What’s Changed In Tech PR Over The Last 12 Months?

As a tech PR agency, we have a vested interest in keeping up to date with what is happening in the tech industry. The last 12 months haven’t been an exception, but it has certainly been a bumper year for the industry with tech stories frequently featured in national media and more people relying on technology than ever before.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic PR for the technology sectors sometimes had to get a little creative, especially in the B2B arena where quite frankly, the subject matter can be a little dry! 2020 was the year that took some quite an ordinary tech from the B2B world and made it mainstream.

Quite honestly, who used Zoom this frequently before the pandemic? 2020 saw the remote meeting software provider score a 326% rise in sales. Great PR for the company – and then came the memes. From Jackie Weaver having no authority to various politicians showing themselves up – online meetings are a new source of entertainment (when they go wrong) and nine times out of ten, Zoom is mentioned in these stories.

With everyone trapped at home for most of 2020 and the early part of this year, the way we work has been transformed and many tech companies are facilitating this transformation – think of all the infrastructure required to enable entire businesses to work from home, be able to contact each other, and for customers to be able to reach them.

The growth of tech hasn’t just impacted work time either – with spare time to kill and nothing much to do at home, the reliance on social media platforms, communication technologies, internet connectivity, and home shopping has soared.

Some of these areas were already seeing expansion and growth before the pandemic, but development was sped up by the rise in demand over the last 12 months. Augmented reality, for example, has experienced unprecedented growth as people look for new ways to experience shopping at home.

Has That Changed Tech PR?

With so much happening, and happening fast, tech PR professionals and agencies have had to become even more responsive and adaptable.

Tech PR has always required a high degree of responsiveness because technology is inherently fast-moving but 2020/21 has kept everyone on their toes.

The Coronavirus pandemic has touched every single part of the tech industry, including those we work closely with such as science, transport, and cybersecurity.

For PR agencies there has been more crisis management than ever, probably a once in a lifetime happening actually! And as you can see from the stories above, editorial has been easier to secure for some industries as there doesn’t seem to be a day that has gone by without some part of a big tech narrative appearing in national news.

It’s been a mixed bag really. A big mixed, unprecedented bag.

Some tech industries have suffered during the pandemic, others have prospered.

One common narrative across all tech clients was the need to address the pandemic, logistics, safety issues and staff wellbeing. That was at the start of the crisis – once the dust had settled and the words ‘new normal’ started to appear alarmingly regular in the media, the tech industry was keen to demonstrate their relevance in this new normal, and how they could legitimately solve issues for businesses, and the public.

We’ve had to adapt our working practices too – we’re a London based tech PR agency and much of our time was spent attending tech events all over the city, meeting with clients or working together at our office. Like many businesses, we’ve had to make the shift to home working, and digital meetings.

We’re looking forward to what is to come – even before the pandemic, the tech industry was an ever-evolving and exciting (to us!) space to be in – Covid-19 just accelerated it even further.