CROS President Sergey Zverev Speaks about 2017 Results and 2018 Outlook for the Communications Industry

Sergey Zverev summarized results of the year and spoke about the 2018 outlook for the communications industry.

“First of all, a historical event happened in 2017: the Internet received higher advertising budget than TV. It is undoubtedly an important dividing line for the whole communications industry.

This year we saw the birth of a completely new segment in the communications industry — media support for cryptocurrencies and ICO. No other communications segment has probably seen such a rapid development and it is a very interesting phenomenon.

We have also seen an explosive use of messengers, Telegram above all, as a new communications channel, and development of their strong potential. By the way, this notion is mainly typical for the Russian-speaking community. The big wave that came to life back in 2016 reached the communications market in 2017, creating anxiety and concerns among specialists, both from the corporate and consultancy sides.

Speaking about the future, it should be said that making forecasts is difficult. However, I would dare to guess what we could be talking about in December 2018.

I think the most used word will be ‘content.’ PR companies and experts will be increasingly becoming content producers. The conditions will be changing: there will be less time for preparations and coordinations. This would require re-thinking more what our profession is about and less changes in the business processes.

Secondly, the trend for individual communications will be getting stronger. I don’t think it is right to say that mass media will die. Next year all types of businesses, starting with small coffee shops and finishing with international corporations, will have to think about certain people and communities and communicate with them directly according to their agenda, and not the agenda of the company. Programmatic technology will go beyond advertising and will require changing the traditional processes and techniques.

Thirdly, nobody can shout down peers in the modern communications environment: there are too many outlets, positions and formats. That is why important public initiatives and large-scale projects will be possible only in partnerships. Growing demand for partner programs (sectoral and cross-sectoral) and omnichannel approach will be another trend that will be gaining pace.

I hope that the AI would still not deprive us of the business next year. However, we should closely watch its development as well as the advances in the blockchain technologies.

Happy New Year and let Big Data be with us!”