PR TRENDS TO WATCH 2025: WHY WE NEED TO LOOK BACK TO MOVE FORWARD

A little over a decade ago, PR was an exciting place to be. The rise of SEO, digital marketing, and books like Googled and The New Rules of Marketing & PR didn’t just make the industry make sense—they made it feel alive.

For the first time, PR wasn’t just about relationships, gut instinct, and hoping for the best. It was about creativity and boldness with data to back it up. We could track real-world impact, measure engagement, and finally prove the value of our efforts in ways that were impossible before. It felt like PR was evolving, like we had broken free from the old, opaque ways of working.

But fast forward to today, and things are changing rapidly—again. And in many ways, they are going backwards.

AI, digital PR, and marketing automation have become mainstream. Everyone is creating content. Everyone is trying to “game” the algorithm. The same formulas are being followed, the same types of stories are being recycled, and the same strategies that once felt fresh now feel tired.

The result? Cutting through has never been harder. What once seemed innovative—like influencer marketing—has become predictable.

Audiences have caught on, trust is declining, and the sheer volume of noise has made it more difficult than ever to stand out. So where do we go from here?

I’d argue that to move forward, we have to look back. We need to stop chasing easy, box-ticking content and get back to the core of what PR and marketing are supposed to do: tell real stories, share bold ideas, and create genuine impact.

Someone once told me that PR is “10% inspiration and 90% perspiration”—meaning it’s mostly about the grind of getting stories placed.

But today, I’d say it’s closer to 50:50. Because in this era of content overload, stories that engage, spread, and truly impact people need more. More originality. More substance. More meaning. People don’t just want content—they want something real, something that makes them think, feel, and care.

The future of PR isn’t about churning out more. It’s about going deeper. It’s about taking risks, thinking big, and refusing to play by outdated rules that no longer work.

Because the only way to stand out today? Be bold enough to say something that actually matters.