PR Trends That Will Take Us Into 2025

As we approach 2025, public relations trends are evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements and shifting societal expectations that promise to redefine how brands connect with audiences in an increasingly digital and value-driven world. If you’re unsure how to best utilize resources and allocate funds, consider these four trends when building your program:

1. The humanization of brands: Believe it or not, a goal of the PR team is to help attract and win over new clients and customers. Though we’re not as direct about it as the marketing team, public relations has the critical role of crafting and delivering clear messages to stakeholders – turning leads into sales. And the best and most influential way to do that is by humanizing your brand and having executives, subject matter experts and influencers speak authentically to your audiences.

I recently posted on this exact topic on LinkedIn, and cited Amy Cuddy’s research that shows that people buy from those that they like and trust. In fact, 95% of business decisions are based on trustworthiness – not credibility. So as PR Pro’s outline messages and delivery, consider how to effectively use brand ambassadors to humanize and deliver.

• Big-Data impacts every decision: In a world where we can collect data from website analytics, boast traditional and social media measurement tools, podcast analytics and more, these data sets should be analyzed and utilized in all PR decision making processes.

Digging deeper, focus groups and surveys geared toward both employee and customer audience can yield valuable insight into what messages are most impactful, and which delivery methods are most beneficial.

Big data isn’t just for the sales team; it also serves as a guide into what audiences find most valuable. Media pitches and content development programs should be regularly modified when this information is taken into consideration.

• AI usage will continue to increase: In Brandpoint’s survey conducted earlier this year, nearly 98% of all respondents said AI will help in their roles when writing copy or generating copy. While there are obvious benefits to such a tool, PR is one profession that also must consider the ethical dilemmas associated with utilizing AI. Factual errors, misinformation, biases, social consequences and problems with transparency, privacy and data security are all challenges practitioners must diligently double check. PRSA’s recently released “Tackling Misinformation: The Communications Industry Unites” guide is an excellent resource.

Point is – AI is a great to help with our day-to-day work, but it should not replace our role in ensuring journalistic integrity.

• Crisis Communication Risks Continue to Rise: Although no one wants to hear it, the digital world is risky, and companies have been lax to establish strong crisis programs. Paige PR has received more calls this year than any other for crises where hackers have taken down sites as a demand for money. Most of the businesses we work with are B2B, and although most of the information taken by hackers isn’t sensitive, the bottom line is cybersecurity attacks are a massive business disruption. PR Pros need to consider what sort of crisis communication program they have in place for the coming year. If it’s something that has gone overlooked, the new budgeting cycle is the perfect place to incorporate a program.

Last but not least, all of these components indicate that PR programs’ budgets are in growth mode. We anticipate 2025 PR budgets to be larger than in years’ past, accounting for more owned content that is more strategically deployed and a larger emphasis in crisis communication efforts.

If you need help establishing your 2025 program, reach out today.