Deane dubbed Leveson the ‘gift that keeps on giving,’ and said it would continue to have an impact on the industry, as would the conversation about whether lobbying should be registered. ‘None of it is determined, but certainly it will be a big feature in 2013,’ he said.
Nugent pointed to the wider trust in the establishment having been shaken throughout the year with the banking and Libor scandals, and the BBC crisis.
Around the Olympics, the games makers, attention given to the Paralympics and social sentiment lighting up the London Eye were deemed comms gold winners, while Deane signalled that the US election would act as a barometer in political terms for what could be expected this side of the Atlantic in the future.
More widely for the industry, Nugent welcomed ‘the nail in the coffin’ of AVE and the questions raised at Cannes with regard to who owned what in terms of PR and marketing disciplines, concluding: ‘The lesson for us all is our clients generally don’t care.’
Both agreed that collaboration across disciplines increased in 2012 and was only set to grow in the future, offering ‘choices to clients rather than oppositional situations', said Deane.
View PRWeek TV above for more discussion on the issues of the year, including GolinHarris’ restructure, talent and diversity in the industry, and squeezed fee incomes.
