by Johna Burke
AMEC CEO and Global Managing Director
In 2025 and beyond, the practice of communication and public relations (PR) measurement is a dynamic one, defined by technological progress, changing customer paradigms, and a strong focus on ethical considerations. How we measure the success of campaigns is gradually changing due to variations in the influencer’s behavior and rising concerns on copyright in the age of AI. These are important for the professionals who want to work in this area and know how it looks like in 2025.
The developing role of influencers in the communication strategies
Influencers have been a part of communication and PR strategies for the past decade to act as a link between the brands and consumers. However, 2025 is a significant year where things are about to change. Simplistic metrics such as the number of followers and likes are now considered irrelevant as brands seek to understand the actual outcome and effect of influencer marketing. Vanity metrics are meeting the proverbial rubber on the road ahead.
Today, consumers value content that is unbiased and honest. People are now being smarter when it comes to the content that is peddled to them, thus, influencers are now scattering away from peddling only commercial content and embracing the storytelling concept. This shift is also reflecting on how they are measured as a channel for success. There are more and more important metrics that capture reputation, brand sentiment, audience relevancy, and customer loyalty over time. For PR professionals, the problem is consequential for those pros relying on inflated vanity metrics and identifying the influencers with a large following in absence of a surgical approach identifying the more authentic influencer who genuinely support the company itself and presents appeal a to clear specific view target of audiences not only related to commercial income. Interestingly, the 2024 US Presidential Election shines some light on value of celebrity influencer impact. Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, had more celebrity endorsements than any candidate in history including Taylor Swift, Oprah, The Obamas, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga and disproportionate positive earned media coverage. But, Harris lost the election to Donald Trump, who had minimal (by any standard) celebrity endorsements and disproportionate negative coverage. Based on some early analysis, such endorsements helped to increase visibility but did not lead to higher voter registration rates or turnout. A YouGov poll found out that 20% of voters said they were less likely to support Harris after certain celebrity endorsements, thus proving the backfire effect of influencer marketing. This is a clear example of how the simple reach of an influencer can be counterproductive and therefore the need to have a more strategic approach that considers the values of the audience is critical for communication pros.
Also, the micro- and nano-influencers are on the rise in the social media marketing sphere. Their following is often quite loyal and engaged and outperforms the mega-influencers, who have millions of followers and whose influence is often watered down by bots. This trend therefore calls for a more refined approach to measurement that is able to capture the subtle effects such as community creation, audience engagement and the ‘force multipliers’ on issues. This is all relative based on curation and copyright access to sourcing and premium content that may provide some credibility of earned media outlets and attribution to messaging and calls to action.
The Effects of Copyright on AI and Quality Content
The integration of artificial intelligence in communication and public relations will is increasingly important to the longterm impact on PR and subsequently data, analysis and measurement. Generating ‘automated’ reports without the addition of insights is creating a challenge for predictive analytics because the dataset is shaped with obvious and inherent bias which creates a barrier to C-Suite confidence, adoption and being action based on comms data that does not correlate with other internal data. AI tools create an expectation of speed without hygiene that seeds confirmation bias and ‘shiny object’ data more than insights of stakeholder path to meaningful outcome data. Third party earned data can demonstrate correlation, or not, to the value of pr and the value to brands. This value is a good reminder to brands who value their own trademarks to honor the copyrighted work of the fourth estate. AI systems that leverage tranches of data which are often acquired without renumeration from media copyrighted posts, materials and including multimedia content. Copyright issues have been a hot topic in the recent years especially with regard to the use of content for AI model development are not all being used ethically. This year, these debates are expected to reach their peak and AMEC will continue to be at the forefront of the discussions as it relates to publisher rights and use of the earned data for analysis and insights. Pending copyright laws and cases are expected to define the availability of quality content in the near future with clear impacts on AI-enabled communication approaches. A word of caution to organizations who are not sure of the use of their content – and unlicensed content – and how it may affect their data quality and all established baselines.
For communication professionals, the warning is clear: further, more sophisticated uses of AI tools may well place an organisation in jeopardy if their use is not fully understood from legal and ethical perspectives. Not only does the organization expose itself to legal consequences, it also suffers the adverse effects of the backlash on its image and reputation due to the perception that it is taking advantage of or disregarding creators’ rights.
Redefining Measurement Frameworks for the Future
Due to these trends, the public relation and communication measurement models have to be developed in a way that is more progressive and more sophisticated. The previous strategies that are solely output based, and not focused on business objectives, for example media coverage or impressions are outdated and increasingly inadequate. Instead, the focus is slowly shifting towards the outcomes that are relevant to organizational goals and which reflect tangible results and value.
Here are three key areas of focus for 2025:
Integration of AI and Human Insights: When it comes AI professionals should provision resources to support both quantitative and qualitative use of AI analysis in combination with human-touch qualitative insights incorporating proper SWOT analysis and historical trend significance of overall narratives and campaign success.
Ethical Data Practices: It is critical to ensure that data is collected in a manner that is transparent, replicable and etihical. It’s imperative that organizations set aside resources to acquire applications and personnel who will champion and maintain the legality of data collection and other ethical considerations. This approach does not only minimise risks but also helps to build trust with the stakeholders.
Outcome-Based Metrics Rule The Day:
Metrics such as audience sentiment, behavioral shift and brand association loyalists is fast becoming the new norms. Through efforts to ensure that measurement strategies are in line with the overall goals of the organization, PR teams will be in a better position to show their worth and get the buy-in they need from executives. Building meaningful data and evaluation into all pr and communication efforts is the cornerstone to the value of your work. If you don’t know what is working and how effective it is working why would you expect or shiver receive more budget for your work?
Both Eyes Open and Focused on 2025:
PR pros need top be increasingly aggressive, open-minded AND cautious. The changing role of influencers calls for a more complex understanding of the concept of influence on human behavior while the copyright environment of the future calls for a responsible and proactive use of content.
The organizations that will be successful in 2025 are those that will be adaptive, innovative and ethical. It is therefore important for PR professionals to enhance their measurement capabilities and stay updated with legal and regulatory developments to be able to steer into – rather than being a victim of- change. This will allow the savvy data-led and trusted designers of meaningful metrics and data to be an architect of change and definition of success.
The next twelve months are sure to be fast-paced and challenging for PR and comm pros which will put pressure on sub-standard data, measurement and insights for brands and organizations. It’s time to step up to the challenge with innovation, transparency and a focus on making a difference by leading and delivering aligned and uncompromised value of PR and communication.
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