Mastering strategic insight will make communicators invaluable in a world of immense change

Mike Norris, Head of Truth Intelligence at Instinctif Partners and Truth Consulting.

The context

We’re living through an era of significant tensions: democracy versus autocracy, climate versus cost, globalisation versus nationalism, human intellect versus artificial intelligence. As we grapple with these generational challenges, we are simultaneously bombarded by content 24 hours day. Our world is louder, more complex and more uncertain than ever. Consequently, consumer behaviour is evolving at lightspeed while, in response, businesses aren’t just re-balancing risk- registers, they are overhauling entire operating models.

Safeguarding the strategic advisory role of communications

The unique value of communications has always been its ability to act as a bridge between businesses and their wider commercial and cultural eco-systems. In the context of our rapidly changing world, this strategic advisory role has never been more critical, or more highly valued by business leaders. 

But, in the face of relentless change, how can communicators stay at the top of their game, ensuring their strategic thinking evolves dynamically and continues to add significant value? 

Regearing communications around strategic insight 

The successful brands and businesses of the future will be those that make what they say more meaningful, informed by a greater understanding of their audiences, customers and the cultural context as they evolve. To achieve this, companies will need communicators that prioritise strategic insight and intelligent campaign design, not just a focus on effectively distributing corporate messaging.    

While the industry has taken great strides forward, there is more work to do.   

Three key areas of focus should be: 

1/ Embedding insight end-to-end  

Given years of economic instability, communications leaders are under constant pressure to demonstrate ROI. This has led to an imbalance between the deployment of research capabilities for measurement rather than strategic insight. This has to change. To me it makes more sense to throw our efforts into designing more intelligent campaigns than striving to be increasingly successful at measuring the impact of mediocre work. Ultimately, insight needs to be the foundation of all campaign strategy, a core component of every piece of content, and at the centre of how we measure campaign effectiveness. 

2/ Invest in talent and research skills 

We analysed hundreds of PR job ads from 2024 and found only 7% were seeking people with specialist research skills. The importance of strategic insight to the future of communications is clear, but the industry does not yet have access to the breadth of human capabilities it needs to deliver.  

Communications needs to access a broader talent pool, whether that’s investing in skills of existing practitioners or leveraging the expertise of external insights specialists. This injection of fresh thinking will help the industry develop the intelligent insight solutions that will be crucial to its future success. 

3/ Make insight accessible through technology  

 An abundance of digital data and the availability of increasingly effective and efficient AI powered tools for data sourcing, thematic coding, analysis and visualisation are hugely consequential for the future of insight in communications. Putting that technology in the hands of highly skilled researchers, is game changing.  

We have entered an exciting new era where companies of all shapes and sizes, from start-ups to global conglomerates, can benefit from increasingly intelligent, efficient and impactful strategic insight solutions. 

Hopefully this will serve as inspiration for those business leaders that are navigating their own change journeys through 2025 and beyond. Strategic insight has never been more essential. At the same time, it has never been more accessible.