Fishburn Hedges

08.11.2010

We’re holding one of our regular 'What's Next?' events on 16 November with a panel that includes author and broadcaster Peter York, Times business writer Ian King and economist Jonathan Loynes talking about the priorities for business in 2011.

Which got our Corporate & Brand Reputation team thinking… how might the communications landscape change in 2011?

Corporate collaboration will be crucial

The number of corporates working collaboratively – with both competitors and companies in other sectors – will rise, improving the social impact of NGO partnerships in the developing world.  But the challenge of encouraging the media to view these developments without cynicism will remain.

2011 will be the year of mobile marketing...

...and London will lead the world.  A number of emerging technologies and the 2012 Olympics will spur organisations to try mobile marketing in 2011.  Home-grown and global businesses alike will use London as their testing ground, trialling new mobile marketing techniques, ready to profit from the Games the following year.

The socially-responsible investment analyst (SRI) will come of age

The downsides of focusing on short-term returns became starkly apparent this year.  Following years of half-hearted attempts to encourage responsible investment, in 2011 the major pension funds will apply real pressure on corporates to prove they are focusing on sustainable growth, with risk analysis at its core.

Digital plaudits for the few

2010 saw a number of high-profile social media #fails in the corporate world. As corporates increasingly understand that reputations can be made, broken and restored online and begin to resource digital comms teams properly, 2011 will see a couple of organisations receive widespread plaudits for the way in which they deal with a crisis online. “Not getting digital” will be old news; getting it and using it to your advantage to turn a crisis into an opportunity will be a better story.

More direct customer contact for PRs

We’ll see more PR teams responsible for training customer service reps, and directly handling complaints and queries online, as consumers take to Twitter and other social media channels in increasing numbers to express their frustrations.  Our experience shows that while customer service teams have a great understanding of their audience, we can help them to hone their messages to make talking to consumers via social media as effective as possible.

Greenest Government ever?

2010 was a bad year to be 'green' with the post-Copenhagen slump and Tory green policy slow to get going.  Despite a COP16 conference at Cancun that will fail to deliver anything spectacular, in 2011 expect to see business again take a leading role in championing sustainability as the current administration looks to the private sector to take on greater responsibility.

Final score

In sport, the endless stream of issues around corruption, debt, and commercial exploitation will see stories continue to spill over into the main news and business pages.  We expect more intervention from governments and sporting bodies with stringent new policies and regulation.  Corporates, previously quick to jump on the gravy train, will take a much more cautious approach to sports promotions and sponsorships.

Just some food for thought…  What have we missed?  Let us know.

And if you'd like to attend the discussion on the 16th to hear more from Peter, Ian and Jonathan click here and please RSVP as places are strictly limited.

Posted by Rachel Woods