PRCA International Summit 2020 aims to explore global PR challenges and opportunities under the Covid-19 crisis with communications leaders from across the world. Comms8's MD was invited to speak about the challenge faced by brands in an era of uncertainty during the summit.

Comms8's Managing Director was invited to speak at PRCA International Summit last month. The inaugural virtual summit was a roaring global success. Across two days, 748 delegates from 35 countries tuned in to listen to 31 speakers from 9 countries.

On the first day of the Summit, Comms8's Founder & Managing Director, Carol Chan joined a panel discussion to talk about "Managing Reputation in Times of Global Uncertainty." The panel was moderated by Petra Massinova from Kantar, joined by Gustavo Averbuj from Ketchum, Tina McCorkindale, the President of the Institute of Public Relations.

Political correctness in Marketing

Kickstarting the panel by sharing the key challenge faced by brands in today's climate, Carol said, "sustaining a positive brand image across the audience in an environment where there are polarised political messages is the biggest challenge for brands nowadays". She added "shall a brand keep silent or make comments on major events that happen in the society? How would one comment be interrupted by the public? How to be 'politically correct? These are the top question marks for marketers."

Decoding the Trust Gap in Media

Moving on, Petra shared the finding of recent research published by Kantar showing there is a trust gap in media.

Respondents show positive trust in traditional media such as newspapers, while negative trust in social media. Tina commented, "we see moving forward, there will be more reliance on paid quality media and people will have less trust in social media. As Journalists are vital to what we (PR) do, especially in a situation like a pandemic, they are the watchdog of the society".

Gustavo said "the pandemic has changed how PR industry plans communication strategy for clients; it has also put PR at the centre of the organisation operation, both external communications and internal communications."

2-Days Summit Summary

During the two-day conference, speakers and delegates combined to bring a richly diverse range of ideas and perspectives. We explored issues ranging from mental health, digital media, purpose-led communications and surviving (and thriving) through COVID-19. Comms8 is delighted to be invited to share our humble insights with our fellow delegates and speakers.

If you would like to access any recordings across the two days, you can do so below.

Day 1: https://www.prca.org.uk/virtualsummit (Panel discussion from 1:25:35)

Day 2: https://www.prca.org.uk/virtualsummit-day2

Thank PRCA again for organising this fantastic event. We hope you'd enjoyed it.