Riley Ersek 2020 is a year where the world as we know it came to a halt. Sports, businesses, entertainment, all of it shut down completely, only to leave us all with one question…what is the new normal? With companies and the entertainment business all changing the way their business models look, it is the responsibility of the public relations department to change. Like most departments of a company, PR will take a big hit when it comes to budget. Many brands and companies have seen the darkest of days the past couple months, forcing layoffs. It is no secret that it will being in a crowd is not an ideal situation at the moment. Most companies have cancelled current PR campaigns and events that would expand the brand and be a PR production. This shows a cause for concern not just in-house but, also for the clients. While virtual PR campaigns can still take place, it is no doubt that all PR specialists had to take a second look at the campaign since the start of the pandemic. Normal humor campaigns are no longer seen appropriate. Now it is about showing what is important in our life during a time of uncertainty and tremendous loss. It is about the human emotion and not so much the materialistic typical American attitude. Not only will it change the real-time problems of PR, it will also change the preparation plans set in place. Public relation teams will now always have a contingency plan in place for all contracts and for their own companies to hopefully prevent a loss as extravagant as we have seen in this pandemic. We will also see a difference in office settings as we see that it is not always necessary to be in the office environment. Working from home can make work weeks look quite different and can also increase or decrease productivity. Depending on the company you may be working from home for three days and in office for two. There is also the chance where companies deem PR as able to work from home since we have zoom to communicate with our clients. It is only a matter of time until we see how the world of PR will look like and until then it is important to be open and adaptable. Public relations is a vital backbone to every organization and business and it will be interesting to see how the industry is affected with new changes come post-pandemic.
COVID-19