Managing Change in the Public Relations Industry: The Impact and Potential of Big Data.

Abstract: Big Data is a disruptive technology that is reshaping the way we do business. By gaining more personalised insights into public interests; businesses are able to remodel their practices to become more efficient and offer a more personalised service generating additional value for the customer. It was found that there was a lack of literature looking into the potential of Big Data for PR agencies, and as a consequence, the purpose of this research was to analyse how Big Data will change the PR Industry in the future. We set out to study a broad cross-section of PR agencies operating within the PR Industry in Northern Europe, so as to draw conclusions which were as generalisable as possible. Our analysis was therefore based on 18 interviews with PR professionals working at 5 agencies in 3 different countries (Denmark, Sweden and the U.K). Our research shows, through an analysis of relevant literature and our own empirical data, that Big Data is indeed on course to change this industry and the methods used by PR professionals in their day-to-day work. Those working within the industry are aware of the potential value that the technology can bring to their client service and their concerns regarding ethical or practical roadblocks to using Big Data are limited. We were also able to show how agencies are preparing for this disruptive technology in different ways, the most effective of these being to hire a member of staff responsible for advising and educating other professionals about the potential of Big Data. Finally, this research was able to show that agencies are similar in their outlook towards Big Data, regardless of which of the 3 countries included in this study they base their operations. In fact, the main hindrance for individual agencies in adopting Big Data practices was the knowledge and demand of their clients for a data driven approach to the changing PR landscape.