Dubai Africa is the final frontier for PR, said Harold Burson, the co-founder and chairman of Burson-Marsteller. The 91-year-old pioneer in the modern public relations industry said yesterday that there are many opportunities for the PR industry in Africa.
"Africa is the main remaining great market. There are a lot of people in it and some of the African countries are beginning to do well from an economic standpoint. The reason why is because places like China are getting expensive from a labour standpoint. There's only one other place to go," Burson said.
Burson-Marsteller has been based in Africa with local PR network Arcay for the past decade. The organisation has representation in 53 out of the 55 African nations. Since its launch in 1953 Burson-Marsteller has grown to have offices and representation in 98 countries.
The company started its international bid in 1961 after the European common market was formed.
Burson-Marsteller has been based in the Middle East since 1976 following the first oil crisis of 1973.
"After the first oil crisis there was a flurry of investment by American companies in the Middle East and several of our clients came over. We established a coordinating office in Bahrain, however after about five years the investment stopped and we closed our Bahrain office. We came back and made this arrangement with Asdaa about 10 to 12 years ago. We felt this market was going to grow and we should be a part of it," said Burson.
While the regional PR industry lags behind the standards of more developed nations such as the US, Burson said it will be very quick to catch up.
"The Middle East will catch up in three to five years max. The community is relatively small here. There's a lot of transition of information here and there's a lot of movement of people," said Burson.
"Transparency will also develop as time goes on because you're getting more and more foreign companies in the area who are going to continue their practice of being transparent so it forces the local industry to be much more transparent," he added.
The main challenge the region faces is not having enough competent people to fill the need. "The supply of experience professionals is growing but just having enough people to assign to clients is going to be a challenge," said Burson.
The future of the PR industry is bright according to Burson. However, Burson warned that agencies should avoid putting too much store in how digital communications is reshaping the industry.
"Too many public relations professionals have failed to put digital in the proper context," he warned. "It is not a new form of Public Relations; it is only the latest and most impactful in the continuum of mass information dissemination devices that started with Gutenberg's printing press," he said.
