Announced at the Interel Global Partnership Summit in Brussels, the results of the third annual Global Public Affairs Survey reveal “an optimistic industry, which is growing and which is confident about the next five years, although confidence is slightly lower than last year”. The Survey is an annual benchmarking on the state of the public affairs industry, identifying key trends, regulatory challenges and opportunities which are driving change at a global level. Participants are CEOs of independent public affairs consultancies which are members of the Interel Global Partnership.
The Survey found that:
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Despite sometimes challenging market conditions, the public affairs industry is in good
health globally. 75% of respondents said revenue has increased over the last two years and 78% say they will be making new hires over the next 12 months; - Growing concern about political risk amongst clients is driving growth in the industry. 48% say clients are now ‘very concerned’ about political risk – up from 37% in 2015;
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Many independent public affairs chiefs surveyed say that they deal directly with the CEO, reflecting the importance of a strategic approach to public affairs across the business; - Building long term relationships with stakeholders and playing an active part in the democratic process is the strategy that delivers the best outcomes, according to respondents. They spend most time on stakeholder identification and engagement;
- Further evidence of a more long-term, strategic approach to managing political risk is the significant number of public affairs agencies (42%) who always measure the impact of the work they do for clients – using measures such as ROI, significant changes in policy outcomes and perception audits;
- Regarding the significance of social media in political debate, 28% responded that social media has ‘a lot of influence’ compared with just 4% in 2015.
The full survey results can be downloaded here.
The Global Partnership Summit in Brussels on 9th June brought together 100 public affairs professionals from independent agencies in 60 countries around the world to share global best practice in public affairs.