondents said that PR had been central to growing their business and brand in the past.
Shannon Peerless, managing director of 10 Yetis commented: “Seeing media and communications as the sector that utilises PR the least may shock some people, but many of these businesses or agencies are so busy delivering marketing services like PR to their own client base, that it leaves little time for them to use this kind of activity for their own brand. The fast pace of the FMCG sector calls for frequent marketing of this ilk, to keep up with the competition and stand out from the crowd.
“You’d expect us to be somewhat bias when it comes to shouting about the benefits of marketing activity such as PR, and of course we are; but at the same time, it’s hard to not shout about a practice that’s getting easier to measure in terms of ROI and delivers real, tangible results.”
