JAMES McCANN

ACTIVITY 2021 was a very strong year for ClearStory as the technology sector across North America, Europe and Southeast Asia continued to grow at pace. Every year sees the arrival of new verticals to the technology sector and 2021 was no different with the mainstream arrival of the metaverse, NFTs and decentralised finance.

In terms of services, demand returned for in-person events and speaking opportunities, despite the ongoing Covid disruption. Unfortunately, the arrival of the Omicron variant in the latter part of 2021 disrupted lots of plans, but we expect a steady increase in in-person events over the coming months.

PR OBJECTIVES For most emerging and scaling brands, understanding their market positioning is key to any communications strategy. Many clients in the technology sector sit across multiple verticals, so market positioning dictates many core elements of a comms strategy from which objectives, targeting and messaging are distilled.

Understanding what resources you have available in terms of editorial content as well as a coherent marketing strategy from which a communications strategy can align are other key factors to ensure success.

EVENTS The future is hybrid. Hybrid and virtual events will create an entirely new ecosystem, with established and emerging event organisers building on the Covid experience. I believe 2022 will continue to see some level of disruption, but we’ve already seen the return of Web Summit, CES, and Dublin Tech Summit.

OUTLOOK In the technology space, competition is intense across many verticals. Valuations across early stage and later stage funding rounds have surged, and there is increased competition for attention. There is a natural inclination to spend more money to increase market presence, and to increase share of voice. So we would expect budgets to increase in our market segment over the next 12 months.

ACTIVITY Business was steady over the past year. Although some client sectors were obviously impacted by Government trading restrictions, other sectors including motor became busier. We began working with some new clients in 2021 who realise that PR is important in creating and maintaining brand recognition and customer trust, especially in current times.

EVENTS In-person events are a valuable part of what we do, and they were greatly missed. When we could have outdoor and small indoor events last summer, there was a great response from media to attend.

Virtual events work for certain types of products, but launching a new car model — although it worked quite well online — is so much better face-to-face.

OUTLOOK There is a positive feeling about this year and onwards, with pent-up demand for launches and press familiarisation visits and events. I think businesses are preparing to invest more in PR to catch up and move forward on what was lost over the past two years.

‘There is a positive feeling about this year’

ACTIVITY Business has held up well despite the pandemic. We had no loss of clients during that period, which was encouraging. The services most in demand are media relations and strategy advice. In my view, consistency, clarity and creativity are the essential elements of a successful communications strategy.

EVENTS We think there will be a place for both virtual/hybrid and inperson events. In the current climate, our clients tend to prefer small, wellexecuted dinners or lunches, or one-toone engagements.

OUTLOOK We are getting a sense from clients that they are planning to increase investment across communications.

‘Clients are planning to increase investment’