Characterising the COVID-19 PRstack
A new project aims to characterise the COVID-19 PRstack. It has found the application of artificial intelligence (AI) limited but innovative in data analysis, management and workflow.
As part of an ongoing project exploring start-up agencies during the pandemic, Wadds Inc. is investigating the impact of the pandemic on the tools used by agencies and communication teams.
Through conversations with founders and crowdsourced submissions, we’ve characterised the market across six segments:
Insight and planning
Stakeholder identification and management
Creative
Content and conversation
Monitoring and measurement
Backoffice
In conversations with agencies we’ve identified more than 20 sub-segments and 80 tools. You can view our initial analysis in a Google Document.
We’d welcome comments on the tool stack and any omissions. Please contact me via the comments below, via email at stephen.waddington@wadds.co.uk or Twitter @wadds.
I led a project called PRstack support by Prezly in 2014 to define a toolset for public relations. We identified more than 250 tools used in practice and published two crowdsourced books of case studies. The ebooks are available for free download from the PRstack website.
Revisiting the PRstack project seven years on there are some emerging themes. It shows how the tool market and practice has changed.
Data - agencies and communication teams are sourcing data and building their own stakeholder databases and communities rather than using third-party services
Insight - related to the management of first party data, there’s a burgeoning native and third-party market available to help practitioners identify and understand publics
Workflow - Messaging services such as Guild and WhatsApp, and services such as Asana, Slack and Teams have become a standard part of workflow
Remote - the use of video applications such as Google Meeting and Zoom has been driven by COVID-19. The pandemic has also led to the adoption of creative tools such as Miro and Shooglebox
We’ve found limited evidence of the application of artificial intelligence (AI) beyond exaggerated claims from vendors. As a recent CDEI report, The COVID-19 Repository and Public Attitudes Retrospective noted, innovation in the 12 months has been driven by conventional data analysis and data sharing.
