From Patsy and Edina to Perplexity and Explainability: PR’s drastic image makeover

Lisa Gibson, Head of PR and Comms at Yours Sincerely, shares what the rise of AI search results means for measuring PR, and the opportunity it holds for transforming the industry’s reputation when it comes to impact and long-term value.

Do you know what makes my blood boil? Being referred to as ‘the PR girl’, or if I’m honest more recently ‘the PR lady’. It’s so belittling.

It’s not just that though – it’s Bridget Jones being accused of ‘fannying around with press releases’, Patsy and Edina having another glass of fizz before breakfast, or Siobhan from Perfect Curve adding precisely no value to any meeting. Ironically, the PR industry has had something of an image problem for a while.

Social media didn’t change PR, but AI search will

The good news is that PR is undergoing a drastic makeover, and not before time.

It’s true that this has been heralded before – many years ago, I was working for a big London tech agency when suddenly social media was heralded as a new dawn for PR. We were told that it would change all our jobs, and in some ways, it did. But this was also missing a fundamentally important point. Social media is a channel in itself, with its own, very specific, KPIs, and it doesn’t solve the problem of showing the wider value that PR can bring.

The makeover of makeovers

Now, though, everything is genuinely different with the rise of AI search. Users are putting long, specific questions into generative AI platforms like Perplexity, Chat GPT and Google, and they get a full answer – that normally doesn’t require any clicks.

80% of consumers now rely on AI-written search results. That’s huge. Where do AIs get their answers from? In part, quality, trustworthy editorial coverage, if you will, from widely read sources. Oh hi, I’m a PR professional, can I help you with that?

Right now, PR is getting the mother of all makeovers. If you want your brand to be discoverable online, you need PR expertise. It’s that simple. For the first time, it’s no longer a battle to prove that PR is a worthwhile investment – the evidence is there, it’s measurable, and the impact will be clear.

Introducing Earned Visibility (Patsy and Edina would hate it)

That’s why we’ve launched Earned Visibility – it’s our proprietary approach to making brands more discoverable in AI search results. It’s a partnership with the SEO experts at Noble Performance – their search expertise combined with our media relations skills and nose for a good story – and from what we’ve seen so far, the results are powerful.

We’re helping clients navigate this new world of AI search with clarity and impact. We start by scoring how discoverable you are right now, and look at whether you’re doing the right things to be discoverable in the future. Then we build a plan: sharpen your messaging, get you cited in the right places, and create content that speaks to your actual customers.

To achieve results in AI search, PR people need to be as good as they ever were at discovering and pitching a good story. We need to be consistently getting editorial coverage in influential, relevant publications. Which is something we’ve always done, but now it matters more than ever, and that coverage will keep delivering results far beyond the day’s news cycle.

Thank goodness for that. We have always been trusted, professional and extremely hard working, but now, finally, we might be able to shake off the stereotypes. If that doesn’t deserve a celebratory glass of bolly, I don’t know what does.

To find out more about Earned Visibility and how we can make you more discoverable online, visit https://yourssincerely.online/earned-visibility.