Communications today is about fostering a new dialogue – one based on the critical points at which Producer meets Consumer and where Consumer meets Business, Government and Brand. Within the next decade, existing rules will no longer apply and companies will need to re-shape if their license to operate is to remain unimpeded. A new series of Citizen-centric relationships are emerging, which is in turn demanding a re-think of prevailing Communications systems. We call this new model of Communications ‘Public Engagement’, which we describe in Chapter Eleven.
We believe, at heart, that the Communications discipline is facing its most profound challenge ever. Over the next ten years it will have to fully evolve to rise to the issues and challenges posed by the Citizen Renaissance described above. Current forms of mass Communications will inevitably play a much smaller role in a world orientated around the needs and behaviours of a new generation of active Citizens. Some are calling this period Capitalism 3.0 – within which we will see a likely re-alignment of Wants and Needs (especially in the Global North) and learn to live with the consequential truths of a lower consumption economy.
Current forms of mass Communications will inevitably play a much smaller role in a world orientated around the needs and behaviours of a new generation of active Citizens.
It is our contention that the advertising industry model of the late twentieth century is in serious decline and that, in time, what we currently call PR can evolve to ultimately enjoy a primacy among all the marketing disciplines. But, to many, the marketing and Communications sector itself is not yet fully Fit For Purpose. As we explore the journey from monologue to dialogue and into the economics of Wellbeing, we also consider the core issues that Communications companies must address if they are truly to emerge as responsible, strategic disciplines that can give responsible advice to responsible institutions, companies and brands.
We believe that Communications – as it moves towards genuine, multi-lateral Public Engagement – has the ability to effect the fast, radical and effective change in opinion and thought that is central to addressing the issues of the Perfect Storm and the nascent Wellbeing economic model. We recognise that Communications and marketing have, at times, been a central part of the problem of over-consumption. Public Engagement may yet be central to the solution. We believe that the Public Engagement model will at once serve and feed the Citizen Renaissance.
